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I suspect an AWFUL LOT depends on how often and how long the car sits idle. Periods of standing, while things like keyless entry are draining the battery and the power control system is making mysterious shutdown judgements, will prematurely age the battery. And while in use, the mysterious battery management system is doing all sorts of mysterious things to maintain a proper charge, but again, when it sits, the car can and will EAT the battery.
Mine ate the battery at 14 months, when I had to let the car sit for some 8-10 weeks straight. Power management didn't, a conventional dumb AGM would have had no issue, but something in the Q5 kept up too much of a load, and the battery couldn't be brought back to life.
So, "years" by itself is not the right metric for these batteries. And there's no way to tell how standing, current drain, and charge cycle are all played by Audi.
I suspect an AWFUL LOT depends on how often and how long the car sits idle. Periods of standing, while things like keyless entry are draining the battery and the power control system is making mysterious shutdown judgements, will prematurely age the battery. And while in use, the mysterious battery management system is doing all sorts of mysterious things to maintain a proper charge, but again, when it sits, the car can and will EAT the battery.
Mine ate the battery at 14 months, when I had to let the car sit for some 8-10 weeks straight. Power management didn't, a conventional dumb AGM would have had no issue, but something in the Q5 kept up too much of a load, and the battery couldn't be brought back to life.
So, "years" by itself is not the right metric for these batteries. And there's no way to tell how standing, current drain, and charge cycle are all played by Audi.
My 2002 A4 had the original OEM battery die at 10 years! Drove the car 5K miles a year mostly short trips daily to the post office, etc. a lot of start and stop, sat outside, cold PA winters, never really charged up appropriately, never died (discharge to where it wouldn't start the car), never used a stand alone charger on it. Started it one day, drove 9 miles to a store, got back in, dead! Replaced the battery.
My 2014 Q5 (bought June 2013) is torturing its battery, mostly a 3 block ride daily to the post office and back, very cold winter (many single digit nights), and the MMI still says that I have a 70% battery health and VCDS confirms it. My other battery tester (Solar, nice device if anyone is interested) indicates that I have about 700 CCA, and my 100 amp resistive load tester (Schumacher) shows an acceptable decent battery.
2014 Q5 2.0T with the original Varta (so it's over 7 years old). I won't vote because technically my battery is still good.
No issue with the battery but I load tested it and it's still good but very borderline. I bought a Schumacher BT-100 load tester from Advanced Auto Parts for under $40.
The weather is very nice so the reading would likely be worse if it was cold and probably would have failed on a really cold day. Will be replacing it with a Optima Yellowtop 800 CCA. It's $83 more for the Optima all-in compared to the Diehard Platinum AGM 950 CCA.
Both parts I used the 25% Advanced Auto Parts coupon (just placed two separate orders), which makes the end price competitive compared to online retailers. Very happy with my original Varta.
I replaced my battery last August. Just felt that 6 years was good enough for me to justify replacing the battery for peace of mind. Replaced with a Bosch AGM from Pepboys. $150 plus tax / 6 years comes out to $25+ a year. Good enough for me.
Ya, makes sense, that's pretty much how I felt about it and the load test just confirms it. You can roll the dice or you can see that the battery is 6 or 7 years old and starting to get borderline. It was in the 80's today so I'm assuming if I do that test again come early next year when it's freezing it would look worse. I'm curious how much worse because that's just the type of person I am but I'm not going to find out. It's our only car and the primary mode of transportation for 3 of my favorite people (my wife and my two kids). Last thing I want is a dead battery on the side of a dangerous road with snow or whatever. That happened to me a long time ago in my BMW on a small road in the middle of nowhere when it was blizzarding -- going up a small hill all of a sudden the lights started getting dim and the radio was going on and off and then the car just died. Not letting something like that happen with my fam in the car. You and I are on the same page for sure.
I thought the Optima was overpriced but even if I get another couple of years out of it compared to the DieHard Platinum AGM it would be worth it to me. Definitely helped having the 25% coupon because Optima doesn't appear to run many sales and the DieHard is capped at 20%. Not a huge difference but still. Batteries can be like oil with folks having strong opinions and I don't feel too strongly one way or the other; but a good friend of mine worked in the business and understands batteries/engineering and told me the Optima spiral etc technology is legit and he buys them. So that was all I needed to hear and I paid up for one. I do appreciate technology. They are both obviously Johnson Control batteries and AGM's but my man advised he likes the Optima better so I bit.
01-25-2018, 11:40 AM
