Battery replacement 4.0T (S6, S7, RS7)

[LawDawg]

Since there are a number of battery threads people cite to between this forum, and the B8 S4 forum, I thought I'd try and make a more succinct place to find the info for our cars.

When doing their multi-point inspection when I had my DSG serviced, the dealer told me that one of the cells was going out on my battery. I had not problems, but what the hell, why not. They wanted $475 parts/labor. Er...no.

The Audi battery in my car was rated at 950 CCA, and I believe it was size H9. Manufactured by Varta. It was NOT AGM.

This is the battery I bought:
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...000%7CL3*15597

It's the AutoCraft Gold from Advance Auto Parts. $159 retail, but if you get it online and pick it up at your local store there is a 25% ($40) off discount code you can use on the site. There is also a $22 core charge. All-in, you're looking at $120 once you turn in your old battery.

The AutoCraft is H9, 950 CCA, comes with a BEM code, and is the spitting image of the OE battery. Probably because it's also made by Varta. You can splurge and get the Platinum version, which is AGM, but unless you're tracking, why bother? Mine had a manufacture date of 10/2019, so it's brand spankin' new.

Procedure:
-Take up the trunk liner
-Take out spare
-Remove the tool kit (you have to unsnap the plastic cover holding in the air suspension solenoid)
-Pull out the solenoid and the air lines from the tool kit and set the kit aside
-Unfasten the 3 nuts holding down the air tank, and move it and the solenoid aside without disconnecting the lines
-Unbolt the battery
-Remove breather hose, and "-" and "+" terminals
-Replace battery, put it all back together

TAKE A PICTURE OF BOTH THE BEM CODE OF YOUR OLD, AND THE BEM CODE OF YOUR NEW BATTERY!!!

When it comes time to code the new battery, I think VAG-COM/VCDS has changed over the years, so the instructions online were not exact, but close enough to figure it out.

If I remember correctly on my version of VCDS, it went like this:

19-CAN Gateway
Adaptation
Drop down menu

From the drop-down, there are a lot of options. You are looking for the 3 that reference: The battery ah rating, the manufacturer, and the serial number. I didn't know the ah rating, so I left it as "unknown." The other two I entered based on the BEM code on the new battery:

bem.jpg

If any of this is wrong, please chime in, as I don't want to screw anyone up on their replacement.

[bknewtype]

thanks for this. my car actually died last week and I may b looking into a new battery soon

[gk1]

Great info. Thanks.
FWIW Ah rating should be 110 for that battery.

[gk1]

Also what was the part number on your original battery if you don't mind?
Thanks.

[LawDawg]

I think it was:

4G0915105E

[Blkdoutv]

Wow, I thought I was the only one with a wonky battery, but my 2018 S6 just had the battery replaced at 8k miles during its first service. Anyone else had one replaced this quickly?


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[jacobyb]

Mine lasted just under 2 years. Is it weird that when I replaced mine I didn’t have to code anything? I just pulled it out, put the new one in, and that was that...

[WhiteWhiteS7]

Can you tell me why you need to code a battery in Vag-Com? I replaced mine myself 1.5 years ago and replaced it like it was in a Honda Civic with no issues.

[LawDawg]

Supposedly there is a module that controls charging and how it charges is tied to the age and strength of the battery. Think of the battery monitor in a laptop. Apparently it aids in extending the battery life.

You code the new battery to tell the system that it’s dealing with a fresh battery.

Or something like that.

[TexasMyke]

Sadly the dealer got me for $492 a couple of weeks ago for a new battery. They said my battery was reading 428cc and needed 558cc something like that. I drive a lot and didn’t want to be stranded. I did get the same story from the SA about the battery needing to be coded to the car to prevent it from degrading faster.

[LawDawg]

Thanks to gk1 for informing me that my battery should be entered as 110 Ah. I went in with my VCDS yesterday evening to store that value, and when the tool read it, it was already set to 110 Ah. I know for CERTAIN that I stored "unknown" when I coded the battery and put in the new Mfg. and Serial #. So...it looks like the car learned on its own?

[gk1]

Thanks to gk1 for informing me that my battery should be entered as 110 Ah. I went in with my VCDS yesterday evening to store that value, and when the tool read it, it was already set to 110 Ah. I know for CERTAIN that I stored "unknown" when I coded the battery and put in the new Mfg. and Serial #. So...it looks like the car learned on its own?

Cool deal. Perhaps "unknown" is Audi/VCDS speak for "use what was previously there", since I believe the OE battery is also a 110Ah. Either way it is cool it is at 110 now.

FWIW I was curious and reached out to parts and they indicate the current OE battery is 000915105DL which is also 110Ah non-AGM.
I wonder if there is a coding change available to adjust charging system to accommodate AGM batteries.

