Frupi, I know nothing about batteries, but I understand that the stop/start will not work below a certain temperature (5 degrees?).

 

loops, thanks for that, something I hadn't considered to be honest. Wife has been out all morning and has told me stop/start function hasn't activated at all whilst she's been driving around. Temperature where I am hasn't gotten above 3 degrees for the last few days, so that then could be the issue. I'm still going to book the car in for a 'free' battery check anyway because I don't have the gucci bit of kit that does a full battery diagnostic, far too expensive for me to buy for occasional use. If the battery isn't up to par, I'll just bite the bullet and buy a new one. Recommended replacement for our car using the Yuasa website, is YBX7027.

Thanks for your input.

 

I’d be interested to know if the battery needs coding too.

Funnily enough, I just changed the battery on my MX5 and there’s a lot of discussion on that forum re Halfords, AA, RAC testing. It’s generally just a resistor rather than a load test. I’d trust your CTEK which has a diagnostic function.

As Loops says, there are parameters for the stop/start to kick in. Mine is brand new and works at 4C but I have had the warning that it isn’t available a couple of times. BMW sometimes only kicked in after a 100+ mile run.

At 4 years old, I wouldn’t worry too much.

 

I'd rather the "stop start" was able to be disabled permanently. Real PITA around town.

 

I spoke to a motor technician friend of mine today who swaps out car batteries day in, day out including many stop/start batteries. He tells me the only ones he has ever needed to code or register to the car, have been high end German cars. Most of the lower entry level stop/start cars using EFB batteries, he tells me he doesn't code/register, he just swaps them out. This is in no way an endorsement of what should or shouldn't be done.

I went onto the Yuasa website and they supply a device to the Trade called Yu-fit which automatically codes/registers batteries to cars that require it to be done. There is an associated PDF which appears to indicate that the 2015 on Vitara doesn't require coding/registration at this time, though that is only my understanding and shouldn't be taken as fact. The document is easy enough to find.

So if I decide to buy a new battery, I'll just do as I've always done, swap it out myself.

 

There are loads of reasons why the Stop Start wont activate other than external temp, such as use of A/C, lights, infotainment, how long the engine has been running etc, so you may not need a new battery just yet


As has been mentioned, the battery should not need to be coded to the car, just install, turn key or press engine start button until in ACC position, leave for a minute then all should be fine.

 

Ok, so basically I'd had enough. The car is fitted with Stop/Start technology and the stop/start function hasn't worked at all for the last two weeks, despite me using a smart charger overnight and ensuring that the factory fit Exide battery was fully charged. So without any further mucking about, I bought a brand new Yuasa YBX7027 that cost me £69 and swapped out the factory fit battery this morning. Just to make sure the new battery was properly and fully charged before installing, I had it on my CTEK smart charger overnight and this morning it was fully charged.

Anyway, no dramas, 10 minute job. Stop/Start now functions every time, all the time with everything switched on, radio, A/C, front parking sensors etc.

Interesting to see that the factory Exide I removed from the vehicle, it has 2006 A855 hot stamped into the top of the battery. Now I have absolutely no idea if that actually means the battery was made in 2006 or not, but if it was, I'm wondering why on Earth an EFB battery that old meant for stop/start would be fitted to the car. That is some shelf time if it is the case. We bought the car from a highly reputable Suzuki dealership and the only other owner of the car was Suzuki, so I have no concern that the battery has been swapped for anything other than what was fitted at the factory. We have previously owned two Fiat 500's and both cars were stop/start and both were fitted with Exide batteries and the stop/start never worked properly on either of those cars either. I bought a Yuasa replacement because I fitted one to my other car some time back and I've never had an issue with it. Plus it has that charge indicator eye on it giving at least some idea that the battery has charge in it. The one I've just fitted obviously has a bright green colour to it. The Exide battery has no such indicator eye. Also I noticed, that the Exide battery when I pick it up, I can really hear the acid inside sloshing about. In contrast, the Yuasa battery doesn't have that sloshing noise, or at least I couldn't hear it.

