2014 B8.5 2.0 TFSI Quattro AGM battery replacement

[Feemy]

Recently, my car alarm has started to go off at random times of the day. I hadn't been driving it much during lockdown and the log book shows the battery has never been replaced. I've had the car for 2 years and no problems. Even now, the car starts and runs fine without no battery lights showing on the dash.

After doing some research, the cause is most likely my battery being on its last legs. It has a resting voltage of 12v and that's after I fully charged it using my friend's CTEK charger.

The current battery is a Varta AGM as shown in the picture. It has a BEM code with a QR code alongside it.

I can't find the exact alternative Varta battery with 92Ah 860 (CCA?) as the current battery. Therefore, would this battery be a suitable replacement?

G14 Varta Silver Dynamic Start-Stop Plus AGM Car Battery 12V 95Ah (595901085) (019 AGM)

G14 VARTA Silver Dynamic AGM Car Battery <i>Innovation with Purpose, Premium Experience, Powerful History</i> VARTA was founded in 1887 Germany, and was established fully in 1904 by delivering the first electric vehicle battery, famously driven by Thomas Edison. Soon after, VARTA delivers the...

www.tayna.co.uk

I'm not familiar with the F21/115 or G14/019 AGM nomenclature that Varta use and what they mean. I'm guessing Varta don't do the 92Ah 520 A DIN 860 A aftermarket version as it's an Audi OEM version?

How do I know which one my current battery is?

Any help would be much appreciated
Cheers

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[rum4mo]

Have you tried checking on the Tayna website to see which aftermarket Varta fits your car, it seems strange, to me, that there is a same capacity (92Ah)battery being offered with a slightly lower CCA (EN) than your original JCB manufactured Varta battery.

 

[ninjag]

Off topic but that looks like a lot of water in there?

 

[Feemy]

Off topic but that looks like a lot of water in there?

Lol, yeah I had the wheel well open when it was raining. Didn't think water would get inside but it did.
Not the smartest move to check my battery model when it's raining but I got a sponge and cleaned it up.

But it's funny you mention that because I do get quite a bit of condensation in there. Not entirely sure how since I live in the UK and it's always cold here!

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[Feemy]

Have you tried checking on the Tayna website to see which aftermarket Varta fits your car, it seems strange, to me, that there is a same capacity (92Ah)battery being offered with a slightly lower CCA (EN) than your original JCB manufactured Varta battery.

Yes I found that strange too....the Varta G14 has more Ah (95Ah) but less CCA (850 vs 860 on the 92Ah factory battery)

Anyhow, I did message Tayna and they said that the G14 I linked above is the correct one as long as the dimensions are the same. The current battery measures 353mm length so I guess I'll be buying the G14 AGM battery then.

With regards to coding the new battery, how much does that cost? I just had the most bizarre quote of £200 for fitting and coding from the one garage. The breakdown was £50 fitting, £50 coming to my house to fit, and £100 coding!! £100 for coding? Really?!
Don't you just plug in the VCDS and alter a few characters? Should be a 5 min job just coding?
I did question him and he got very irate saying he uses manufacturer spec VCDS blah blah blah. I told him I'm not ready to spend £100 on coding when the battery is £180. He told me other garages will use the wrong coding tool and it will cause issues. Is that correct? Will it cause problems? I mean VAGCOM/VCDS/Carista will all code it properly right?

I then suggested if I go to him it would be £50 less to which he paused (probably to calculate the quick maffs!) and said, "No it would still be around £200". I asked, "How? You literally just quoted £50 for mobile call-out charge?" and he made up some nonsense that it would be £175 because they offer it as a special package."

Mm-hm ok!

I need the battery fitted and coded. Tayna recommended their partners WhoCanFixMyCar and the quotes range from £30 to £200 with only 2 garages charging £200 (the one above being one) and the others charging £30-70.

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[AlS3BE]

I would say anything more than £50 is taking the **** for coding a battery.
vcds isn’t a cheap tool (£500 ish unlimited) so understand that the garage needs to recoup the cost but it’s literally a 10min job.
you could do it yourself with something like obd11, Carista, Carly etc for not that much and have a diag tool for future use.