EDIT: I may have found my own answer. From a VW site so not 100% sure it exists on our cars.
Adaptation channel - IDE03256-MAS06106-Battery adaptation-Battery technology.
LawDawg do you recall seeing an option like that?

[Riker]

Can this be done with OBD11 or do you need Vag Com?

[wwhan]

The Ross-tech coding: http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index...ry_Replacement

Forum B8 A4 Battery Replacement - Coding

This document explains some of the background on the battery management system: Self-Study Programme SSP 364 Q7 Electrical system, http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_364.pdf

Page 15, Battery J644
"A battery test can be performed using the energy management control unit J644. This test can be started in the Guided Fault Finding mode or the Guided Functions mode under "61-Battery control - A-Battery, test". The energy management control unit calculates from various measured values and the history data the state of the battery and displays the following as a possible result:
– Battery OK
– Charge battery
– Replace battery
In the case of the Audi Q7, it is no longer necessary to test the battery using battery tester VAS 5097A. The advantages of this new test method are:
– It is not necessary to charge the battery prior to the test.
– It is not necessary to disconnect the battery from the onboard power supply.
– It is not necessary to remove the battery."

page24, "Battery replacement
When the vehicle battery is replaced, the energy management control unit J644 must be encoded. This is necessary to adapt the new battery (size, manufacturer, new condition) to the energy management system. Only then will the energy management system function with maximum efficiency and precision. The energy management control unit J644 may only be encoded after a battery is replaced. Otherwise, faults will be produced in the vehicle due to incorrect assessment of the battery state and loss of important history data, which is required, among other things for testing the battery with the VAS tester."

[LawDawg]

The Ross-tech coding: http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index...ry_Replacement

[/I]

The last section in the link you provided, called "Adaptation" is the procedure that I had to use to code my battery.

[phaphaphooey]

I went through this and made a similar thread, albeit less comprehensive, a month or two before yours. Your thread is super helpful. The battery in my car was an AGM H9 and I replaced it with the identical battery you did, used the same coupons and everything. Recoded with Vagcom and no problems since that time. All of the work required to get to the battery in these cars is a little bit silly.

[Bdlpnw2016]

If you are disconnecting battery cause you’re installing say a front grill do you need to do any encoding? Do you just pull off the terminals and do the work and connect it when you done? Everything should work fine after? I was advised to pull the battery to not impact the sensors and cameras on the grille. Thanks!


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[09S5]

Bump


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[OlyS6]

If you are disconnecting battery cause you’re installing say a front grill do you need to do any encoding? Do you just pull off the terminals and do the work and connect it when you done? Everything should work fine after? I was advised to pull the battery to not impact the sensors and cameras on the grille. Thanks!


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Yep, just pull the negative terminal off your battery whenever you are doing either electrical work or taking the bumper with sensors off (also helpful to just cover up the negative terminal in electrical tape or a plastic bag so your negative cable doesn't accidentally touch the negative terminal while you are working). Also helpful whenever working with coolant pumps or fuel pumps so you don't get a spray of liquid if a pump inadvertantly goes off when you open a door or something. Also a must whenever you are working with the CANBUS. If you accidentally try turning on the car and the CANBUS isn't seated correctly, you will get some errors that need to be cleared by the dealer (ask me how I know this). No coding necessary when you do this. For the front end, no need to recalibrate any sensors as long as you are putting the same bumper back on. The car will give a bunch of errors that are difficult to clear without recalibrating if you leave the battery connected and then try to turn the car on without the sensors all put back together.

[Bdlpnw2016]

Yep, just pull the negative terminal off your battery whenever you are doing either electrical work or taking the bumper with sensors off (also helpful to just cover up the negative terminal in electrical tape or a plastic bag so your negative cable doesn't accidentally touch the negative terminal while you are working). Also helpful whenever working with coolant pumps or fuel pumps so you don't get a spray of liquid if a pump inadvertantly goes off when you open a door or something. Also a must whenever you are working with the CANBUS. If you accidentally try turning on the car and the CANBUS isn't seated correctly, you will get some errors that need to be cleared by the dealer (ask me how I know this). No coding necessary when you do this. For the front end, no need to recalibrate any sensors as long as you are putting the same bumper back on. The car will give a bunch of errors that are difficult to clear without recalibrating if you leave the battery connected and then try to turn the car on without the sensors all put back together.

Thanks!


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[Alabama]

Curious. My S6 came with an AGM battery. The equipment code sticker in the car has the code for an AGM battery. All three major battery manufacturers (Johnson, Exide, East Penn) recommend an AGM battery for an S6. The car has a lot of power options and some of us add more (e.g., dash cam). As someone else mentioned, the coding through VCDS supposedly will increase battery life. For what it's worth, Costco is now selling AGM batteries for this car from Exide under the Interstate brand name.

