12v Battery Replacement

[spembo]

I suspect I may need to replace my 12v battery. I have had 12v warnings in the past, usually when camping and doors have been opened lots, although it’s always just said something about driving carefully and goes away after a short drive (although never did this in the early years)

I’ve recently been getting parking sensor issues, usually at low speed or braking, but usually disappear. Possibly more relevant on sunny days. I don’t believe a damaged sensor, as been through that scenario in the past, so suspect maybe linked to battery. The battery read 12.4V on the multimeter tonight, which I know is on the edge.

I’ve no problem fitting the battery, but have been reading about potentially needing to update the serial with OBDeleven (which I don’t have), I’m not sure if this is valid for mk4, but also read if close enough match to just drive around and it will eventually adjust its charging profile.

Does anyone have advice?

Car is a few months over 3 yrs old.

 

[KoNG]

I replaced my battery about 3 months ago (First Edition 2020). The car still worked fine, as it's a 1.5 Etsi, but when I measured the battery with a device from Amazon, it showed 56% battery life. I had already had a problem when the car died completely; therefore, I bought a battery jump-start. As the car is now parked outside over the winter (it was in the garage before), I didn't want to be in a situation where it wouldn't start because the battery would just die on its own due to its age. I coded the new battery, and as I did my research, it's important to do so, as battery charging is affected by its age, and the unit adjusts its charging curve to adapt to its life. I would recommend coding it.

 

[spembo]

I replaced my battery about 3 months ago (First Edition 2020). The car still worked fine, as it's a 1.5 Etsi, but when I measured the battery with a device from Amazon, it showed 56% battery life. I had already had a problem when the car died completely; therefore, I bought a battery jump-start. As the car is now parked outside over the winter (it was in the garage before), I didn't want to be in a situation where it wouldn't start because the battery would just die on its own due to its age. I coded the new battery, and as I did my research, it's important to do so, as battery charging is affected by its age, and the unit adjusts its charging curve to adapt to its life. I would recommend coding it.

Thanks for replying, good to hear an experience of not coding.

Did you invest in obdeleven just for the battery change? I’m contemplating whether Carista may be better option for myself, as can go monthly as needed as opposed to a 12 month as not generally interested in making changes.

 

[KoNG]

I've been using OBDeleven for several years already, initially with my previous car more than 6 years ago, so I have the first version of the device. Check the forum; maybe somebody can do that for you, depending on your area.

 

[spembo]

Replaced the battery and coded the battery with Carista, would have gone OBDelevin if they’d a monthly subscription option. Worked out touch cheaper then halfords would have cost, and have the tool available for future.

 

['& Son' managed]

Battery has died on Dad's 2018 1.2 s/s Leon, not so surprising given it's life of mostly short journeys.

The replacement will need coding-in, which I don't have the tools to do. Current best quote all-in
including £50 for fitting is Halfords at £150. I'm guessing that £50 for fitting/coding is around the
current going rate.

Tayna has a suitable battery for £68 including delivery, but they won't quote a local fitting price until
after you've bought it. Anyone know a typical Tayna agents fitting charge?

Any other ideas welcome, South Coast region. For clarity, I can easily remove and fit a new battery,
it's the means needed to code it in that I don't have. TIA

 

[spembo]

Carista is £65 for hardware and one month subscription if you wanted sort yourself. Just a matter of remembering terminate subscription so it doesn’t rollover another month.

 

['& Son' managed]

Battery was so dead that I unexpectedly couldn't get it started even with jump leads - and
this was after a 35 mile drive less than 24 hours before. Luckily the Leon was parked safely
enough just around the corner in a quiet close. Because of the situation, a mobile fitter was
the obvious solution and Halfords proved to be the cheapest of all the national and local
options I researched. In contrast to their usual reputation, the guy turned-up at a sensible
time, did a perfect job without complaint, all finished including coding within 15 minutes.

 

[xpcasa]

Hello, I replaced the original 12v Varta battery with an Exide battery. I have VCDS and I'm trying to change the values to code the new battery, but I'm getting an error. Can you help? Thank you.

