B8.5 2014 Battery Coding Needed?

[777GE90]

Given my car has been sitting most of this year, I seem to be getting a weekly low battery alert come up on the dash so think the battery is on the way out. Ofcourse I am putting some motorway runs in every now and then to keep the battery charged up, but it got me looking at replacements.

Looking at the options sticker in the boot, it seems the battery code part number I have is "J0B", which looking it up returns part number 000 915 105 CE.

I am surprised that the battery doesn't have a "charging state indicator", but upon looking it up, apparently some people can see the battery level in the MMI as well (which is what I guess this is for)? I don't think I can in mine (I have the MMI 3G), but need to double check.

What I am confused about is whether this part number is a AGM / Starter battery or a normal battery? Does my battery need coding if it doesn't have a charging state indicator?

It's a bit confusing as my car has stop / start, I assumed it would need coding on replacement but now I'm not so sure.

 

[JohnS3]

I’m in the same situation and also have the J0B battery PR number. Tomorrow I plan to check the battery that’s fitted to see what it actually is. ie does it have AGM stamped on it. I’ll post back what I find.

A friend has loaned me a CTEK charger so I’ll see what that has to say and if it can recondition my battery. Worth a try as the car isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Il probably just replace it due to the age (7 yeara) and plan to code it. Make sure you get a battery with a BEM code. Ross Tech has an article on battery coding. It’s quite straightforward.

 

[desertstorm]

You don't need a battery with a BEM code if it is the same technology / capacity as the OE coded battery. Most OE Audi batteries are Varta and the silver batteries are the same as OE spec. Did a bit of digging and the battery you need appears to be an AGM 95Ah item.
Just look on the top of the battery in the boot for the part number and it will say on the label AGM or EFB.
https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/g14/
If you want to code the battery without a BEM all you do is change the serial number by one digit of the existing battery. The action of coding this tells the car it has a new battery and will immediately treat the battery as such. If you don't code the battery the car will learn that the new battery is fitted and adjust.

 

[JohnS3]

This is what’s currently fitted.

 

[Audiforlife]

I've been having problems with my battery on my avant lately also, haven't had the car long.
The stop start hasn't worked since I've had it so I thought I'd check what was fitted to mine. Turns out there's only a 70ah battery fitted and isn't AGM. My sticker says 'J0P' which is supposed to be a 105ah 580a.
Now I'm not actually bothered about the stop start, infact when I do install a new battery I would like to disable it somehow, so would I still have to fork out for a 105ah AGM, or am I okay to fit a non AGM?

had a quick look on the net and the closest 105ah AGM varta battery is 950a CCA.
https://www.varta-automotive.com/en-gb/products/varta-professional-dual-purpose-agm/840-105-095

Thanks in advance

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[besters]

Thanks for posting this and also the replies, all very helpful considering my car is also a 2014 B8.5 with start/stop, I expect it's on the original battery too.

 

[desertstorm]

This is what’s currently fitted.

Yes that's the same as the G14 Varta I linked to from Tayna.

 

[desertstorm]

I've been having problems with my battery on my avant lately also, haven't had the car long.
The stop start hasn't worked since I've had it so I thought I'd check what was fitted to mine. Turns out there's only a 70ah battery fitted and isn't AGM. My sticker says 'J0P' which is supposed to be a 105ah 580a.
Now I'm not actually bothered about the stop start, infact when I do install a new battery I would like to disable it somehow, so would I still have to fork out for a 105ah AGM, or am I okay to fit a non AGM?

had a quick look on the net and the closest 105ah AGM varta battery is 950a CCA.
https://www.varta-automotive.com/en-gb/products/varta-professional-dual-purpose-agm/840-105-095

Thanks in advance

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Yes that's the replacement Varta AGM battery for your car.
https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/h15/
Looks like somebody has just dropped in the cheapest smallest battery they could get away with in the car. Any start stop battery should be at least EFB but on larger cars AGM is usually used.
You can usually code out stop start with VCDS on a lot of cars by altering some of the coding on VCDS. If you were to fit a non AGM battery you would really need to recode the battery type and certainly fit a bigger than 70Ah battery.