[gk1]

Curious. My S6 came with an AGM battery. The equipment code sticker in the car has the code for an AGM battery. All three major battery manufacturers (Johnson, Exide, East Penn) recommend an AGM battery for an S6. The car has a lot of power options and some of us add more (e.g., dash cam). As someone else mentioned, the coding through VCDS supposedly will increase battery life. For what it's worth, Costco is now selling AGM batteries for this car from Exide under the Interstate brand name.

Interesting. I wonder what is the determining factor for original AGM battery or not. Can you tell me the exact equipment code option for AGM battery that you have?
It's obviously not a year thing since mine is '15 and OP's is a '13 and both are not AGM and yours is '14 and has AGM along with phaphaphooey's '17 RS7.

[Alabama]

Interesting. I wonder what is the determining factor for original AGM battery or not. Can you tell me the exact equipment code option for AGM battery that you have?
It's obviously not a year thing since mine is '15 and OP's is a '13 and both are not AGM and yours is '14 and has AGM along with phaphaphooey's '17 RS7.

Sure, the equipment code on the sticker is "J0Z", the middle character the number "zero". The car was assembled in Germany. I'm not sure it's related to options as the car doesn't have any factory options that I would think would consume a lot of power. For example, it has the lower power standard Bose audio, not the higher power B&O.

[wangao0316]

Thank you, sub'd

[orphancrippler]

After reading this thread, I decided to take a look at my battery health with VCDS, and it showed 93Ah size and 50% health, so it was time for a change. I bought a Die Hard Platinum H9 950cca 100Ah AGM, and after getting the old one out and new one in, went to re-code with VCDS. In my drop down boxes for battery size, there isn't a choice for 100Ah, only 105 and 95. I took turns selecting both, while monitoring the outputs for things like usable charge, health and capacity %.

Choosing 95Ah, which is 5 under my new battery, caused all sorts of weird readings, like 150% charging status and 105% health, while choosing 105Ah resulted in those numbers dropping to like 95% and 90%. I figured telling the car it has a slightly larger one is better than slightly smaller, as I didn't want to risk anything weird happening with those over 100% readings and however they tie in with the energy management system. If anyone has any ideas on if I made the right decision or not, please let me know. I did find the BEM code, under a warning sticker, and everything else took fine as far as mfr. and serial #, just the size was mismatched a bit.

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[pootskoot]

Did anyone ever find out if you can use obdeleven to reset the battery after installing a new one?


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[wwhan]

Did anyone ever find out if you can use obdeleven to reset the battery after installing a new one?


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OBDeleven information in these posts may be useful to reset the battery;

"Gateway>Adaptation>Battery Adaptation": https://forum.obdeleven.com/thread/9...tarter-battery

"Hi. For battery re-code, do this": https://forum.obdeleven.com/thread/8...-counter-reset

[Prh]

After reading this thread, I decided to take a look at my battery health with VCDS, and it showed 93Ah size and 50% health, so it was time for a change. I bought a Die Hard Platinum H9 950cca 100Ah AGM, and after getting the old one out and new one in, went to re-code with VCDS. In my drop down boxes for battery size, there isn't a choice for 100Ah, only 105 and 95. I took turns selecting both, while monitoring the outputs for things like usable charge, health and capacity %.

Choosing 95Ah, which is 5 under my new battery, caused all sorts of weird readings, like 150% charging status and 105% health, while choosing 105Ah resulted in those numbers dropping to like 95% and 90%. I figured telling the car it has a slightly larger one is better than slightly smaller, as I didn't want to risk anything weird happening with those over 100% readings and however they tie in with the energy management system. If anyone has any ideas on if I made the right decision or not, please let me know. I did find the BEM code, under a warning sticker, and everything else took fine as far as mfr. and serial #, just the size was mismatched a bit.

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Curious on this one as well. I need to replace my non AGM battery in my 14’ S6 and want to go with this one. Currently have 110Ah and strange there isn’t a selection for 100 to match your AGM.


How is your electrical holding up so far with your setting?


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[orphancrippler]

Curious on this one as well. I need to replace my non AGM battery in my 14’ S6 and want to go with this one. Currently have 110Ah and strange there isn’t a selection for 100 to match your AGM.


How is your electrical holding up so far with your setting?


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Everything seems to be perfectly fine. I installed a remote start with an app module, which allows me to see the resting and "engine-on" voltage, and it rests around 12.7v and shows about 14.5v when the car is on. Haven't had any electrical power related issues, starts quickly even in sub-freezing northeast mornings, and has even run my SRM Brushless EMP coolant pump for almost 30 minutes when I forgot to turn the headlights off (relay takes power signal from headlight wire) and had the car in accessory mode, with no problems.

