Battery replacement

[DV52]

What would be interesting... with no reasonable to way to accomplish in a controlled manner... is a comparison of the battery health (and longevity) of replacement batteries put in several cars after say 2 and a minimum of 10,000 miles. That should be enough time to start seeing affects (or not) from how the car manages charging but not enough time to see significant condition decline from age...

1) Car with Battery Module, new battery not coded (but without start/stop as we expect that feature has some negative impact on battery life)
2) Car with Battery Module, new battery coded (again without start/stop)

3) Car without Battery Module, new battery coded
4) Car without Battery Module, new battery not coded


What would also be interesting, and maybe someone can do this, is to know what info the battery module provides (real time values, or stored historical values) that you cannot get from simple voltage monitoring (which the car can effectively do) as is.

@Cuzoe: Good suggestions albeit they need someone with sublime dedication and a compelling yen to want to know the answers to these questions - which I suspect won't happen because most geeks (like me - and maybe you too) have better ways of spending our time!!

Anyhow, because the EMS peripheral on MQB platform cars is located as LIN slave to the Gateway module - there is a mountain of various battery related measurements in this module (far too many to list here). As you will already know - OBD11 call this "Live Data" and VCDS call it "Advanced Measuring Values"

Don

 

[DV52]

Are we totally sure that they individually code them? Or is it just minor changes/presets per tranche of a particular supplied battery? (or even ecu/system runs).

As with ALL VAG based proprietary information - stuff regarding how VW undertake their production-line processes is ONLY known to the deities on the corporate mother-ship. So, ain't any one of us mere mortals can be "totally sure" about any of these things!!

If you are seeking absolute certainty in this matter, then (with the upmost respect) - I suggest that you join a religion and substitute the search for knowledge with blind faith (no offense intended to the "devout" who may be reading this)!

Bottom line (and IMHO of course), the available information is more than compelling for the implementation of Battery coding with battery replacement - if the battery monitoring module is installed!

If the module isn't installed - the evidence is less convincing. However, I suggest that even in these cases - the low-risk approach is also to update the coding values (even if it means buying a diagnostic device, or seeking-out someone who has such a device)

Don

 

[YamR1rider]

I the low-risk approach is also to update the coding values (even if it means buying a diagnostic device, or seeking-out someone who has such a device)

Don

Which as I said, I have such a device and do.... I'm just not convinced it does enough to matter on a like for like battery replacement on a non bcm car. Many other factors (such as weather conditions, car usage patterns) will have much more of an impact on battery life IMHO.

 

[Cuzoe]

Are we using lowercase bcm for battery control module and uppercase BCM for Body Control Module? I don't know if I can stand for that .

Quite soon I'm going to have a bcm in my car which is not (yet) start-stop equipped. So I will definitely be having a look at some of those values. Unfortunately, I have no way to get any useful comparison data.

I've less than 2 weeks old battery, which was coded. Had this discussion happened a month ago I may have put my old battery on the test equipment we have at work to see it's condition. Did the bcm install without new battery coding, ran it for a while then tested the battery to see if the car was better able "maintain" it.

An awfully imperfect experiment to be sure. But even a short battery reconditioning is useful and measurable on the equipment at work (aircraft battery shop).

 

[Nerdy Oreo]

I highly recommend the Optima yellow top. It so far has been worth every penny. It's not cheap, like $400, but it was absolutely worth it. Have never had any issues, holds it's charge, hot or cold I can rely on it. Plus the 5 year warranty is amazing if you ever do have an issue.