 

[Feemy]

I would say anything more than £50 is taking the **** for coding a battery.
vcds isn’t a cheap tool (£500 ish unlimited) so understand that the garage needs to recoup the cost but it’s literally a 10min job.
you could do it yourself with something like obd11, Carista, Carly etc for not that much and have a diag tool for future use.

Thanks for that info.

Yeah the rude chap I spoke to said his VCDS cost him £2000, not the £500 you mention. Haha! So either he got mugged off or he's simply telling porkies.

I totally understand that garage's need to recoup the cost of their VCDS but like you say it's a 10 min job and as such I would pay accordingly.

If I was a hobbyist I probably would invest in a scanning tool. Maybe I will, but I right now I need my battery replaced ASAP as the intermittent alarm is getting annoying.

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[AlS3BE]

Thanks for that info.

Yeah the rude chap I spoke to said his VCDS cost him £2000, not the £500 you mention. Haha! So either he got mugged off or he's simply telling porkies.

I totally understand that garage's need to recoup the cost of their VCDS but like you say it's a 10 min job and as such I would pay accordingly.

If I was a hobbyist I probably would invest in a scanning tool. Maybe I will, but I right now I need my battery replaced ASAP as the intermittent alarm is getting annoying.

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There are some diags tools that are thousands of pounds, I used my mates one and that was £3k+vat, but vcds has always been around £500.

Ross-Tech VCDS HEX-NET WiFi / USB package for VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda cars (1996 on, Unlimited VIN)

Ross-Tech VCDS HEX-NET WiFi / USB package for VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda cars (1996 on, Unlimited VIN) - only £625.00 including VAT & UK delivery!

m.gendan.co.uk

I’ve been using obd11. Bought it ages ago with lifetime subscription for around £40-50. Lets me do most things like batteries, brakes etc. anything more complicated I pay my mate or get Audi dealer to do it.
maybe try rac/aa I remember when my battery failed and they came out they wanted around £200 for agm battery fitted and coded. My car was only a year old then so they wrote a report and sent it to Audi so I can claim warranty.

 

[Feemy]

There are some diags tools that are thousands of pounds, I used my mates one and that was £3k+vat, but vcds has always been around £500.

Ross-Tech VCDS HEX-NET WiFi / USB package for VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda cars (1996 on, Unlimited VIN)

Ross-Tech VCDS HEX-NET WiFi / USB package for VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda cars (1996 on, Unlimited VIN) - only £625.00 including VAT & UK delivery!

m.gendan.co.uk

I’ve been using obd11. Bought it ages ago with lifetime subscription for around £40-50. Lets me do most things like batteries, brakes etc. anything more complicated I pay my mate or get Audi dealer to do it.
maybe try rac/aa I remember when my battery failed and they came out they wanted around £200 for agm battery fitted and coded. My car was only a year old then so they wrote a report and sent it to Audi so I can claim warranty.

Was just reading up on OBD11 subscriptions. From what I understand, they changed the PRO and Ultimate plans to an annual subscription in 2021, but users who already had the PRO or Ultimate subscriptions prior to 2021 would still get Lifetime subscription at no extra charge.



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[desertstorm]

You don't need to code the battery if you are replacing it with one that is the same capacity and type as the original battery.
The only thing the guy would do when coding it is change 1 digit in the BEM code as the original and new batteries are both Varta and both AGM and both 92Ah. The new Varta battery doesn't have a BEM code. The action of changing just one digit in the old BEM code tells the car it has a new battery. This resets any load shedding or reduced performance that may have been imposed by the car to reduce the load on the battery.
If you fit a new battery and don't code it the car will quite quickly learn it has a new battery from the battery monitoring the car does.

 

[Mackenzie49]

If you're with the AA then definitely give them a call as when my battery ( same as yours) failed just a coupla months ago (it was original- lasted nearly 12 yrs!) I paid around £170 all in for the correct battery including fitting/coding. I think 'twas on a special offer at the time so I was well pleased. Yes, stay away from those cowboy 'fitters' !

