stop start doesnt work

[teds1969]

hello, i purchased a 2017 leon 1.4 tsi 3 months ago from a dealer and the stop/start feature has never worked. Car was booked in a month ago to address this and was informed the problem was fixed by recoding the battery. Again, the stop/start feature has never worked and the car is going back in tomorrow. Apart from this the car has no faults.
The reason the system doesnt work , i'm getting the message "power consumption is high".
i note from reading other threads that other people have had this problem but i have not seen a solution or fix listed.
Does anyone know what causes this and should i reject the car?

 

[RUM4MO]

The main reasons for stop/start not working are:- battery charge level not getting high enough due to lack of use or only used on short journeys, can only be corrected by user! Battery health poor due to the same as previous reason prior to you buying this car, solution is replace battery. Battery management dongle wiring faulty or left unplugged - checkthat the blob on the earth side of the battery has a small lead plugged in, if wiring or blob faulty, garage to fix.
These cars tended to get ELB type batteries fitted at factory, has it still got the correct original battery fitted to it, it will have a VW Group part number and ELB written on it.

 

[Walone]

RUM4M0 is correct, I have the 1.4ACT and because I don't use it much I have to charge the battery about once a month otherwise the stop/start won't work.
Also if your car was on the forecourt for a good while before you bought it the battery could have degraded too much.
BTW it should be an EFB battery not ELB.

 

[RADIOTWO]

I bought a S/H 19plate 2.0lt 190 in Aug this year and at first the stop/start worked fine, then after a couple of months it
went intermitiant, I took it back to the dealer and they said it was the way I was using it ie air con higher power etc and I
said i had the hatch before and knew how it worked the then turned round and replaced the battery and has been fine since

 

[teds1969]

thanks for the replies, I have checked the battery and it says EFB on it. I dont do short trips, my commute to work is 23 miles, and it has never worked. I dont have a/c on and stop/start has never worked. The tech guy at the dealership informed me they had fixed it the last time by recoding the battery? Is this rubbish ?

 

[Deleted member 123864]

I wonder has a previous owner coded it so that S/S is disabled?

 

[RUM4MO]

Good, so you have confirmed that it is not the way you are using the car that has/is causing this!
Recoding the battery, I'm guessing(never a wise thing to do) that that garage tech has hoped, as a first "cheap to them" stab at this, that this car when owned by its previous or initial owner had lead a "hard on the battery" life, so the BMS, ie the battery management system has worked out that this battery is now well on its way to being a duff battery, and as such is disabling the stop/start to make sure that that battery remains okay to restart your car under any conditions. This becoming duff can/does happen easily to these EFB batteries if they don't "enjoy" a "good" life, running a "reconditioning charge cycle" can sometimes reverse a lot of this past abuse - but the BMS would take a long time to work out that things had improved, so an alternative way to speed that up would be to change that batteries serial number even only by single digit, the BMS starts from scratch as it has assumed that that battery has been replaced and could possibly have resolved things - but it sounds like it has not!
Their next guess should be to perform a test on that battery to make sure that it is still fit for use, after that they should replace it if it is below an acceptable level of "health". Battery health includes its present available capacity in Amp Hours and its internal resistance and so its theoretical CCA which is Cold Cranking Amps both the first and last value is marked on these batteries and they will know what a typical internal resistance is for that battery when okay.

Edit:- my mistake wrt ELB!!

 

[Tell]

You also get that message if someone has applied the VCDS trick to fool the stop start system from working. That can be done via VCDS tools. Given its a second hand car that's possible previous owner didn't like stop start òr fumbled the apps in the systems you can buy.

I covered it in the Ateca Obdeleven thread. It's the same trick you use across VAG brands these days.

