Replacement Battery - Golf 7 - GTD

[jerryd]

My battery died over the weekend, it was the OEM one and has lasted pretty decently.

Strangely, no warning signs or errors on the dashboard, it just would not start. (should I have got a warning?)

Secondly this is a 59ah battery, my local hiQ doesn’t stock this and says a longer 65ah battery will be fine. I had three of them standing around telling me all sorts of stuff.

My car isn’t a Start / Stop so I dont need one of those.

My preference is for 59ah as this is as close to OEM as possible.

VW OEM battery - R4710

Any advice?

[Callum229]

The battery isn't just replaceable. 65ah should be fine however note the following.

The old battery that was in the car, the alternator adapts to how it is charged over time to prolong the life of the battery.

Thus if you just replace the battery, the car is going to think the old battery is still there and still charge the new battery the way it was charging the old one as it will charge the battery aggressively, this would reduce the life of the battery significantly and make the new battery fail early.

You either need to take it to VW for a new battery or get someone who can code in your new battery(someone with VCDS or an independent shop) so the car knows that the battery has been replaced. The battery also needs to be a BEM compatible and you can change the stock value of 59ah to 65ah as well on the module.

I also think the ones that don't have start stop, don't have the battery module, I could be wrong but you need to take the car to someone and check.

[jerryd]

Thanks @callum229 for the detailed feedback.

Is this why VW charge a fitment fee?

[jerryd]

So ended up going to VW for the replacement.

Battery was nearly double the price and included an hours labour to recode and adjust settings / clear errors.

[Callum229]

Yep that's why they charge that fee.

What's the breakdown of your cost? Let us know.

Anyone that has VCDS can code the battery for you or any other detailed diagnostic tool.

Better safe then sorry. It might be twice the amount, but atleast the battery won't fail 6 months down the line.

Sent from my Nokia 8 Sirocco using Tapatalk

[jerryd]

So breakdown fee was R1144.25

Guy struggled for a while to clear some of the faults. Also interesting to see some brand new (6 months old) SAPS MK7 GTI with broken suspension in the shop