I've got an optimate 4, which I mainly use on my motorbikes,  but in recent months it's been getting used on my car.

 

Keeps your battery healthy and lets you know if there's anything wrong

5 hours ago, tunedude said:

I've got an optimate 4, which I mainly use on my motorbikes,  but in recent months it's been getting used on my car.

 

Keeps your battery healthy and lets you know if there's anything wrong

Thanks, will have a look

Buy a battery FFS,how often are you going to use a charger it's not 1970 anymore.

11 hours ago, 181ce said:

Buy a battery FFS,how often are you going to use a charger it's not 1970 anymore.

You right, but maybe problem is somewhere else, 

Is the charge light on ? No.

Is something left on/plugged in ?No.

Is some accessory wired in arseways ?No

The battery is f@#ked,like I said it's not the 70s anymore.

 

1 hour ago, 181ce said:

Is the charge light on ? No.

Is something left on/plugged in ?No.

Is some accessory wired in arseways ?No

The battery is f@#ked,like I said it's not the 70s anymore.

 

Thanks, Than time to change

7 hours ago, AlanB1987 said:

Thanks, Than time to change

what is the best battery to go? VARTA OR  EXIDE OR YUASA  70AH

42 minutes ago, AlanB1987 said:

what is the best battery to go? VARTA OR  EXIDE OR YUASA  70AH

IMHO the biggest AGM battery that will fit.

12 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

IMHO the biggest AGM battery that will fit.

They all 70ah. 

2 hours ago, AlanB1987 said:

They all 70ah. 

 

Varta or Yuasa.

 

I looked at replacing my battery on my soon to be 5 year old VRS. I expected it might be on its way out soon and two of the best options were:

 

Varta AGM 570901076

Halfords Advanced 096 AGM (rebranded Yuasa)

 

The Varta is slightly cheaper I think, but from time to time Halfords discount batteries and the rebranded Yuasa compares well. If you have a Halfords trade card or know someone who does I think you can get the Halfords for a very good price.

 

Don't forget to get it coded if you do change it.

Edited 12 September, 20187 yr by ahenners

36 minutes ago, ahenners said:

 

Varta or Yuasa.

 

I looked at replacing my battery on my soon to be 5 year old VRS. I expected it might be on its way out soon and two of the best options were:

 

Varta AGM 570901076

Halfords Advanced 096 AGM (rebranded Yuasa)

 

The Varta is slightly cheaper I think, but from time to time Halfords discount batteries and the rebranded Yuasa compares well. If you have a Halfords trade card or know someone who does I think you can get the Halfords for a very good price.

 

Don't forget to get it coded if you do change it.

Thanks, need to find some one who can coded. THANKS FOR info

1 hour ago, AlanB1987 said:

Thanks, need to find some one who can coded. THANKS FOR info

 

If you can't get it coded buy the same brand, type and capacity as was originally fitted to the car (at the factory). Very important to match like for like, particularly efb for efb, agm for agm and Ah for Ah. All details are on the battery label.

 

If it has a standard battery (not EFB or AGM) then check with the dealer what the factory fitted type is, as someone may have just changed it for a cheaper standard one. If your car has stop/start then standard batteries don't last long, it needs EFB or AGM.

 

 

12 hours ago, xman said:

 

If you can't get it coded buy the same brand, type and capacity as was originally fitted to the car (at the factory). Very important to match like for like, particularly efb for efb, agm for agm and Ah for Ah. All details are on the battery label.

You need to change at least the serial number in the coding, otherwise the battery management system will still think the old (knackered?) battery is fitted and you may still have the same problems.

35 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

You need to change at least the serial number in the coding, otherwise the battery management system will still think the old (knackered?) battery is fitted and you may still have the same problems.

 

This is my understanding also.

1 hour ago, PetrolDave said:

You need to change at least the serial number in the coding, otherwise the battery management system will still think the old (knackered?) battery is fitted and you may still have the same problems.

