Just jined

[Ray48]

Hi Everyone - Just joined.  Have a new Golf Bluemotion 1.4tsi automatic since October 2015.  Great car.  Experiencing start/stop problems over the last 3 or 4 months though.

[Volkswagen Owners Club]

Hi...welcome to the Forum

It probably doesn't like the cold weather...like the rest of us :-)

Good to have you onboard

[Ray48]

Not sure about the weather.  The VW shop says there isn't a problem (ie their computer does).  They even took it for a drive.  The indicator comes up that start/stop is engaged (which I think has fooled them) but the engine keeps running.  I sort of lose the will to live talking with them, but I shall have another go when I pluck up the courage. Thanks for the welcome.

[Volkswagen Owners Club]

You could test the battery with a deep discharge test to see if it is strong enough to maintain the stop/start function. If it is not strong enough then the function may not operate and you will need to replace the battery.

[Ray48]

Thanks for that.  It's booked in again for next Wednesday.  They know I'm not happy.  Fortunately the car is still under warranty.  I assume that covers a battery if it's faulty.

[Volkswagen Owners Club]

it may do, depends if they class it as wear & tear

[Ray48]

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Thanks for that.  It's booked in again for next Wednesday.  They know I'm not happy.  Fortunately the car is still under warranty.  I assume that covers a battery if it's faulty.

[Ray48]

I'm taking the car in on Wednesday, but I have done some investigation.  When I'm running and I check the vehicle status it reports the start/stop is off and the car is using  high power consumption - even when I've turned lights, blowers etc all off. and it still stays the same.  I've done a battery test by pressing the trip reset button with the ignition off and the battery  readout is ---% ie no reading.  The battery starts the car ok and seems fine to me - I'm not able to do a deep discharge test myself though. It feels to me now that the switch (hardware of software) that is supposed to be monitoring the state of the battery is malfunctioning.  What do you think?  Appreciating your help thus far.

[Volkswagen Owners Club]

It does sound like the battery monitoring and control system giving problems...all of which I'm sure they will check out.

Please keep us posted on this one....would like to know the outcome

[Ray48]

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Update.  I took the car back in on that Wednesday.  They couldn't find anything wrong apart from the battery being slightly under voltage.  They asked to keep it overnight to give the battery a good charge, which I let them do.  Next day I was told that the only problem being reported was still the same undervolt, so they were going to replace the battery at their expense because the battery problem wasn't being flagged as a problem by VW diagnostics and wouldn't be replaced under warranty..  I was told they didn't keep batteries in stock and that I'd get a new one the following week.  Bo real problem with that as the car was perfectly usable without stop/start.  So I drove the car away.  Guess what, the start/stop was working.  I could see by some of my setting that there must have been some sort of general reset performed so maybe that cured the issue.  Goes to show they didn't bother to really test the stop/start, but just relied on computer readouts.  Worrying.  Anyway I drove the car for a further week with the stop/start working perfectly, but I thought I might has well have a new battery for all the inconvenience they had caused me.  That was replaced yesterday.  Stop/start is still working.   Incidentally, despite all the warnings about various parameters having to be right before it would work, even in the cold snap we have just had, the start/stop is operable within about 30 seconds.

 

So, nobody seems to be any the wiser as to what was causing the problem and what fixed it.  Hey-ho.  The cars are too clever for the technicians, I guess.