Firstly the prices are shocking for a 2015 1.6 TDi. 

 

Secondly after much much internet searching I’ve found the following. 

 

Halfrauds do a ”Yuasa” EFB battery for £97 but I’m unsure whether the car takes EFB or AGM batteries. 

 

GSF do the same battery for £300 but after adding promo codes it’s £120. 

 

My contact at auto parts can get me an unknown name one at £110. 

 

So I’ll be getting the battery myself but could I fit a normal battery and turn off stop/start using VCDS and does the battery absolutely have to be coded in?

 

Modern cars are a money pit, if I didn’t need this one for work (taxi) I’d be driving a late 90s MK1 Octavia. 

EFB or AGM are fine. I was planning to buy the Halfords 096 AGM for my VRS TSI when the stock EFB finally gives up the ghost. It's a rebranded Yuasa with a good warranty and can be had for a decent discount with a trade card. Not sure if the battery size is different on a 1.6 TDI though.

 

You shouldn't be paying more than £150ish even for AGM. Suspect EFB would be slightly cheaper.

 

Oh and it should be coded too, 5 min job with VCDS or OBDEleven etc.

Edited 12 December, 20187 yr by ahenners

1 hour ago, ahenners said:

EFB or AGM are fine. I was planning to buy the Halfords 096 AGM for my VRS TSI when the stock EFB finally gives up the ghost. It's a rebranded Yuasa with a good warranty and can be had for a decent discount with a trade card. Not sure if the battery size is different on a 1.6 TDI though.

 

You shouldn't be paying more than £150ish even for AGM. Suspect EFB would be slightly cheaper.

 

Oh and it should be coded too, 5 min job with VCDS or OBDEleven etc.

Thanks for the input. I’ll get a battery this week. Strangely enough it charges fine during the day and starts in the morning if the temperature is above 5 degrees so I’ve been putting it off. Stop/start hasn’t worked for a while though. 

These days cars have lots of electric motors and electric heaters (especially if you have winter packs), so need big reliable batteries. 

When fitted with start-stop, the higher grade batteries cost  even more

 

For a 2015 car battery should last much longer, but a taxi might have been used about 8 hours a day rather than 1-2 hours for many drivers, so degraded battery not unreasonable if car has done 5000 hours

 

 

 

FYI Eurocarparts emailed today, they have 50% off all car batteries today. Code is FLASH50

If you can afford it, get an AGM battery. EFB batteries are the lower quality stop start batteries.

 

It'll be able to take a bit more abuse from your added electrics (job dash, tracker, radio)

This is for a work vehicle therefore, tax deductible 

 

WHyTF are you dicking about ? Get it done properly,  save paying the tax & be free to earn more money.

For taxi work, get a top quality AGM for sure to deal with repeated discharge and recharge cycles. It will last longer than any other battery technology and less likely to leave you and a customer stranded. Even more important if you have no plans to swap your car in the next 12 months and it’s your office.  

 

Taxi duty cycles are the hardest of all on batteries which is why LTI’s were factory fitted with Optima yellow spiral AGM to cope with the abuse. 

10 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

This is for a work vehicle therefore, tax deductible 

 

WHyTF are you dicking about ? Get it done properly,  save paying the tax & be free to earn more money.

That’s kinda the problem. Since the arrival of Uber in my city the Private Hire business has went south. Cash flow is a major problem. The Octavia has been a great car but it’s now over 100k miles and I need a thermostat - several hour job as all the intercooler piping needs removed to fit a £13 part - and I need a couple of tyres. The last thing I need is £200+ on a battery. 

9 hours ago, gm73 said:

That’s kinda the problem. Since the arrival of Uber in my city the Private Hire business has went south. Cash flow is a major problem. The Octavia has been a great car but it’s now over 100k miles and I need a thermostat - several hour job as all the intercooler piping needs removed to fit a £13 part - and I need a couple of tyres. The last thing I need is £200+ on a battery. 

 

I can appreciate things may be a bit tight for you, however as has been pointed out above, the batteries which are in taxis (both hackneys and private hire) do get a caning. So the last thing I'd want you to do is to put a cheapo 'that'll do' battery in and then you end up breaking down in the pitch black and middle of nowhere.

 

My uncle's had taxis for nearly 2 decades now and he very rarely is off the road due to failures because he's always putting good diesel in, using proper branded tyres, quality consumables (batteries and wiper blades) and changes the oil every 3 - 4 months religiously.

 

I'd advise you can a look on ebay for a battery. I found a brand new, just unboxed, Bosch 096 agm for £85, delivered.

2 hours ago, tunedude said:

 

I'd advise you can a look on ebay for a battery. I found a brand new, just unboxed, Bosch 096 agm for £85, delivered.

 

Would you still get the Manufacturer's warranty with that?

Replaced the stupid factory EFB that was on it from new before this winter set in, it was never up to the job judging by how the thing behaves now it has a Varta 096 AGM on it. Not the cheapest battery but boy does it work.

 

Only downside is Stop/Start has started to work again. The EFB never had the voltage to get there for last year or so.

1 hour ago, ahenners said:

 

Would you still get the Manufacturer's warranty with that?

 

I wouldn't have thought so, unless it's transferable. It would be classed as 2nd hand I suppose.

 

However for £85.......

On 13/12/2018 at 16:22, tunedude said:

 

I can appreciate things may be a bit tight for you, however as has been pointed out above, the batteries which are in taxis (both hackneys and private hire) do get a caning. So the last thing I'd want you to do is to put a cheapo 'that'll do' battery in and then you end up breaking down in the pitch black and middle of nowhere.

 

My uncle's had taxis for nearly 2 decades now and he very rarely is off the road due to failures because he's always putting good diesel in, using proper branded tyres, quality consumables (batteries and wiper blades) and changes the oil every 3 - 4 months religiously.

 

I'd advise you can a look on ebay for a battery. I found a brand new, just unboxed, Bosch 096 agm for £85, delivered.

New battery supplied and fitted by my mechanic. £145.  Stop/start working again. All is well in the world again. 

On 12/12/2018 at 19:37, ahenners said:

EFB or AGM are fine. I was planning to buy the Halfords 096 AGM for my VRS TSI when the stock EFB finally gives up the ghost. It's a rebranded Yuasa with a good warranty and can be had for a decent discount with a trade card. Not sure if the battery size is different on a 1.6 TDI though.

 

You shouldn't be paying more than £150ish even for AGM. Suspect EFB would be slightly cheaper.

 

Oh and it should be coded too, 5 min job with VCDS or OBDEleven etc.

 

What coding needs to be done?

8 minutes ago, lab4games said:

 

What coding needs to be done?

 

As a minimum the serial number should be changed under Gateway Module (19) so the car knows the battery has been replaced, it doesn't even have to be the actual serial, the default is simply a bunch of 1s and most people just edit by 1 digit.

 

There are also entries in there for rated capacity, battery type and manufacturer, though I don't believe these are required to be changed.

Edited 20 December, 20187 yr by ahenners