 

[Feemy]

If you're with the AA then definitely give them a call as when my battery ( same as yours) failed just a coupla months ago (it was original- lasted nearly 12 yrs!) I paid around £170 all in for the correct battery including fitting/coding. I think 'twas on a special offer at the time so I was well pleased. Yes, stay away from those cowboy 'fitters' !

Definitely will give AA a call as I am a member. £170 for fitting and coding is pretty good! If they can fit and code for £50ish I'd be happy.

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[Feemy]

You don't need to code the battery if you are replacing it with one that is the same capacity and type as the original battery.
The only thing the guy would do when coding it is change 1 digit in the BEM code as the original and new batteries are both Varta and both AGM and both 92Ah. The new Varta battery doesn't have a BEM code. The action of changing just one digit in the old BEM code tells the car it has a new battery. This resets any load shedding or reduced performance that may have been imposed by the car to reduce the load on the battery.
If you fit a new battery and don't code it the car will quite quickly learn it has a new battery from the battery monitoring the car does.

The replacement Varta is 95Ah and 850CCA compared to the original which is 92Ah and 860CCA. Does that qualify as "same" battery?

Sorry for not understanding, but I was under the impression that when the battery is replaced it has to be coded as the energy management system requires it, as it can alter the charging profile of the alternator based on the battery age/condition. Is that what you're referring to when you talk about changing 1 digit?

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[Feemy]

If you're with the AA then definitely give them a call as when my battery ( same as yours) failed just a coupla months ago (it was original- lasted nearly 12 yrs!) I paid around £170 all in for the correct battery including fitting/coding. I think 'twas on a special offer at the time so I was well pleased. Yes, stay away from those cowboy 'fitters' !

Rang AA and they said they won't fit the battery unless I purchase it from them bevause they don't know what damage the battery I purchased (from Tayna) will do to the car Lol

I told them it's a Varta G14, literally identical to the Bosch S5A13 one they sell, and they rejected.

Grrr

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[AlS3BE]

Rang AA and they said they won't fit the battery unless I purchase it from them bevause they don't know what damage the battery I purchased (from Tayna) will do to the car Lol

I told them it's a Varta G14, literally identical to the Bosch S5A13 one they sell, and they rejected.

Grrr

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Bosch makes good batteries with normally a 3/5 year warranty. Doesn’t need to be same make/model of battery as long as the capacity and Cca is about the same or higher. That just needs coded.
how much did AA want for the replacement? If it’s about the same ballpark cost then go with Bosch.

 

[Feemy]

Bosch makes good batteries with normally a 3/5 year warranty. Doesn’t need to be same make/model of battery as long as the capacity and Cca is about the same or higher. That just needs coded.
how much did AA want for the replacement? If it’s about the same ballpark cost then go with Bosch.

I probably didn't make it clear, my apologies....but I have already purchased the battery from Tayna as many people have recommended them for the competitive pricing and service.

I got the Varta G14:

G14 Varta Silver Dynamic Start-Stop Plus AGM Car Battery 12V 95Ah (595901085) (019 AGM)

G14 VARTA Silver Dynamic AGM Car Battery <i>Innovation with Purpose, Premium Experience, Powerful History</i> VARTA was founded in 1887 Germany, and was established fully in 1904 by delivering the first electric vehicle battery, famously driven by Thomas Edison. Soon after, VARTA delivers the...

www.tayna.co.uk

Ordered it yesterday and It should arrive tomorrow. It comes with a 4 year warranty. I was going to buy the equivalent Bosch but I thought might as well buy a Varta as my current battery is original OEM Varta.

When I mentioned to AA that I already have the battery and it just needs fitting and coding, they just told me they wouldn't be able to do it unless I purchase the battery from them. But if I put my car registration number into their quote form, it comes up with a cost of £254.99 delivery and fitting.

A nearby garage has quoted £25+VAT for fitting and coding.

