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Hows your battery doing?

  • Original Battery Hot Climate

    Votes: 17 23.6%
  • Original Battery Cold Climate

    Votes: 36 50.0%
  • Replacement Battery Hot Climate

    Votes: 11 15.3%
  • Replacement Battery Cold Climate

    Votes: 8 11.1%

Battery Poll

5K views 46 replies 30 participants last post by  Chockomon 
#1 ·
Just want to get a quick gauge on how everyones battery is doing.
 
#2 ·
Mine shorted itself out prior to the last service and mileage that covered it. Both VWOA and the dealership gave me the shaft on that Varta battery. Had to go get another battery with a 5 year warranty. You may want to have your battery checked before it gets cold again. Cold seems to be the killer element here.


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#8 ·
Yeah really. To me "hot climate" is like Dubai. And "Cold Climate" is like...Barrow Alaska.

I picked "hot climate" since I guess that's closest, it might snow maybe twice per winter here, and melts the next day usually
Yeah, I guess there's a bit of assumptions to be made on this poll. As it would apply for Canadians and Americans, I guess there may be some that would want to know if your 2010 Golf R has its original battery or not.. But yeah vwvortex, generally North America.

I just ran a few tests on my battery the last two weeks....out of the 4 tests, 1 came back replace....the other said "good - recharge"....it seems that I am going to be needing a new one soon.

I am considering the AGM battery - looks like Bosch has one that will fit with no issues...what batteries have people been putting in their cars?
Was the latest test the replace warning?

think miles driven per year and age of battery might be at least as important as climate, but I applaud what the OP is doing. i have a MY13 that hit the showroom floor in august of 2012 and sat until I bought it in july the following year. i drive virtually daily. i'm expecting to have to replace it before the winter of 2017, which would put the battery at roughly 5+ years old.

watch me be wrong. it sure won't be the first time i've been wrong, or the last.

maybe a "when did your battery die" thread? where you report how old the battery was (engine build date), how many miles you drive on average a year, and what type of climate (hot - Arizona, mild - most of the rest of the states with 4 seasons, and cold - up north/Canada). i was going to do one but didn't want the administrative responsibilities of keeping a tally.

but thanks for the thread OP. I voted.
Yeah, alot of places mention heat also affects longevity and batteries supposedly fail during the change of seasons most often.

I'm usually proactive in replacing my car batteries at around the 4-5 year mark.
 
#6 ·
I just ran a few tests on my battery the last two weeks....out of the 4 tests, 1 came back replace....the other said "good - recharge"....it seems that I am going to be needing a new one soon.

I am considering the AGM battery - looks like Bosch has one that will fit with no issues...what batteries have people been putting in their cars?
 
#7 ·
think miles driven per year and age of battery might be at least as important as climate, but I applaud what the OP is doing. i have a MY13 that hit the showroom floor in august of 2012 and sat until I bought it in july the following year. i drive virtually daily. i'm expecting to have to replace it before the winter of 2017, which would put the battery at roughly 5+ years old.

watch me be wrong. it sure won't be the first time i've been wrong, or the last.

maybe a "when did your battery die" thread? where you report how old the battery was (engine build date), how many miles you drive on average a year, and what type of climate (hot - Arizona, mild - most of the rest of the states with 4 seasons, and cold - up north/Canada). i was going to do one but didn't want the administrative responsibilities of keeping a tally.

but thanks for the thread OP. I voted.
 
#10 ·
My battery went dead after 18500 miles. It was 1 year in the nice Bay Area California climate, then 2 years in super hot central Texas.

I went with the Duralast H6-AGM battery as it's replacement. Car was happy with this.
 
#11 ·
I keep tabs on the rested voltage of my R's battery. Yes, I know I am a nerd.

It was down to 11.9v resting, so I bought one of those desulfating chargers, and that pulled it to 12.6v, but...after two days of resting it dropped to 12.2v. An improvement over 11.9v, but still pretty low. So, I figure the Varta will be about done soon enough.

My car sat on a dealer lot for 1.5 years, so that's never good for a battery.
 
#12 ·
....It was down to 11.9v resting, so I bought one of those desulfating chargers, and that pulled it to 12.6v, but...after two days of resting it dropped to 12.2v. An improvement over 11.9v, but still pretty low. So, I figure the Varta will be about done soon enough.......
I think you would be surprised if you checked this on a brand new high quality battery. Most likely very normal, not an indication of a degraded battery.
 
#18 ·
Original battery is still going after 2 years and 8 months...just not in my Golf R.

When the battery in my girlfriend's A3 died I took it as an opportunity to swap mine out for a lightweight Deka. I think I'm using the ETX20L...the one that's ~15 lbs. Still have yet to find a good mounting solution for it, so it's just wedged into the stock battery box with some cardboard. I swap the original battery back in for track days just to be sure I have one that's safely mounted.

Got lazy after Fastivus and ran the stock battery in my car for a couple of months before swapping it back out. Started just fine each day with no issues, just like new. I don't expect it to last too much longer though. The stock battery on my MKV GTI died after ~3-4 years, although I did drain it once or twice by leaving the lights on.
 
#22 ·
My battery just died today after 2.5 years and 42,000 miles. I live in southern California so temps rarely get below 45. It was easy to tell for the past 2 months the starts were just a little weak, and this weekend totally weak sauce and this morning kaput. I drove to Interstate on a jump and got an expensive $238 AGM replacement. Luckily with the forums telling me this is normal, I am less upset. This is the first time I've had a battery problem even when I kept new cars up to 7 years.
 
#23 ·
My 2013 R with 28k miles sat with out starting the car for the last week and today it was *15 degrees and it was slow and weak sounding on start up. Actually I have noticed the sound a few times this winter so far. Only in the cold, cold mornings.

Funny thing is the original battery in my 03 GTi lasted 10 years. For that car I went back to the dealer and bought another VW battery and it didn't even last 2 years. Never again.
 
#25 ·
I believe mine died prematurely (2014) due to abuse.
I drove to a work site in another city and valet parked the car for two days / nights
while working nearby the hotel.
Apparently if you leave the ignition on and walk away with the key,
the ignition will stay on indefinitely until the Start - Engine - Stop button is pressed.
When I got the car back two days later clock was reset, all MFD registers were reset,
rear wiper park position was changed, etc.
They did not own up to any error on their part (nor did I ask).
Did not notice the anomalies until after I drove away,
and had no time to go back.
The battery did recharge from the alternator and held enough charge to restart the car.
This occured in August 2014, so at that point it became a matter of temperature.
i.e. The battery was damaged and marginal at holding a charge.

As soon as it turned cold it did not hold enough charge to start at next use.
Performed a full scan with VAG-COM and every controller was reporting low supply voltage errors.
Replaced it with an AGM battery and have had no problems since.
 
#27 ·
Still have original battery in my R - ~34k miles and I still have original battery in wife's GTI ('10) - ~36k miles, same battery as far as I can tell.

I usually will put a trickle charger on the battery if I've been doing any tinkering or cleaning just as a regular maintenance practice. Seems to work okay for me?
 
#31 ·
My battery was kind of weak this morning 4 F, but the car started. Not sure if the car will start when I leave work today. I am 2 months short of 4 years and about 38k miles. I am looking for a new battery today.

Bill
 
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