battery completely dead

ali831

Active Member
Apr 19, 2008
103
1
hampshire
I own a leon 2014 1.4tsi FR. Returned to car after being away for just 10 minutes and it was completely dead, wouldn't even turn over. Lights flashed a few times on the dash and then went out. Called the RAC who diagnosed a buggered battery that wasn't holding its charge (no previous warning of any issue). He got us started and followed us to halfrauds which was our only option of a Saturday evening then left for another callout.

The old battery was an Exide EFB 59ah. the recommended battery on the system in halfrauds was an 096AGM 70ah. The RAC man said it wouldn't need coding but halfrauds said it would but they didn't have an 'expert' available for 2 or 3 days. So we fitted it ourselves which was easy & on first start up it gave a start/stop error and tyre pressure warning. Re-started the car and all error codes had gone.

My questions are... is it usual for a car that's only 3 1/2 years old to need a new battery?
Does it need coding and how?
Is it ok to use an AGM instead of an EFB?

There was a label on the side of the old battery that reads PROV= 41625 then 06 06 08 which to me looks like a date, if so what is a battery dated june 2008 doing in a 14 plate car?? (car was an ex management car owned by a Seat Dealer, have they swapped it out?)

so much conflicting information on google so I came to the experts instead ;)
thanks in advance
 

Deleted member 103408

Guest
ali831

I would expect a battery to last longer than 3 1/2 years and also would not expect it to just stop,

With regards to coding when I use OBD11 I have the following values stored in the car:

Battery adaptation:
Rated battery capacity: 69 Ah
Battery manufacturer: VA0
Battery serial number: 33120661FI
Battery technology: EFB

and these values are mentioned in the following vcds document http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Battery_Replacement.

So it feels like you have to do some coding but hopefully some experts here can confirm.

With regards to AGM / EFB I dont have any knowledge on this subject.
 

EFF11

Active Member
Jun 16, 2016
138
38
There are two types of battery used on VAG cars.

Enhanced Flooded (EFB) are essentially standard batteries manufactured to much higher standards. They have twice the endurance of standard liquid filled batteries and are fitted to vehicles with Stop/Start.

Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) batteries have three times the endurance of standard batteries and are fitted to higher specification cars with higher electrical loads. In these batteries the liquid is absorbed by a framework of glass mats.

You can use an AGM battery instead of an EFB one, but at much higher cost.

These modern batteries required different charging cycles from standard batteries. If you buy a decent battery charger you will have options to charge a standard battery or a smart battery.

This is the reason why the car's battery management system needs to know what kind of battery you have. If you change a battery for one with an identical specification from a different manufacturer you may not see any error codes and it may charge correctly.. If you change to a different battery without recoding, it may not charge correctly, even if you don't see fault codes, and that may affect battery life.
 

ali831

Active Member
Apr 19, 2008
103
1
hampshire
Thanks for the replies. so having a higher spec battery is ok but I will call garage to find out about coding. If the series of numbers I can see on the old battery are indeed a date then they must have swapped it out as it was an ex-dealer car who are the only previous owners. Cheeky buggers!!
 

chrisRibiza

Active Member
Sep 27, 2007
1,194
51
If you Google the part number of a battery from a Leon - the photos all show a VAG branded battery although the actual manufacturer name is in really small print.

If your's has no VAG branding then yes it sounds like it has been swapped.
 

salsajoe

Active Member
Apr 12, 2017
130
13
Yorkshire
The Astra coupe 1.8 (2007) that went when I bought the 1.4 FR in March still had the original battery and no sign of any problems so 10 years is possible.
 

ali831

Active Member
Apr 19, 2008
103
1
hampshire
just a quick update was told the actual date of the battery is stamped on one of the terminals ours says 09 2014 (week 9, 2014) so the numbers on the label obviously weren't a date. so the battery has lasted just over 3 years!! not good, yes we do mostly short, town driving but we have always done that and never had to replace a battery on any of our previous cars which were around 7 years old when we traded them in. so maybe just one of those things. Hopefully the new one will last longer!

With regards to the coding I have spoken to both a VW mechanic and a Seat garage and both confirm the battery doesn't need coding on my car. The VW guy also ran diagnostics to check for any error codes and there were none and a extra bonus he did so for free!
 

stu_m

Active Member
Aug 14, 2014
606
37
Hull
www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk
seen as though you have bought the car pre owned/registered and not brand new you don't know what sort of life the battery has had!

It doesn't take a lot to kill a battery it may have been discharged and left flat for a length of time and desulfation would have set in

I have known many batteries to all of a sudden die
 

Seastormer

Cupra Leon VZ2 300/CBF1000
Apr 25, 2014
5,007
693
68
Edinburgh (Scotland)
Jump leads, that's a bit old hat, even my 76 year old mother in law has a jump starter in her boot, and no other car is needed either, best bit of emergency start kit I have come across.
 

ali831

Active Member
Apr 19, 2008
103
1
hampshire
a quick question.. what's the approx. time/journey length required for the battery to regain it's charge after starting the engine?
 
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