Audi quoted £298 for battery and £170 for fitting and coding. I think I'll pass.

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[Dippy]

Late to the thread.
4F0915105E is Audi's code for a 92Ah 520A DIN CCA battery.
The battery also states that it has 860A CCA according to other methods of testing, which goes to show how they can be confusing because in general the SAE and EN methods do not yield the same result. It also means that we should not stress too much about the rating especially because modern cars are not designed such that the battery is only sized for starting: They have a lot of electronics and also with a stop/start function the battery needs to be of a much higher capacity than needed for starting.
AGM is the latest technology which means they tend to last longer but they also tolerate partial-charging cycles making them suitable for stop/start. They are more expensive but I remember that my B5 S4 used to chew through regular batteries every 3-4 years whereas I replaced my B8 S5 AGM battery at 7.5 years only because I went on a summer road-trip and didn't want to risk failure (I have read of AGM batteries lasting 10 years). This actually makes AGM cheapest over the long term.
Varta G14 is the correct like-for-like replacement for 4F0915105E.
I don't want to directly contradict @desertstorm's comment especially when I have no proof, however I will offer a warning: I have read enough reports from forums to believe that not coding CAN cause problems if the battery replaced was badly discharged. In that case the BEM is in maintenance mode trying to keep the battery working. Without coding it seems possible that the BEM may not realise that the battery is new and continue this mode for a period of time and it seems to be possible that overcharging can damage a new battery.
When I changed my battery the BEM did not instantly change its parameters. I coded it fairly quickly so I don't know how long it might have taken to adjust. The trouble is that anyone who has a tool to read the BEM also has the tool to code it so we really don't have any data on how the BEM operates without coding.

 

[Dippy]

A nearby garage has quoted £25+VAT for fitting and coding.

I believe that the correct expression is "bite the hand off"?
However ask exactly what coding will be done since Varta batteries don't have a "BEM code".
Accept "we'll change a digit on the serial number".
Full marks go to "We'll code it with the Audi new part number 000915105DK, VAO for Varta, and the latter 10 digits of the serial number shown on the battery"

 

[Feemy]

Late to the thread.
4F0915105E is Audi's code for a 92Ah 520A DIN CCA battery.
The battery also states that it has 860A CCA according to other methods of testing, which goes to show how they can be confusing because in general the SAE and EN methods do not yield the same result. It also means that we should not stress too much about the rating especially because modern cars are not designed such that the battery is only sized for starting: They have a lot of electronics and also with a stop/start function the battery needs to be of a much higher capacity than needed for starting.
AGM is the latest technology which means they tend to last longer but they also tolerate partial-charging cycles making them suitable for stop/start. They are more expensive but I remember that my B5 S4 used to chew through regular batteries every 3-4 years whereas I replaced my B8 S5 AGM battery at 7.5 years only because I went on a summer road-trip and didn't want to risk failure (I have read of AGM batteries lasting 10 years). This actually makes AGM cheapest over the long term.
Varta G14 is the correct like-for-like replacement for 4F0915105E.
I don't want to directly contradict @desertstorm's comment especially when I have no proof, however I will offer a warning: I have read enough reports from forums to believe that not coding CAN cause problems if the battery replaced was badly discharged. In that case the BEM is in maintenance mode trying to keep the battery working. Without coding it seems possible that the BEM may not realise that the battery is new and continue this mode for a period of time and it seems to be possible that overcharging can damage a new battery.
When I changed my battery the BEM did not instantly change its parameters. I coded it fairly quickly so I don't know how long it might have taken to adjust. The trouble is that anyone who has a tool to read the BEM also has the tool to code it so we really don't have any data on how the BEM operates without coding.

Thanks for the information, it's always nice to learn along the way.

Well, the current battery has lasted since May 2014 when the car was manufactured, so I think AGM batteries are worth the money. I mean Audi recommend changing it every 5 years in the Owner's Manual, so 8 years is pretty good!

