kbh

We own a 2015 Q3 Prestige, in service date of February 2015. Current mileage is 31,500. My wife noticed some wonky electronics behavior about a week ago. The navigation and radio would not shut off after the ignition was turned off and the driver's door was opened. We had to close the door, then reeopen it and push the center console power button to get it to turn off. Three days ago the car would not start. Some dash lights would initially come on, but the starter would not turn over. I was able to start the car with the assist of by battery booster/charger and could drive the car uneventfully to the dealer. They had to keep the car for a full day to go through their battery testing protocols, but eventually decided that premature battery failure was the culprit and replaced it under warranty. The car is now functioning normally again. The service advisor said that this is a known problem in the A3/Q3 model line and the abnormal shutdown was due to the failing battery sending abnormal signals to the electronics module. He said it was due to accessories drawing excessive power, but my wife does not sit in the car for long periods running accessories after shutting off the engine. We have not noted the problem with the radio/nav not turning off until just a few days ago.

I am just curious if others had this issue or if I just got a bad battery from the factory.

blchandl2

Where do you live? In Texas that would not be uncommon to replace a battery in that amount of time. Heat kills batteries.

kbh

I am in Virginia; not really cold and not unbearably hot. The car is garaged both at home and at work. Seems that 2.5 years is short service life for a factory battery.

blchandl2

Sounds like you probably got a dud battery. Was the case cracked or anything? The case cracked on my Mustang battery at around 2.5 years.

kbh

I was not given an opportunity to inspect the old battery when I picked up the car from the dealer. It looked fine when I removed the cover to attach the jumper cables. I'll just chalk this up to bad luck.