S3 with start/stop - car battery replacement

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ammo-mcr

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Hello all

has anyone who owns a Audi s3 8v which has start/stop had there car battery replaced with no issues?

I was watching a video where a guy with a golf r , his car battery was knackered but he said you can’t just replace it with a new one yourself you need to take it in to a specialist because you car has start/stop , and somone in the comment said it the battery needs coded to the car.

I’ve never heard anything like this before...everytime I’ve had to change my battery I’d just go Halfords or local parts shop and buy and replace the battery.

my car battery has been causing issues lately and was thinking of replacing it and want to be prepared before hand.

many thanks in advance for your time and answers
 
As long as you replace it with EFB or ASM battery it's fine... The alternator in newer cars automatically adjusted to the battery state, that's why it's recommended to code it with the new battery spec from manufacturer, but personally, I found there's no difference in charging output either coding it or not.
 
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What year is your car? AUDI are replacing lots of faulty batteries. had mine done recently. use the search function in top corner to get more info. should come up with a few posts.
 
Just had mine replaced and it’s just over a year old.
New batteries need to be coded to the car essentially to tell it to change its charge rate/methods to suit a new battery.
If you have a EFB battery you can replace with AGM. AGM as I was told is superior to EFB. Not sure how/why.
 
:help:
larbel said:
As long as you replace it with EFB or ASM battery it's fine... The alternator in newer cars automatically adjusted to the battery state, that's why it's recommended to code it with the new battery spec from manufacturer, but personally, I found there's no difference in charging output either coding it or not.
Click to expand...

thank you for your reply , I have looked up on Halfords and the EFB battery is £115 and AGM is £157 :help:

I’m guessing the AGM is better based on price difference , I have never spent more than £50 for a battery I’d imagine from Audi it’s double that:scared2:
 
Ormesome said:
What year is your car? AUDI are replacing lots of faulty batteries. had mine done recently. use the search function in top corner to get more info. should come up with a few posts.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply ,
mine is a 2014 14 plate Audi s3
I can’t see any recall from Audi on google but will try to search this further
 
AlS3BE said:
Just had mine replaced and it’s just over a year old.
New batteries need to be coded to the car essentially to tell it to change its charge rate/methods to suit a new battery.
If you have a EFB battery you can replace with AGM. AGM as I was told is superior to EFB. Not sure how/why.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply
If I buy a new AGM battery does that need coding too or I’m I ok to just replace it as suggested above by larbel as he hasn’t seen noticed any difference

yes the AGM must be superior as there is a £42 difference on Halfords brand batteries
 
I think AGM batteries are very good, I'm just replacing the original one on my Mini Countryman which will be 9 in a month!
My S3 has an Exide AGM battery in, original one died around 3.5 years in which isn't good. Not sure if it was from that dodgy batch, the previous owner replaced. Hopefully the Exide will provide many years of service.

I found the RAC online shop to be the cheapest for my Countryman, in fact I'd already ordered from Euro Car Parts (if you join their mailing list they send you a 50% off code) but they told me that they price match; 2 weeks later now I've just got an email (after several chasers) advising that the price difference will be refunded to me shortly.
 
ammo-mcr said:
Thank you for your reply
If I buy a new AGM battery does that need coding too or I’m I ok to just replace it as suggested above by larbel as he hasn’t seen noticed any difference

yes the AGM must be superior as there is a £42 difference on Halfords brand batteries
Click to expand...

they all should get coded. It will work but it’s not meant to be good for the batteries longevity.
These stop start batteries charging cycles are managed by the cars electronics and changes as the batteries age unlike old school lead acid batteries that just charge and discharge. All the coding does is tell the car to treat it as new and use different charge cycles as it ages as far as I know.
the car also has some form of regenerative braking so it needs to know as much information as possible to avoid over/under charging.
I was quoted £200-250 fitted and coded from the AA when they came out to start my car. Car was under warranty so didn’t need it. That was for AGM.
 
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Yeah the previous owner paid around £250 for the Exide battery, her brother-in-law bought it from ECP I think as he has a trade account there.

