Hi all. I’ve had a search through the forum which has given me some good pointers as to what to check. I’m hoping someone might be able to give me some easy things to try before taking my car to a garage.

I took delivery a few weeks ago of a 55 plate S-Line 3.0 TDi Quattro Avant, with 149k on the clock. I know the previous owner and he has treated it well.

However, a few times this week, it has said battery low before starting. I’ve put a simple voltmeter into the cigarette lighter socket to see what it’s been reading.

The car reads about 11.5v and drops to 10.5 as I start it. Once the engine is running it reads 13.5v. I can drive a fairly short distance and then turn engine off and it will then read 12.5 ish, but will fairly quickly drop back down bit by bit.

I have checked the positive charge terminal under the bonnet and that is hot to the touch.

I checked with the previous owner and he said he had this issue two years ago. The AA then replaced the battery with a heavy duty Bosch battery in November 2015 and the problem went away.

Where do I go from here?