 

[spembo]

If you research sfd and see if that gets you your answer

 

[tracktoy]

Have no idea if this is just marketing rubbish but Carista are advertising they have now got SFD2 Customization working, however it looks like you have to buy the gear first to find out what it can do for your car.

 

[RUM4MO]

If you were running a fully legal and up to date version of VCDS, and so were reg'd with them, you could ask them how you resolve this issue.

I'd be surprised if VW Group were forcing owners to have to get a battery change done at VW Group workshops only - but maybe nothing should surprise you!

 

[tracktoy]

The SFD2 Setup is different to SFD in that you have to get permission from VAG Servers to make changes, this also applies to BMW.

In time OBD11 AND Carista and such tools will be able to offer limited changes (I say limited because we dont yet know what will and wont be allowed). But if the garage you go to (and I am guessing Halfords as well) has tools that talk directly they can make changes

 

[James_R]

You all have the United Nations to thank for SFD implementation. All VWG have done is become compliant like all other manufacturers have had to.

If you guys think it's a nuisance because you can't code a battery with non compliant equipment or make changes you could on previous models, you should try working with it on a dailiy basis. It's just another nightmare regulation that's made an already difficult job even harder.

 

[tracktoy]

Fully agree with what @James_R said my only question (when all the user tools get updated) is going to be about how much it cost's to make changes and what the limitations are. I fully expect that you will not have the code ability as you did on the pre SFD2 Models, certainly around safety features like Brakes (although that may not apply to brake changes) and Lighting. Time will tell.

It will also be interesting to know as all the changes are recorded on the VAG Servers (as they give permission for the changes) will you be able to view those changes on ERWIN, Or pay extra when looking to buy a used motor

 

[RUM4MO]

In its simplest form, this is what gets called "configuration control" - not something that domestic/commercial products seem to bother much about - the means is obviously there to keep, in this case, car records up to date.

I can cast my brain back maybe 10 years when my older daughter's 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V SC started exhibiting a discharging battery when left for "a few days" which lead to "will it start or will it not", local SEAT dealership when fed with the "I've read that some VW Group cars of this age had a BCM software issue" - could not sort this out, one year later I was getting desperate and approached another SEAT main dealer - and, luckily for me, they had a 2009 VW Polo 1.4 16V as a trade in, and its new owner was complaining about the exact same issue - so they raised a tech enquiry to VW mothership and got the correct response, located the software patch and applied - customer's problem resolved! So they were willing to take this 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V SC on and go through the same procedure with it, and that sorted out that known issue that both VW and SEAT and no doubt the other marques, knew existed but did very little about fixing before it caused problems.

I'm sure that I asked the question "when using this system on VW Group cars, is there not a record kept of all updates/software patches that have been applied to cars and records of all outstanding updates/software patches still to be applied?" I don't think that the answer I got was too positive.

Okay some issues will be borderline as to if they affect the way a car behaves, and within that group there will be potential issues that can be justified as being termed "only apply if the customer reports having a problem" - but for me, it did sound a lot like the motor industry are not really too bothered about pre-emptively applying fixes before the customer reports issues while the cars are still in the service loop (the first thing we do when booking your car in for service/repair is to check for outstanding actions) - that seems to only apply to safety issues that could end up costing the car manufacturer a lot of money in possible court actions.

 

[James_R]

The reasons why locked modules were introduced are pretty self explanatory, but the crux of it is security, mainly the cyber variety.

If someone can remotely gain control over a vehicle and use it for nefarious purposes the possibility of that needs to be reduced or prevented completely or there needs to be an electronic trail back to whoever has made changes that have resulted in injury or death.

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Have no idea if this is just marketing rubbish but Carista are advertising they have now got SFD2 Customization working, however it looks like you have to buy the gear first to find out what it can do for your car.

If you look at the list of changes, they’re almost all entirely on SFD1/non SFD control modules on SFD2 vehicles