My over 10 year old battery finally died!!!!

[graycat]

Greetings. Yesterday the ORIGINAL battery in our 2002 PAssat 1.8 T finally died. We bought the car brand new in March 2002 and the battery had been going down for a few weeks. Bought the replacement battery from the dealer and it fits and works perfectly. BTW> It was the cheapest one I found and I have heard this from other folks in this blog. A little difficult to remove/install and I only lost 4 radio stations. Car runs like a dream.

I am sure that the new battery will not last nearly as long. Is it good luck, a miracle or just a great product????

Cheers to all.

[scotts13]

Ten years is a very good life, though not unheard of. I generally change my batteries every five or six years regardless, just to prevent that "died in the middle of winter" surprise.

And yes, I think the original battery from the dealer is a great value - it's generally cheaper than any reliable alternative, and you know it's going to fit correctly. People just aren't expecting to get "value pricing" from a VW dealer!

[pkfinn]

Here in the south, 4 or 5 years from a battery is good. The heat really takes a toll on them.

You can use one of those battery savers - a 9 volt battery that plugs in to your cigarette lighter - to prevent losing your presets.

What did the new battery from the dealer cost? I never thought of buying one there. I usually just go to Auto Zone or Wal-mart.

[ArcticFox]

My battery went 7 years. Pretty good in my books. I ended up replacing mine with a Optima Red Top.

[scotts13]

Here in the south, 4 or 5 years from a battery is good. The heat really takes a toll on them.

You can use one of those battery savers - a 9 volt battery that plugs in to your cigarette lighter - to prevent losing your presets.

What did the new battery from the dealer cost? I never thought of buying one there. I usually just go to Auto Zone or Wal-mart.

Interestingly enough, both VWOA and the Bentley manual specifically warn against using the 9V battery savers. Apparently, 9V is not enough to reliable retain the settings; the low voltage may corrupt the parameters, presumably worse than simply losing them.

My local VW dealer sells the OEM battery for $109 after core charge but before any discount. Last year, I would up paying (with a coupon they had at the counter) $94.00+ Tax.

[graycat]

The battery was $133 including tax and core exchange. I did not have coupons from the dealer at the time otherwise I think it would have been less. So far so good and the only thing I lost were 4 radio station presets.