Anyway, job done.

 

if its Exide, it "should" decode as A855 (A)Jan (8)2018, 5th week, 5th day but the "A" doesn't tie in with your vehicle year which is 2015? Not sure whats going on here. Different manufacturers use different coding systems which makes it a pain. 3 years is average life for a battery, 5 is good, anything more, damn, you have done well.

2006 will be manufacture facility and area code (usually) not a date code as such.

interesting. Obviously the car has detected a loss of capacity and disabled the stop start function as a protective measure.

 

We bought the car in August of 2018. The car was first registered in September 2016 and was probably built in early to mid 2016 and shipped to the UK from the factory in Hungary. First and only owner before us was Suzuki and the car had very little useage in the 2 years prior to us buying it, covering only 4700 miles. I'm begining to suspect that a replacement battery was installed sometime during 2018 and that would tie in with the dating you have determined from that stamped on the battery casing. The battery has a Suzuki part number on the label.

It's all a bit irrelevant now anyway as the replacement Yuasa battery appears to be doing the job that it is supposed to be doing. I'm not going to junk the Exide battery as I can use it for another purpose, but clearly it wasn't up to the job on the car, most likely because prior to us buying it, the car wasn't getting sufficient use to charge the battery properly and has most likely caused some damage in the form of sulphation or something.

We've sinced added front parking sensors and dash cams to the car, so the new battery is probably a good thing anyway. At least the Stop/Start function is now working as it should.

 

That would certainly explain the 2018 date code. Starts to make sense now.

And yeah, they don't like sitting around not being used. I have a battery conditioner i leave on mine if its not being used for any more than 5 days, got 7 years out of the battery in my last car doing this.

Sadly Alternators don't "deep charge" a battery like the old generator systems as they use a constant voltage rather than a constant current charge system. This leads to the battery getting a "surface" charge which means the terminal voltage bounces back quickly, but theres not a lot of actual energy replenishment happening. Come out next morning, its almost flat again. Charge it properly, then its back to normal.
If a battery goes flat, you are better off charging it properly later rather than jumping it to get the car going then forgetting about it.

 

Well a week on from swapping out the Exide battery for the new Yuasa battery, all is good. The temperatures have been several degrees below zero in our neck of the woods lately and the car has started first flick of the key. We've been out in the car several times today and the Stop/Start has worked every single time, so I feel the swap was worth it. I also like that reassuring green glow from the 'charge' eye on the battery, something the factory Exide batteries don't have.

 

that green "glow" is a false sense of security, its just a ball in a tube that measures specific gravity and are not that accurate. By the time it says "charge" and goes to the next indicator step the battery is flat.

sorry to pop your "security bubble" hehehe

 

Don't worry, you haven't popped my false sense of security bubble. The point I was actually trying to make is, plenty of decent aftermarket batteries do come with the 'charge eye' feature which at least gives some indication that there is still something going on somewhere, though only on one cell of the battery I agree. Manufacturers will on some items, just opt for the cheapest solution and factory fit batteries can just be a basic cheapest working item available that is specced for the vehicle, hence no 'charge eye' and my biggest gripe, no bloody handle to actually lift the thing out of the tray. Batteries aren't light objects, the Vitara one weighing in at no less than 16.6 kilos filled. It's not easy lifting one of those out of the car with no handle.

But actually, going back to the 'charge eye' and it's accuracy, whilst I agree on a battery you have no idea just how old the battery might be, the one I bought is quite literally just a couple of months out of the factory. Yuasa have manufacturing facilities around the world, they have one here in the UK, in Ebbw Vale, Wales, and a distribution centre at Swindon, so I'm pretty confident that the one I've bought should at least be up to the job for a while

 

I changed mine last year
No issues
No coding etc