Q5 dual battery?
 

I knew that the Q5 "ambulance" versions overseas had a provision for a second battery to power extra equipment. And in looking at battery coding for the Q5 here in the US, apparently there is coding in the standard engine computer to provision that?

Does anyone know just where Audi stashes a factory second battery in the dual battery installation? Do they remove the spare tire to make room for that or...?

And is there a provision in the standard wiring harness that allows a second battery to be cabled in by just plugging in a sub-harness?

??????

You can't be looking at going this way! It would require an alternator with double the output capability, different power management system, wiring harnesses, etc.

Time for you to get a Q5 Hybrid then you will have all the battery that you need...........

Hybrids do actually have two batteries IIRC, besides the big power pack one that is. They are dinky things sort of like a big motorcycle battery, back in the rear hatch area towards the sides.

So supposedly there's a yawning cavern under the left side luggage floor panel?

Actually there are reasons why one might or might not need a larger alternator to do that. AGM batteries are not just sealed. They can absorb power at higher rates than wet lead batteries, they charge differently. Larger alternators typically require different belting and the additional side load must be compensated on the shafts as well. But, the typical SLI battery is never taken below 90% SOC and in fact the typical alternator in a car is designed to "not overcharge" that battery during an entire day of running. Very different from deep cycle charge situations, which can also be managed in many ways. In this case #2 would have dedicated tasks that normally were not intense, easily handled by the existing alternator and totaling less than "ne hungry battery" would require. Yes, that can overheat and burn out alternators anyway, Hitachi are famous for throttling back to keep their alternators cool. Bosch(?) I don't know about.

But I am aware of many factors. It wouldn't be my first rodeo.

The starting point for the entire question would be, of course, "Is there a spare yawning cavern somewhere in this beast?"

Now the BMW X3 used to make that easy, there actually was an empty battery box in front of the windshield! Great place to dry wet sneakers.(G)

You are sort of silent about buying your new battery and coding it properly with VCDS. Did you do it?

Ross didn't mention that when you specify shipping via priority mail (usually faster than UPS and delivered 8 hours earlier in the day) they don't send it out until the next business day when their mailman delivers and picks up. So, ordered Sunday and instead of shipping it Monday--they waited for Tuesday. Which promised Friday delivery. Which didn't happen until today, presumably because of the wx in the Northeast, which is still no excuse for priority mail.

So, yes I ordered it. No, the casual fulfillment department at Ross and the USPS conspired to prevent that. I know the USPS is hopeless, but honest? If the folks at Ross aren't going to ship everything at the end of the same business day (when UPS and Fedex normally make their pickups) they should at least let folks know, this "express" service will not be speedy. Not an auspicious way to get started

Not being silent, just not saying "I don't have anything to say yet."

People tell me New Yorkers always want things impossibly quickly. I can't understand why they think that. I've never asked anyone to "have it on my desk" before 9AM. Maybe you heard the latest time-shift from Florida: They want to go on Daylight Savings Time all year round. Not normal astronomical time, like Hawaii and other states, but they want to remain shifted onto "winter time" all year round. Go figure...I think all those Arab numbers on the clocks confuse them. Remember now...waste your time with all your clocks tonight. Audi won't do what a $19.95 clock radio does, and make that jump itself.

Here, hold the flashlight for me, I'll do the battery tonight. (Not.)

Pennsylvanians are worse, we want it right now. I live about 90 minutes from Ross-Tech in Lansdale, Pa. So would have picked it up if I needed one immediately. I worked in Lansdale for a few years.

My 2014 Audi Q5 won't change DST time automatically, but my 2014 Honda CRV will.

If I'd NEEDED the cable right away, NEEDED a new battery right away, or even just WANTED the damned thing right away, I've done more than 90-minute rides to do things like that. But since a 12.17V battery is just "too low" and not "dead" yet...it was mainly an issue of convenient day and Thursday or so would have been that.

I remember sitting quietly on a winter day in a small parking lot, in my 289 Mustang, and every ten minutes or so there was this "t-t-t-t-tickzip" noise. Like clockwork. Turned out, the analog clock in the dash actually had a little relay in it, the clock wound itself up every 10? minutes to keep running. When I heard that Rolls Royce owners complained that one new model (1980ish?) was unacceptable because they could hear the clock ticking, I empathized.(G)

Fiddling with the clocks and causing mass confusion among the ranks twice a year is simply proof that someone is giving the people what they deserve. Hey, if I want to commute in the daylight only, I'll change my hours in the winter. Oh, wait...businesses in seasonal and resort towns do that already, don't they? Gee....(sigh)

Bob-
Tonight I almost did the dirty deed. I got the new battery in. Was going to use a jump box under the hood to keep the computer powered up, but the jump terminals are more than 2 batteries apart, so I had to fetch a different backup battery with longer cables. And, the vent hose apparently hadn't been connected, I couldn't see where it went until I brought the old battery back into the light, so I'll have to go back and reconnect that.

But the coding....

I did stumble through VCDS properly and get to the recoding screen. Thought there might be a pick list but no....if you don't have a BEM, you're shafted?
Maybe you can help me out with this while I'm stumbling around web searching. The new battery is a JCI (Varta US manufacturer) 95Ah battery, considerably larger than the 70(75?) Ah that was OEM with the car. Before I tell the car that there's a new battery...
I'd like to give it a proper BEM for a
Varta 95Ah,
900CCA,
1000 Charging Amp,160 Amp reserve
and the only thing similar I've found yet is a Landrover Varta AGM
"0092S5A130, 595901085D852" "MPN 595901085D852"
Does that look like there's a valid BEM in there? Or a better way to get the correct one?

Or does anyone have the real numbers from a real Varta largest size AGM?

[After much web searching:]
Bob-
Something closer. The Varta-Silver-Dynamic-AGM-95Ah-850A-bem-code
G14
12V 95Ah 850A (en)
595-901-085-E96-2 <<<<<<----------The first 10 or 11 digits would be the BEM code?
Varta Qcode A-11-G14-529-8-31
and A201386472

While the 850A is less than the 900 rating from JCI/Autocraft, this is still a "95A" rated capacity AGM, apparently that's what Varta makes and as long as the 95 is the same...the battery should be reasonably happy.

I should use the 595 numbers?

I really don't know what to tell you when you use a battery that has different ratings than what the OEM battery had. We still don't know if a BEM code signifies anything more than just letting the vehicle know that a new battery has been installed. The BEM code may or may not have any intelligence. There are no BEM decoders on the net, most people believe that the BEM means nothing to the charging system and it's just an European OEM battery code for letting the power management system know that a new battery has been installed and to reset the battery life history. I have only replaced two batteries for people that needed a BEM code. In both cases we replaced the old OEM battery with ones with identical ratings and only changed the last digit of the serial number with VCDS.

Why not go to Advance Auto and ask them what they do as they need to perform a BEM code change when they install a new battery at the store. I can see them telling you that they only put in a battery with OEM ratings and change the last S/N digit........