Knrstz

So I'm 5 days in to owning my 2016 a3 etron. Its not looking good. The car is a one owner with a clean car fax. Its absolutely beautiful and fin to drive. It was just under 34K miles and factory warranty is good until october or 50k. So I didn't buy from an Audi dealership and when I got there the dealership told me that the charger had a pin set on it so I would need to go to Audi to get the pin removed. I spent 4 hours there yesterday and they never could get it fixed. They ended up just giving me one of theirs and keeping mine Also, my battery is trash. I drove less than 2 miles and went from just under a full charge to on red in two days. It was only driven in hold charge or hybrid mode for those 2 miles. I live across the street from work so I go back and forth several times in a day. I have also noticed that regardless if I am charging using the vehicle while driving, my new home charger from Audi,. or a charging station, the batter never fully charges. It always stops one bar before the final "fully charged" bar and the bar that it stops on almost immediately disappears if its not in hold-charge mode. So basically my battery won't fully charge and it appears to weaker than normal. I live two hours from the nearest Audi dealership in either Tulsa, OK or Springfield, Mo. I told Audi Tulsa about this and they did some software updates but they didn't really improve anything. My questions are-

Is there any realistic change this can be fixed without getting a new battery?
For those of you who have been through something similar, do you think this is worth fighting with Audi to get a new battery or should I just eat my loss and find another car while this thing still runs?
Has anyone that has gotten a new battery actually had their problems solved or will the same problems manifest themselves again quickly?


Thanks for your help.

hrc1079

It's not set to 80% is it? I don't know much about the A3 MMI but on the e-Tron SUV you can change the charging % in the MMI. The A3 e-Tron has very limited miles on battery if it's not charing to 100% it's going to be reduced even further. What's the battery warrantied for on those things? I know on the fully electrics it's 8 years from Audi. I have heard (not just Audi) that if the battery is the problem they will do EVERYTHING possible to not replace it because it's one of the most expensive things on the car.

Knrstz

I'll have to check the MMI to make sure of that. I've never had a car this complex. I've always had VW's and this is my first Audi. And yeah...I was afraid of hearing that but I"m not surprised.

kem

We'll gladly help you out when we can, but do know this is the E-Tron SUV forum.

Knrstz

We'll shoot. My fault. Thanks for letting me know.

Mike in CA

I'm going to guess that since the A3 e-tron has just an estimated 16 miles of range there isn't going to be an option to charge at less than 100% (although 16 miles isn't bad). Your car is still under warranty and I don't think there is any way that Audi can claim 2 miles of range is normal under any circumstances. There is something wrong, and whether a battery replacement is required or something else, Audi needs to make it right.

ThomasW

I was driving my sister's A3 e-tron over the summer last year and I do not remember a setting for the battery charge level. I was driving the Euro spec one but that probably does not make a difference. And I agree, with the range being fairly low on battery alone it would not make much sense to limit it anyway. In the US, the battery should be warranted for 8 years (10 in California). The battery is considered part of the emissions control system for any hybrid vehicle so that warranty is really mandated by the federal government as a result and not because of the manufacturer's choice.

stanj

The A3 etron doesn't have a battery charge limit setting. The battery is too small to begin with.

bruinmac

He's talking about the EVSE that came with the A3 e-tron. You can set it with a 4 digit pin to lock either 50% or 100% power delivery from the EVSE. The maximum range I was able to get from it when I had leased it was around 20 miles.

Mike in CA

I think there are two things being discussed here. The OP is talking about the PIN for the EVSE and hrc1079 is asking whether the car itself can be programmed to limit the total charge level like you can do on the e-tron.

Regardless, if you were getting up to 20 miles and the OP is only getting 2 after a full charge, there is a problem and it's not with the EVSE.