Let's start this post with providing some context.

 

A couple of month's ago I purchased a 2015 (Series 2) Skoda Superb 'Tour de France' Estate 2.0L Diesel 4X4.

 

It had covered 170k miles, had a full service history and was in good condition. It was not perfect and needed a few, relatively inexpensive parts to bring it up to scratch.

 

I am reasonably handy with the spanners and have VCDS and Autel (Pro level) diagnostics equipment.

 

One of the issues was a battery that was clearly on the way out. It was the original VAG badged 68 amp AGM Varta battery but it had done extremely well to last this long!

 

I purchased a replacement 70amp AGM Varta Battery from Tayna Batteries.

 

Now for the adaption on Channel 4. Having fitted the battery, I used VCDS to enter the new battery's adaption values. The original battery was recorded as 068 JCB 1111111111

 

18 digits including the spaces (1 space = 1 digit) are required.

 

The code for Varta is VA0 (that's zero not capital 'O').

 

There are plenty of posts / You Tube videos that suggest you enter 'O' not '0' (zero) after VA for a Varta battery.

 

They also suggest that you end the sequence of 1's with a 2. This is what I did, the new adaption values were accepted and I assumed that everything was ok.

 

The big problem here is that whatever you enter, providing you use the correct format, will be accepted, lulling you into a false sense of security that what you have input has been accepted and has adapted your new battery!

 

If you have an AGM battery or equivalent, needed for the start / stop function, the adaption code (the series of 1's after the space, after JCB or VA0 is in binary. Entering the number '2' will be accepted but it is not a binary number and will not result in your new AGM battery being adapted.

 

SO WHAT! 

 

Not a problem if your new battery does not become drained. You will not notice any issues and will probably be none the wiser!

 

The problem is that your battery generator function will not be operating as you have not adapted your new battery correctly. If your new battery becomes drained below say 11v, your battery warning light will come on but before the battery warning light comes and the voltage had dropped to just above this level, some of your functions may start playing up. Examples of this may include power steering working intermittently and heater blower fans not functioning. The battery generator function works like a relay and allows the battery to charge to its optimum level. If the battery generator is not functioning, due to the battery not being adapted properly, it will never charge beyond its current value, whatever that may be.

 

In my case I installed an aftermarket head unit, amplifier and component speakers. Testing the system (with the engine off), but the ignition on, must have depleted the battery. This morning, the car was iced up. I started it with heater blower on full and rear window heater on. The battery warning light came on and did not go out, despite a 45 mile journey down the M1. Luckily for me, I had my Autel Pro diagnostics scanner on me so I interrogated the live data. This showed that the battery was not charging above 10.7V.

 

I went into the battery's function adaption screen, cleared the value I had input originally, when I installed the new Varta 70amp battery and input the following:

 

070 VA0 1111111111 

 

This, when saved, resulted in the battery warning light going off and staying off. The battery also started charging up to its optimal level.

 

Sorry for such a long, rambling post but I hope this can be of help to others.

 

 

Edited 10 December, 20223 yr by Smart Pro

Would I be correct in supposing you could use either 1s or 0s (zero) in the 10-digit battery serial number?

Hats off to you for discovering this and for resolving it, I'm sure it must have caused many owners no end of grief and cost and resulted in many ending up offloading a troublesome vehicle by PX when it was not in reality needed.

 

What would have been the result if you had simply replaced the battery with a similar new one and not recoded at all & then discharged it in the same manner?

 

It will be ironic if people have been influenced to pay someone to recode the vehicle for a new battery only for them to have actually stuffed things up if doing nothing would in hindsight have been a no risk decision.

11 hours ago, Warrior193 said:

Would I be correct in supposing you could use either 1s or 0s (zero) in the 10-digit battery serial number?

 

I don't know to be honest, but suspect that the binary input values are restricted to the adaption reset field - 'enter new value'.

You can use more than binary in the serial number.

VAO or VA0 should not make any difference to the charging, merely cosmetic to show what was fitted (they leave factory on JCB, so that tells you enough as to how important it is)

 

Rating, technology type are important values of course.

 

Taken from an Audi training document, check out serial number

 

@Smart Pro I suspect by your own admission, that you left your car ignition on for an extended period, thus draining the battery under 12V.  You then drove a whopping 45 miles with the Alternator/charging light on before you told the car it had a 'new' battery.  The Alternator would have provided enough power for lights/heating etc, but as the car had determined your existing battery was too low to safely charge, a safety feature to not allow any input of power would have occured.

 

You then fooled the car into thinking it had a new one, and it instantly applied power to charge it up.

 

 

p.s. This is my opinion on how the event occured, and why the light was on, then got extinguished.  Only VAG would know if this theory of mine is correct.

Certainly an interesting conclusion, which sounds entirely plausible but why would the live data from the diagnostics show the potential battery charge capacity for my depleted battery as being 12.7v at that time, yet the system did not permit it to charge up until the (correct) 'new battery' adaptation had been performed? 

 

I had earlier, once the red battery warning light was on constantly, tried a different variation of the adaptation code, using VAO instead of VA0 and this made no difference - the light stayed on. It was only later on my journey when I changed the adaption code to VA0 with the same sequence of binary numbers that the light went out and the battery started to charge.

 

This would seem to suggest that entering the code correctly is critical in this situation but it would of course be great to get a definitive answer from VAG.

2 hours ago, Smart Pro said:

Certainly an interesting conclusion, which sounds entirely plausible but why would the live data from the diagnostics show the potential battery charge capacity for my depleted battery as being 12.7V at that time, yet the system did not permit it to charge up until the (correct) 'new battery' adaptation had been performed?

That should be a fully charged battery at that point, and doesn't need charging.

Could be wrong, but happy to be corrected.

 

 

2 hours ago, Smart Pro said:

I had earlier, once the red battery warning light was on constantly, tried a different variation of the adaptation code, using VAO instead of VA0 and this made no difference - the light stayed on. It was only later on my journey when I changed the adaption code to VA0 with the same sequence of binary numbers that the light went out and the battery started to charge.

VAG don't help themselves, here in the same document... SSP504 Vehicle Batteries

 

VAO

 

VA0

 

 

2 hours ago, Smart Pro said:

This would seem to suggest that entering the code correctly is critical in this situation but it would of course be great to get a definitive answer from VAG.

Your extremely low SoC from leaving ignition on may have made things go crazy, you kicked the car up the ar5e making it think it had new battery, and it then started Alternator and cleared off the warning lamp.  I agree 100%, only VAG would know this, but getting a definitive answer is difficult (look above for VAO / VA0 in same document)

 

 

On 10/12/2022 at 19:00, Smart Pro said:

If you have an AGM battery or equivalent, needed for the start / stop function, the adaption code (the series of 1's after the space, after JCB or VA0 is in binary. Entering the number '2' will be accepted but it is not a binary number and will not result in your new AGM battery being adapted.

This is the only part I disagree with your statement of it needing to be in Binary format (serial number)

Apart from that everything is all good, and should be helpful to others.