 

[JohnS3]

You can turn off stop start. Or to be actuate you reverse the button behaviour.

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/permanently-turn-off-start-stop.375468/

 

[Audiforlife]

Yes that's the replacement Varta AGM battery for your car.
https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/h15/
Looks like somebody has just dropped in the cheapest smallest battery they could get away with in the car. Any start stop battery should be at least EFB but on larger cars AGM is usually used.
You can usually code out stop start with VCDS on a lot of cars by altering some of the coding on VCDS. If you were to fit a non AGM battery you would really need to recode the battery type and certainly fit a bigger than 70Ah battery.

Perfect. That varta is nearly 210 delivered and as I hate the start stop feature it seems pointless. I will have a play with my laptop tomorrow and check the battery status and info on it at the moment. Then decide what battery to go for, but it will be a varta!


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[Audiforlife]

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/h3/

What you think of that desertstorm?

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[desertstorm]

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/h3/

What you think of that desertstorm?

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Yes that would fit and work fine just check the module will accept the coding for a non AGM battery.

 

[Audiforlife]

Yes that would fit and work fine just check the module will accept the coding for a non AGM battery.

I'm still getting to grips with VCDS at the moment. Is that something I can try before buying a battery?

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[rum4mo]

From my experience of sniffing around in the area that cover battery etc, at least in my 2011 B8 S4, there is no "battery tech" option, so changing from AGM to something else might not be possible - unless you bought a battery that has a BEM sticker on it. Any cars newer than the "BEM era" allow you to change a lot more, so maybe your car comes into that category.
One thing to understand if you avoid fitting an AGM or even an EFB is, these cars are designed with "regenerative braking" which means that they will never bother to charge the battery up to roughly 100% SOC, instead they will save you fuel and emissions by just making sure that the battery is kept alive enough to restart the car, so on the over run, it is quite normal to see the battery being stuffed with a very high charging voltage to make use of the cars momentum and so avoid needing to charge it under normal running conditions. A normal battery will not like any of that abuse at all. I am maybe lucky as we are Costco members and they sell Bosch batteries and sell them quite cheaply and recently had a maybe 15% discount, which meant that I could buy a Bosch AGM 95Ah 850A CCA (EN) for £156.66 - which seems like a good enough price for a battery manufactured by Varta and having a 5 year warranty - my car does not have stop/start though, having that would have dropped it back down into the lower road tax bracket, which would have meant paying a seriously lower road tax bill each year!

 

[JohnS3]

This might help. My car is a 2014 facelift and the battery is coded via the CAN Gateway over CAN with the long adaptation option. There is a video to guide you through the process for each of the 3 possible methods.

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Battery_Replacement

 

[JohnS3]

Yes that's the same as the G14 Varta I linked to from Tayna.

Thank you for the feedback, I took some readings with VCDS, the 33Ah looks far too low in group 20, combined with 60% battery ageing. This looks rather terminal.... I'll put the CTEK charger on the battery when it stops raining and see what that reports. Will post back for everyone information.

 

[Audiforlife]

Funny enough I've just tested mine. And it looks in worse condition than yours
(Sorry about the picture quality)
28ah and thats just after a 10 mile run

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[rum4mo]

That is something that I MUST do after I change batteries in my car, I suppose like many other people that have VCDS, I've not fully used it to log lots of these stored values earlier in the car's life - but starting from maybe a couple of years back, I am keeping a note or taking a note of some of these values at service time.

CCA I can easily check using a CTEK battery tester, but capacity I can't and keeping an eye on the internal resistance at least for cheapy EFB batteries should alert us to dropping on battery performance if you don't have something to check the CCA.

 

[audiwaterpump]

On a slight tangent here, if the car has no issues, then it is worth making a video for future reference.
After the car has been stood overnight, open the bonnet and make a video of the startup procedure, lights and noises.
1) With the camera near the radiator
2) The camera next to the dash to record all the various lights as they come on and go off.