OBDeleven Tool for VCDS type of activity... working ones for the Ateca

This thread covers the use of the OBDeleven tool with worked, tested results on the Ateca 2016 - 2019 models. Check Obdeleven website for news on programming the new 2020 models on progress of this "The programming temporarily is not supported on models that are manufactured from 2020 and have...

www.seatcupra.net

For it to work correctly you need about 7.6 volts in that parameter. The trick to stop it working is about 12 volts.

Suspect the previous owner has fiddled with that parameter.

>>
Disable Start/Stop
Select Control unit 19
Adaptation
Start Stop Limit voltage
Value=12
<<

7.6 volts or there abouts is what it should be to take the fooling of the system off.

 

[Tell]

I wonder has a previous owner coded it so that S/S is disabled?

You beat me to it... just posted up the correct ones ?.

Although post 7 has an element of that in it as well. Fumbling with SS to preserve the battery by a dealer or the previous owner did it by design or accident (do it by design myself, hate SS). Needs the parameter checked.

 

[RUM4MO]

I wonder has a previous owner coded it so that S/S is disabled?

That is the sort of thing that dealers should really be checking for - but I'd doubt if they do, ie a SEAT dealership should connect the car to SEAT Mothership to check or return that car to "as delivered" coding wise. Especially as stop/start is a legal requirement after a certain point in time for new cars and should remain so for their active service life.

 

[Tell]

I liked but turn SS off between services. I believe in Germany it may be a legal requirement not to fiddle that parameter but in the UK it isn't. That's why you dont get to see SS disablement on German boards... they get in a hot sweat about it.

 

[CupraGeezer]

I believe in Germany it may be a legal requirement not to fiddle that parameter but in the UK it isn't. That's why you dont get to see SS disablement on German boards... they get in a hot sweat about it.

Guys with cars built from 2019 on seem to be saying that they can't disable stop/start so it may well be an EU requirement from that point on.

 

[Tell]

Guys with cars built from 2019 on seem to be saying that they can't disable stop/start so it may well be an EU requirement from that point on.

That may be the EU ?. Now I'm getting pro Brexit ?.

Obviously when you have self drive you can't let people legally fiddle with the algorithms of whether your car kills you or the other person, but not at that point yet.

Vag have currently blocked face lifted 2020 ones from using VCDS to mod although developers of these tools are looking for an agreement. Think that's for a financial cut rather than anything else.

 

[CupraGeezer]

That may be the EU ?. Now I'm getting pro Brexit ?.

Wait until compulsory speed limiters come in and if anyone thinks Brexit means that EU-based manufacturers will build UK cars without this feature they're kidding themselves. Another step towards autonomous cars.

 

[teds1969]

update
Just picked car up from dealers, who informed me that they have replaced the battery, and stop/start is now working

 

[Tell]

Hrrr... it was simulating what the hack does if they aren't telling porky pies of what they did.

 

[teds1969]

its definitely a new battery, i marked the old one

 

[Tell]

Then it's a demonstration of what happens when you do the mod. Sticks up that flag about the battery. That's a side effect of altering the trigger point.... mind you, you can save the battery by altering the trigger point. I'm still on my 4 year original one with the SS fix. Think I won't be changing it till I need to. It is one of the sources of battery issues.

 

[RUM4MO]

its definitely a new battery, i marked the old one

Good, so that is the end of your problems as long as it is still an ELB of the correct size - and it looks like they were just wasting your time by trying a cheap fix first time round, if they had tested that original battery they would have found out it needed replacing!

Edit:- actually if they had treated you with a bit of respect as a buyer, that car would have had been given a proper check over before selling it and discovered that issue, its selling price would have reflected the fact that they had checked it over properly like only a proper garage can do - it has been said/claimed!

 

[mindeto]

Hello,

I have "Power consumption too high" problem. Tried reseting settings of start stop to 7.6v - nothing happened. I have new VARTA AGM battery, thought it would fix the problem - nah. What else can I check? Could somebody, who's start stop working, show me other settings related to it? I would compare mine. I have access to OBD11 and ThinkDiag. Thank you