The fact that I had to over-report the size a bit still bugs me. If I had to do it over, I'd have just found an AGM with the CCA I wanted that came in an Ah rating that's available in VCDS. The BEM code, which was hidden under a different mfr. sticker, even references the 100Ah rating, but removing the battery and leaving size as "unknown" just results in it resetting to the last set value when I press "do it" and the channel is re-read.

I'm going to continue to monitor it periodically, and if anything crops up, I'll post it on here. It it also very strange to me that I can't just input whatever Ah rating I want, and that the presents don't include a 100Ah choice.

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[mwmaroney1]

Old thread revival here, just wondering how you know if you car has an AGM battery? Is there something listed on the battery itself or do I need to find in vag-com? About to replace mine and want to make sure I get the right one. Thanks!

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[orphancrippler]

Old thread revival here, just wondering how you know if you car has an AGM battery? About to replace mine and want to make sure I get the right one. Thanks!

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Easiest way is to look at it. Some cars got them, some didn't and there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive list of which got what. If your battery doesn't make it clear by looking at it, take the part # or other identifying information and search it online.

As long as you get one with enough CCA and Ah rating, and either code it correctly in VCDS or do the quick "change the last digit of the BEM" trick, you should be good to go.

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[mwmaroney1]

Easiest way is to look at it. Some cars got them, some didn't and there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive list of which got what. If your battery doesn't make it clear by looking at it, take the part # or other identifying information and search it online.

As long as you get one with enough CCA and Ah rating, and either code it correctly in VCDS or do the quick "change the last digit of the BEM" trick, you should be good to go.

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Thanks, I'll give her a look tomorrow!

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[Alabama]

Old thread revival here, just wondering how you know if you car has an AGM battery? Is there something listed on the battery itself or do I need to find in vag-com? About to replace mine and want to make sure I get the right one. Thanks!

See post #21 above. My car had an AGM but others got a non-AGM. I wonder if the battery is added by the US dealer after the car arrives from Europe. Besides looking at the battery, you can also look at the PR code. My understanding is that AGM relates to quality and durability, while CCA and Ah relate to sizing.

[AaronKamp]

See post #21 above. My car had an AGM but others got a non-AGM. I wonder if the battery is added by the US dealer after the car arrives from Europe. Besides looking at the battery, you can also look at the PR code. My understanding is that AGM relates to quality and durability, while CCA and Ah relate to sizing.

Your battery can also be determined by the production code, which for me was added as a sticker inside the front page of the owners manual instead of being stuck somewhere in the trunk. I used the "Find your battery" selection tool at www.interstatebatteries.com to determine what was in mine. When I pulled the battery out it matched 100% and I had an H8/Group 49 size AGM battery based on production code J0B. I ended up getting an Odyssey 49-950 locally because the Braille B10049 is backordered online everywhere, and mine is doornail dead.

[AudiTurbo4me777]

Is it a good idea to connect a separate battery or trickle charger as to not lose any settings while removing and replacing battery?

[wangao0316]

Is it a good idea to connect a separate battery or trickle charger as to not lose any settings while removing and replacing battery?

I connected a battery charger to the terminals in the engine bay when I was replacing mine, and I didn't lose any settings.

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[AudiTurbo4me777]

Ok, that's what I was thinking to do. Where did you connect the negative cable. Did you connect to one of the strut bolts?

[mwmaroney1]

So opened up trunk and looking at the battery I don't see AGM listed anywhere but I have the same JOZ code as the guy above who had AGM. That being said, do I need to purchase an AGM or would any other non agm compatible battery work fine? Also, trying to find where in vcds it will let me check my battery heath. What I found online sent me to a module that was grayed out. Thanks. 20210223_143938.jpg20210223_143931.jpg

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[MattyMarkey]

So opened up trunk and looking at the battery I don't see AGM listed anywhere but I have the same JOZ code as the guy above who had AGM. That being said, do I need to purchase an AGM or would any other non agm compatible battery work fine? Also, trying to find where in vcds it will let me check my battery heath. What I found online sent me to a module that was grayed out. Thanks. 20210223_143938.jpg20210223_143931.jpg

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BEM code is what you need - you have that based on the pics. Many battery manufacturers should have that code you’ll need.


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[mwmaroney1]

BEM code is what you need - you have that based on the pics. Many battery manufacturers should have that code you’ll need.


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My main question/concern was AGM VS Non Agm Battery but I think I've figured that out now. Never found the place with vcds to check out battery health but oh well.

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