OK, Thanks

Maybe someone know who can code it, Northamptonshire 

I had an Optimate 4 which worked perfectly on my Escort Cosworth for 3 years solid and brought a few dead batteries back to life throughout the years.  That battery was left off a car/used as a spare for about 5 years when I broke the Escort and charged every now and again to keep topped up. The battery is now on my brother's Vauxhall Corsa and has worked perfectly for 6 months so far. I sold the optimate to my other brother and he now uses it on his Nissan GTR. Was very happy with the Optimate :)

Reason battery chargers are back in fashion -  probably something to do with progress?

 

The two reason why I bought a CTEK charger were, 1) my own car which has a AGM battery, sleeps in the garage most of the time, so I wanted to make sure that I did not trash/shorten the life of its expensive big AGM battery - now at 7.5 years old, by keeping it connected to a CTEK and checking the battery capacity (health) once a year using a CTEK battery tester, it is still close to being 100% - it is just that the CTEK battery tester steps "miss" that battery's actual rated capacity. 2) my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza that I was looking after while she was working abroad, had a nasty battery draining issue which took about a year to sort out - it was just duff coding in the BCM which controls when certain areas of the car get access to the battery while the engine is not running.

 

As said many time above, using a charger is oaky to keep on top of this issue, but something is wrong with that car and I'd doubt if it will get any better and might just end up biting you when you least need it to.

 

After the first dealership proper repair to that Ibiza, I put it to the test when leaving it parked for a week while we were abroad, but I had put my battery booster pack in the boot, "just in case" - "just in case" happened, but I was able to get it started using the booster pack, and that confirmed that that proper repair did not fix anything!!

Edited 13 September, 20187 yr by rum4mo
Missed quoting another post!!

Afaik the serial number on the coding label is related to brand/type/capacity more an id number and not a production serial no.

The serial number on my battery is the same as all those Ive seen photos of on the internet.

 

When fitting a new battery, its recommended to fully charge it so the charging system doesn't get too confused.

Try Mike@briskoda parts 01905 346808 tell him your'e from the forum & see if maybe he can get the battery any cheaper for you? 

2 hours ago, BATVANVRS said:

Try Mike@briskoda parts 01905 346808 tell him your'e from the forum & see if maybe he can get the battery any cheaper for you? 

THANKS WILL TRY tomorrow 

Last winter my stop/start system stopped working on my Fabia 111 at 2 years old, the dealer checked it out and the battery was low i admit i were not doing many miles at the time so i asked the dealer which charger they recommended, service manager said the Ctech stop/start charger as these are what we use, not cheap but i bought one.

I put it on charge for the day and kept an eye it, after 5 hours it switched from charge to condition i left it like this for the rest of the day, next morning went for a spin and all working as it should.

Recently i visited the dealer and noticed 2 cars in the show room on trickle charge with the Ctec, glad i bought one great charger.

 

Steve.

I have used Ctek for 10yrs now...the current one does 12V supply & AGM modes....

 

All MQB platform cars can take a maximum battery case size called a "096"..which is usually around the 70Ah rating...

 

If you have stop/start on the car you need either an EFB as a minimum..or upgrade to an AGM type...

 

you will also need to tell the BCM that the car has a new battery & to forget all learnt values...& the correct way to do this is to use OBD11pro ..or VCDS

 

even if the battery is that same spec as before you still need to change the serial number entry by one digit...serial number can be just entered as 1111111...but you need to change one digit from previous entry..thus it knows a new battery has been fitted....

 

 

If you change the type & capacity from the previous one that was fitted you also ned to change those settings in the BCM also...

 

I did a how to guide on the MK7 forum nearly 4yrs ago...

 

 

Thanks for explaining, I bought ctek charger, but when is fully charged on cars dash is still shows me 70% and then it keeps between 40 n 60%

Cant understand battery is ok or not

2 minutes ago, AlanB1987 said:

Thanks for explaining, I bought ctek charger, but when is fully charged on cars dash is still shows me 70% and then it keeps between 40 n 60%

Cant understand battery is ok or not

 

ignore the cars dash...go by what the battery charger states.....usually when the cteks hit the green LED they are 90% charged & just on long term trickle....

14 minutes ago, fabdavrav said:

Thanks 

ignore the cars dash...go by what the battery charger states.....usually when the cteks hit the green LED they are 90% charged & just on long term trickle....