I just checked - ECP 'normal' price £305, with code GHOST80 (40% off batteries) it's £183, RAC Shop is £200.

As I mentioned earlier, if you sign up to their newsletter as a new customer you'll get a code for 50% off everything so should be £152.50; they do same day delivery for £1.99 which is brilliant (cheaper than their other options, for some reason?!)
 
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HertS3 said:
As I mentioned earlier, if you sign up to their newsletter as a new customer you'll get a code for 50% off everything so should be £152.50; they do same day delivery for £1.99 which is brilliant (cheaper than their other options, for some reason?!)
Click to expand...

thats a pretty good price for any stop start battery. I remember I was quoted £450 for one in my a6 but that battery was like twice the size of the a3/s3 battery.
 
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With the price match from ECP, I paid £140 for the Countryman's battery, which is exceptional value if it lasts 9 years like the original! Need to get it installed professionally though as you have to remove some trim from the Countryman to get the battery out/in!
 
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HertS3 said:
I think AGM batteries are very good, I'm just replacing the original one on my Mini Countryman which will be 9 in a month!
My S3 has an Exide AGM battery in, original one died around 3.5 years in which isn't good. Not sure if it was from that dodgy batch, the previous owner replaced. Hopefully the Exide will provide many years of service.

I found the RAC online shop to be the cheapest for my Countryman, in fact I'd already ordered from Euro Car Parts (if you join their mailing list they send you a 50% off code) but they told me that they price match; 2 weeks later now I've just got an email (after several chasers) advising that the price difference will be refunded to me shortly.
Click to expand...
HertS3 said:
I think AGM batteries are very good, I'm just replacing the original one on my Mini Countryman which will be 9 in a month!
My S3 has an Exide AGM battery in, original one died around 3.5 years in which isn't good. Not sure if it was from that dodgy batch, the previous owner replaced. Hopefully the Exide will provide many years of service.

I found the RAC online shop to be the cheapest for my Countryman, in fact I'd already ordered from Euro Car Parts (if you join their mailing list they send you a 50% off code) but they told me that they price match; 2 weeks later now I've just got an email (after several chasers) advising that the price difference will be refunded to me shortly.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply , wow rac online is a lot cheaper than I thought , a varta agm battery on euro car parts is £339 used a 40% off voucher cones down to around £200
rac sell the same battery for £133 and if I was a member then I’d get free fitting which I’m not.
If they fit it will they code it?
 
Not sure I'm afraid as I didn't use them; in fact it seems that some of their batteries they won't patrol fit, only deliver, by looks of it. Worth having a chat with their customer services team to find that out.
 
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AlS3BE said:
they all should get coded. It will work but it’s not meant to be good for the batteries longevity.
These stop start batteries charging cycles are managed by the cars electronics and changes as the batteries age unlike old school lead acid batteries that just charge and discharge. All the coding does is tell the car to treat it as new and use different charge cycles as it ages as far as I know.
the car also has some form of regenerative braking so it needs to know as much information as possible to avoid over/under charging.
I was quoted £200-250 fitted and coded from the AA when they came out to start my car. Car was under warranty so didn’t need it. That was for AGM.
Click to expand...

yes it makes perfect sense , I just never knew new car need coding, learnt somthing new.
So I’m I right I’m thinking anyone can code it eg Halfords aa kwikfit eurocarparts etc or is it recommend to go to Audi
 
HertS3 said:
Yeah the previous owner paid around £250 for the Exide battery, her brother-in-law bought it from ECP I think as he has a trade account there.

I just checked - ECP 'normal' price £305, with code GHOST80 (40% off batteries) it's £183, RAC Shop is £200.

