Hi,

 

I have had my 2002 Polo since 2011 and never had to change the battery. It stands most of the time unused outside our house with occasional runs. I took it out this afternoon and ran it for half an hour and parked up, radio, sidelights and blower on for about 20 mins forgetting myself of the consequences. I came to fire it up and the battery was completely dead. Not even a sluggish whrr you usually get when turning the ignition. I got a jump start and it imediatley started and ran as normal. Just parked up and left outside. What I do notice is the car seems more sluggish to drive, not as perky as it has been. I have a yearly service and it had it's MOT in October.

 

Does this seem like it needs a new battery ?

Edited 28 December, 20178 yr by marb67

Cold weather will soon find out a suspect battery, and the normal life of a battery is about 5 years, so you've done well to get it this far !!

 

If the battery voltage goes too low the engine ECU can loose some of it's stored values for the throttle position, so that might explain the apparent sluggishness, but with a fresh battery drive around for 20~30 mins using varying throttle loads in different gears and the system will re-learn the throttle, or if you have access to VCDS you can do a throttle body alignment that will do the same thing

Ok, thanks for confirming. is there a good online source for a battery replacement as they seem to be very expensive from halfords etc ? 

Carparts4less is EuroCarParts discount retail, if you are not in a hurry.

Or wait for Gsf discount days (usually announced on here).

Online battery will have delivery charge, but I have used tayna for a specialist leisure battery which turned out fine.

This company gets good reviews on other forums https://www.tayna.co.uk/Car-Batteries-C48.html 

Thanks folks. Most helpful.

 

Looking at the price on Tayna at £49, does that sound a good deal ? I have tried the car a few times since the battery was dead and it starts fine. Would you advise to still get it replaced ?

The chances are you have a dead/dying cell in the battery and it's not going to repair itself, so the only option is to replace it, you might also want to check your alternator is putting out a good charge, here's a guide on how to do that https://www.clubpolo.co.uk/topic/335902-testing-your-alternator/