georglang31

Seat Cordoba starting trouble

I'm tearing my hair out here. My 2007 Seat Cordoba with a gasoline engine is being a right pain. It's got 149175 km on the clock. Starts poorly, like the battery's knackered. Think it might be terminal 30 continuous plus interrupted. Suspect a heavily discharged or defective battery, but want to rule out a short circuit or charging system issue. Any ideas before I start replacing things?

4 comment(s)

Whoa, sounds familiar! I had a similar headache with my Cordoba, though I can't recall the year. Started cranking slow, especially on cold mornings. Check for voltage drop across the battery terminals when starting. Could be a dodgy power supply issue. Have you load tested the battery?

Voltage drop, eh? Where exactly should I be measuring that? And what kind of reading am I looking for to say it's definitely goosed?

Yeah, use a multimeter on the DC voltage setting. Put the probes directly on the battery terminals while someone tries to crank the engine. Anything dropping below 9.6V during cranking indicates a problem, either a dead battery or a massive short circuit dragging it down. If it's dropping that low, honestly, I'd just get the battery tested properly at a workshop. Could save you chasing ghosts. Good luck!

Huge thanks! Dropped it off at the shop, and they confirmed it. New battery sorted it; cost me 290€. Appreciate the help!

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