uberwgn

They probably are made by Exide. I don't think I've ever had a BOSCH branded battery.

uberwgn

VON, BTW, if you have a VAGCOM cable, you may be able to view these screens:





It provides a nice bit of info on the battery's condition. This shot is from my '11 A4. I don't know if the C6 A6 cars have these fields. It probably does cuz the C6 A6 has the battery condition display in the MMI and I believe it's driven by the above info.

VONBOTTLE

i don't have vagcom unfortunately.....i'm going to check the battery with a voltmeter tomorrow, given it was a little slow to start this morning again (got down to the 20's last night), i don't see it improving

VONBOTTLE

so my buddy at work brought his volt meter into work today, i checked the voltage about 4 hours after i got to work and it was at 11.75 volts, about an hour later before i drove to a meeting about 10 minutes away, it was down to 11.71. after i arrived back at the office about an hour later it was up to about 11.81. i'll try and do more thorough measurements tonite and tomorrow morning to see how low it gets, but it appears the alternator is charging the battery but the battery is not retaining the charge - the past day and a half has been very mild in the 50's, so we'll see what happens when it cools down again, but one assumes if a battery is good, it's voltage should remain the same (around 12.4-12.7?) for the most part, i could see a very slight discharge over long periods of time. i'm going to check voltage in the morning to see how much it drops and then i'll throw a trickle charger on it the next day to see if that can recharge it, but my wife informs me that i had a lot of battery issues last winter as well, i must have overlooked that as i had so many issues with my old A6 before i finally unloaded it

VONBOTTLE

so when i got home last night voltage was 11.67 after my 5 minute commute home, this morning it was 11.57 (temp in the 40's). i started it and let idle a couple minutes and it got up to 14.05, it was slowly creeping up but i didn't have time to see where it peaked. but it seems the standing voltage is about .7 - .8 below what it should be, am i correct (12.4-ish)? we'll see what happens when it gets into the 20's this weekend overnight

A6Gary

The CAN Gateway on the C6 A6 does not have the fields, at least on my 2006 A6 Avant. VAG-COM says "Not Available" when checking groups 018 thru 020.

VONBOTTLE

well after putting off getting a battery for a while since it was actually starting ok, after the deep freeze this weekend my battery was dead as a doornail and finally realized it was time to replace.....decided to go with the Super Start Platinum AGM battery from O'reilly's, 950 CCA, 1050 CA, 190 RA.......installed it myself in about 5 minutes - hardest part is getting all the crap out of the trunk, and then wrenching my back getting the spare back in there. all electronics were fine, only thing requiring attention was changing the clock. so after a night where the temps were in the single digits (old battery would be dead every time), the car fired up with authority, not any hesitation as even the previous battery had, even when new in the cold temps.....obviously it's only been a day, but so far very pleased. with tax, battery was $208.......

anybody have a need for a 60 lb interstate boat anchor? actually is there any reason to keep the battery? i wonder if interstate would give me a prorated refund for it given it's two years old and it had a 6 year warranty

mikerouze

One would think they would give you some sort of refund. I would try bringing it back to the place of purchase or call and see what they say.

PS. I'm also in CT if you find yourself needing VCDS to diagnose a problem in the future.

VONBOTTLE

unfortunately it's probably more trouble than it's worth to try and get a refund, "6 year warranty" is probably not as good as it actually is, haven't looked into the fine print yet.

thanks for the vcds offer, i'm actually a town over in farmington, no doubt we've crossed paths around town

isaac.reddinger@gmail.com

Hey VON, I'm just seeing this now as I have had weak starts over the last few weeks. I was prompted to search the forum about batteries because today with the car in accessory mode, the display in the gauge cluster said "Battery Low, Will recharge on next trip" or something like that. I checked the battery status in MMI, after I fired it up to get the alternator running, and it showed 10%. I sat in the car and held it at ~2,000 rpm for about 10 mins until the gauge read 50%.

My question is this.... How long is your commute distance wise? I also have a 10-13 minute commute (about 6 miles) and I am now wondering if my commute is too short to properly recharge the battery, especially now that the steering wheel heater and seat heater is used daily. Also how has the battery been over the last few weeks since your last post on 1/10?

I was considering getting a Deka battery if needed because they also sell AGMs and are manufactured right here in PA. I had a Deka in my 02 Golf TDI when I bought it in 07 with 99k on it and it lasted until 2013 with over 225k.

Thanks!