A good reference to have if ever you experience problems in the future.

 

[rum4mo]

Yes, even checking the ride height at service time with tyres at the correct pressure.

Plenty people out there reporting a strange new happening either at ignition on or cold start up, that others have had/heard from "day one" on a new car.

 

[JohnS3]

The CTEK just charged the battery, no error light and it didn't go into conditioning mode. The VCDS info remains about the same, Varta G14 on order.

 

[audiwaterpump]

The CTEK just charged the battery, no error light and it didn't go into conditioning mode. The VCDS info remains about the same, Varta G14 on order.

Change one digit of the battery serial number with VCDS so that the car thinks it is a new battery. That should do the trick.

 

[777GE90]

Had a look on VCDS on mine, went to controller 61 and I get "No connection to module" or similar, so I imagine my B8.5 doesn't even have a battery regulation module and thus doesn't need recoding either.

Out of interest how were you guys checking the voltage in VCDS?

 

[JohnS3]

Had a look on VCDS on mine, went to controller 61 and I get "No connection to module" or similar, so I imagine my B8.5 doesn't even have a battery regulation module and thus doesn't need recoding either.

Out of interest how were you guys checking the voltage in VCDS?

19 CAN gateway > Measurement blocks 18, 19, 20 and 22

 

[777GE90]

19 CAN gateway > Measurement blocks 18, 19, 20 and 22

Thanks, will take a look tomorrow. Have been taking the car out on a few motorway runs since the last battery warning about a month ago and have since not had any more, so just waiting to see how it goes.

 

[Tuomas Sällinen]

I have Audi A4 b8.5 with start&stop. I bought new battery, manufacturer EXIDE without AGM(start&stop?). Car has original battery, varta 4F0915105E.

We have coded that start&stop don't work.

We installed new and tried to code it.

We write to vcds 4F0915105A code, because it has varta 74Ah model. But didnt work? New exide is also 74Ah. I didnt find exide serial number?

Attached new and old battery

 

[JohnS3]

Not sure what you are asking here. Change 1 digit in your existing battery coding and the car will recognise the new battery.

 

[Tuomas Sällinen]

Yes only changed last digit.

But is that enough? Or what we should do it to register new battery?

 

[JohnS3]

Yes it’s enough as your new battery doesn’t have a BEM code

 

[Tuomas Sällinen]

I think the code what we wrote is agm code because we change only last digit? Few message earlier I send photo. What is exide serial number?

 

[Tuomas Sällinen]

4f0915105a , we wrote those code. Not agm?

 

[rum4mo]

I think the code what we wrote is agm code because we change only last digit? Few message earlier I send photo. What is exide serial number?

The actual serial number of the new battery is not important, and most aftermarket batteries will not have a serial number on them, only a production batch code identification.

So you fitted a standard battery to a car that has regenerative braking and stop/start, I'd doubt if that battery will live very long when it gets force fed by large/heavy amounts of charge by the car's charging system, this type of car should always be fitted with an AGM type of battery, EFB would work but for a shorter service period.

 

[Dippy]

I'm a bit late to this thread but since I replaced my battery a few weeks ago I thought I'd add a comment.
The part number is needed to categorise the battery capacity (size rating). As @rum4mo states, the serial number is mostly irrelevant other than to instruct the BEM that the battery has been replaced and so it can erase its "degradation" settings and start anew. If the replacement is the same capacity then the only action required is to change the serial number - any letter or digit. However if the replacement has a different capacity then a matching part number is required, but the car may only accept certain part numbers which are valid for what the factory would have fitted. If 4F0915105A is not accepted then try 000915105CD.

 

[Tuomas Sällinen]

Hi,

We wrote to vcds exide,000915105CD.

New battery and I measure voltage, it show only 12.55V. What should be new battery voltage when motor not run?

 

[Dippy]

A new charged flooded (non-AGM) battery measured open circuit should be nominal 12.6V. If connected to the car but the car is "off" this should be slightly lower to account for the quiescent current to the various electronic modules - so 12.55V is fine.