As I mentioned earlier, if you sign up to their newsletter as a new customer you'll get a code for 50% off everything so should be £152.50; they do same day delivery for £1.99 which is brilliant (cheaper than their other options, for some reason?!)
Click to expand...

thank you for that I’m going to sign up to ECP and have that 50% discount on standby
 
ammo-mcr said:
yes it makes perfect sense , I just never knew new car need coding, learnt somthing new.
So I’m I right I’m thinking anyone can code it eg Halfords aa kwikfit eurocarparts etc or is it recommend to go to Audi
Click to expand...

most garages with vcds or similar should be able to code. Not sure about Halfords and kwik fit will have the equipment. Dealers most likely won’t do it unless you buy the battery from them. They might price match though so might be worth a shot. how old is your current car/battery?
These stop start batteries seems to last about 3-4 years in my experience.
 
AlS3BE said:
most garages with vcds or similar should be able to code. Not sure about Halfords and kwik fit will have the equipment. Dealers most likely won’t do it unless you buy the battery from them. They might price match though so might be worth a shot. how old is your current car/battery?
These stop start batteries seems to last about 3-4 years in my experience.
Click to expand...

Ahh I see will contact them to double check and see if Audi can price match this, thanks for that

I’m not sure as I’m the second owner it’s a 2014 s3 I purchased it in 2017
What brand is a OEM one from Audi that was fitted to the car when new ?
 
ammo-mcr said:
Ahh I see will contact them to double check and see if Audi can price match this, thanks for that

I’m not sure as I’m the second owner it’s a 2014 s3 I purchased it in 2017
What brand is a OEM one from Audi that was fitted to the car when new ?
Click to expand...
My oe replacement is a varta battery.
 
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Lots of threads on this already

Stop/start puts greater demands on batteries both in terms of discharge and recharge (since it has to cover more start cycles) than standard lead/acid car batteries.

EFB / EFB+ are an evolution of standard batteries to better handle the greater demands & can accept faster charge current then normal batteries

AGM is a much more modern technology. It has longer life than EFB+ whilst at the same time being able to handle much higher (burst) charge currents from recuperation (often confused with regenerative braking) and discharge during the ‘stop’ phase.

Cars need to know if the battery is EFB or AGM to know how much current it can dump into the battery without damaging it.

The serial number change is just to tell the car the battery has been changed and to re-learn how that particular battery handles charge & current.

IIRC battery rating capacity should also be set when changing.
 
Last edited:
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The coding basically has 4 options, capacity, manufacturer, serial number and technology... Mine came with Varta EFB 69Ah and I replaced it with same batt, manufacturer and serial number were blank out from factory so really no point for me to code it. But yeah, if you're changing to AGM or other capacity then coding is required...
 
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If anyone's interested, ECP have 45% off batteries today with code PAYDAY50
 
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larbel said:
The coding basically has 4 options, capacity, manufacturer, serial number and technology... Mine came with Varta EFB 69Ah and I replaced it with same batt, manufacturer and serial number were blank out from factory so really no point for me to code it. But yeah, if you're changing to AGM or other capacity then coding is required...
Click to expand...

Thank for the confirmation, seems like varta is the way to go
Does your s3 have start/stop ?
 
JohnM100 said:
Lots of threads on this already

Stop/start puts greater demands on batteries both in terms of discharge and recharge (since it has to cover more start cycles) than standard lead/acid car batteries.

EFB / EFB+ are an evolution of standard batteries to better handle the greater demands & can accept faster charge current then normal batteries

AGM is a much more modern technology. It has longer life than EFB+ whilst at the same time being able to handle much higher (burst) charge currents from recuperation (often confused with regenerative braking) and discharge during the ‘stop’ phase.

Cars need to know if the battery is EFB or AGM to know how much current it can dump into the battery without damaging it.

The serial number change is just to tell the car the battery has been changed and to re-learn how that particular battery handles charge & current.

IIRC battery rating capacity should also be set when changing.
Click to expand...

thank you for your reply

when they code it all there doing is changing the serial number ? Or do they just enter somthing like new battery replaced?
I contacted a few places who sell car batteries and some have never heard of this coding to batteries.
If I know exactly what is being done i can go in confident with what needs to be done and how it’s done. I know I can just take it to Audi and they will know exactly but there prices will be shocking
 
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