To give you some background..... the reason I'm changing the battery is because my car alarm keeps going off like twice a day at least, and by doing some reading I stumbled across several reasons why that would be. I figured I'd test the resting voltage of the car and indeed it was 11.2v! Starting the car, the voltage dropped to 8.5v (because of the load) and then stabilised to 14.5v at engine idle.
I purchased a CTEK charger (was going to buy one anyway as I'm driving less for the past year) and charged the battery using the AGM program (took several hours). Fully charged, the voltage was 12.2v which to me suggests the battery is not holding the charge. The next morning, the battery showed 11.7v.

So when you talk about coding being a necessity, I agree, because the BEM will think the new battery is trash and almost fully discharged.

"Biting my hand off" seems like a correct term but to be honest I'm pretty keen to get it fixed as the sodding alarm is getting annoying. I did question what coding they would do and they said they would put in the new battery details into their diagnostic tool. Do they get full marks? Or is that just acceptable? Lol

I'll give Varta a call tomorrow and ask them what exactly is the part number to program in when I don't have a BEM, the rest of it is "VA0 [serial number]"



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[desertstorm]

I believe that the correct expression is "bite the hand off"?
However ask exactly what coding will be done since Varta batteries don't have a "BEM code".
Accept "we'll change a digit on the serial number".
Full marks go to "We'll code it with the Audi new part number 000915105DK, VAO for Varta, and the latter 10 digits of the serial number shown on the battery"

As I said earlier if you were to replace the battery in the car with another one with the same part number the only thing that woukld be different is the BEM number. The action of changing this is what resets the battery management. changing one digit in the existing coding is all you have to do.
The CCA figure for the battery isn't relevent to coding just really the Ah rating type battery type. A few Ah plus or minus and 20-30A in the CCA rating won't make any difference to the battery management. If you are going to fit a new battery and not code it make sure the new battery is fully charged.

 

[AlS3BE]

For reference

Battery Replacement - Ross-Tech Wiki

wiki.ross-tech.com

Last time I did this was the uds/odx method so only thing changed was serial number as capacity , brand and battery tech was the same.

**remember for agm battery it’s battery tech ‘fleece’ not AGM. **

 

[rum4mo]

I changed a single digit of the stored serial number on the original EFB fitted to my wife's August 2015 VW Polo, I did that as I had started to keep a cheap plug in DVM plugged into the 12V DC power socket, and suddenly the charging behaviour changed, changing that serial number did "back off" the charging voltage after a few days, but it has crept back up to being typically 14.8/14.9V, one thing that I regretted was, was not logging all the available battery stats in that car's UDS type controller, so I can't say if everything started back at "zero point". The main reason why I'm annoyed that I did not do that was, when I chickened out at 11 years for my S4 AGM battery, I did log all the available battery stats (BEM), and was disappointed to see that many of them did not change back to what I expected - so my missing information is, if I or anyone just coughed up the cash at Audi, would there have been any difference in when/how the existing battery stats would have changed as compared to what I experienced - I'll never know! By the way that old 2011 original fitted AGM Varta manufactured by JCB, still tests out okay using my CTEK charger and its PD is easily high enough to make me think that it is still okay, re-charging it every 6 months keeps it ready for any future use - as in power cuts, the replacement AGM Bosch that I bought for my wife's 2015 VW Polo, awaits its day! I maybe stupidly bought a slight bigger Ah/CCA version as it was cheaper than the correct size, the one VW Group fit with TDI engines in Polo etc, so that needed the slightly longer battery tray - maybe I'll sort this out next summer, I do check the battery CCA at service time every year so that I know how far it has dropped from new. One thing that I either read or at least proved was, any quality new battery when tested before fitting, will give a CCA value of up to +15% over its stated value.

Edit:- one other thing, at least for Bosch aftermarket batteries, they do not have a serial number, probably only a batch and factory produced number group.

 

[Feemy]

Just a quick question. I wasn't aware of it until after I got the battery fitted, but it was 60% SoC when fitted at the mechanics.

I've read that it is important that the battery is fully charged before coding. Will the fact that it was only 60% charged when coded going to detrimental in any way?

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