AGM Battery replaced guidance needed please

[Musa007]

Good evening everyone, 

my 2015 Octavia had the original VARTA Battery which I replaced today, asked a garage to give me a quote for fitting it but they never got back to me. 
 

I replaced it with a YUASA 9000 and done Battery adaptation/coding through Carista OBD2 adapter, so far car starts very nicely. I’ve replaced the values from original which was the following:

please kindly see the attached pictures.

 

could anybody please confirm if I’ve done things the right way or the wrong way.

Thank you so much. 
 

 

[Peter120000]

I did it yesterday, same old battery. 

as far I know in Europe the AGM battery technology is called "Fleece" (at least for me that's the factory setting)

at least make sure ur not using the "binary - AGM" because that's not the right one.

[Musa007]

On 09/01/2024 at 10:39, Peter120000 said:

I did it yesterday, same old battery. 

as far I know in Europe the AGM battery technology is called "Fleece" (at least for me that's the factory setting)

at least make sure ur not using the "binary - AGM" because that's not the right one.

thank you so much for the reply,

AGM was already selected for the old battery, I’ve just changed the other values, hope it’s correct and keeps working as it should.

[Warrior193]

15 hours ago, Musa007 said:

thank you so much for the reply,

AGM was already selected for the old battery, I’ve just changed the other values, hope it’s correct and keeps working as it should.

I think you will find that the original battery technology was entered incorrectly - other members have reported issues when mistakenly using 'AGM' as the setting - As @Peter120000 says, AGM battery should be entered as 'Fleece' 

Edited 11 January by Warrior193
credit to other

[Musa007]

On 11/01/2024 at 20:39, Warrior193 said:

I think you will find that the original battery technology was entered incorrectly - other members have reported issues when mistakenly using 'AGM' as the setting - As @Peter120000 says, AGM battery should be entered as 'Fleece' 

So VW has been configuring their batteries wrongly? I hope not lol, 😁 so these are the only options available with Carista OBd2, no fleece here. 

[Gabbo]

I made a similar replacement in my Octavia TDI.

Varta AGM 68Ah battery replaced with a Varta Silver dynamic 70Ah battery.

 

I didn't make any coding changes or connect any diagnostic tools.

I've not had any issues & everything has been fine since the first start with the new battery.

Stop start worked immediately & my car has been for a service and timing belt change during the year since without any problems or issues flagged by the garage.

 

In my opinion recoding is only necessary is you change the type AGM to EFB or vice versa or if you fit a hugely different size.

Edited 14 January by Gabbo

[RoddersUK]

I didn't code my new battery first of all, as I had no way of doing it. I monitored the charging rate and it was putting in loads of juice, as it thought it was the old battery still.

I recoded a day later (ordered OBDeleven) and then the car started to throttle the charging rate.

[PetrolDave]

1 hour ago, Gabbo said:

In my opinion recoding is only necessary is you change the type AGM to EFB or vice versa or if you fit a hugely different size.

If the old battery was really knackered then coding will make an immediate difference, but if the SoC wasn't too poor then the system will over time learn the characteristics of the new battery.

[aubrey]

On 08/01/2024 at 21:44, Musa007 said:

could anybody please confirm if I’ve done things the right way or the wrong way.

I'd say you did it the right way. From your pictures it looks like Carista has renamed Fleece to AGM. That will save confusing.

It used to have 'Binary AGM' and 'Fleece', fleece was always the correct type but you can understand why only having one choice with the letters AGM caused confusion.

The battery type has a Mat and I believe it was the translation between a mat and a fleece that produced the wording.

So you choice of AGM and not Binary AGM is correct.

I think the ECU holds just a number for battery type, like type 1,2,3 etc and not an ASCII string "AGM', "EFB" etc. So as I've said it's good they have now changed the user displayed words of those ECU held numbers. This would explain why you saw your old battery as also 'AGM', I bet if you'd of checked with older software it would of said 'Fleece'.

I have also heard like Gabbo that if nothing really changes that the coding is not so important. But I've always maintained if you can do it, then why not.

[Warrior193]

19 hours ago, Musa007 said:

So VW has been configuring their batteries wrongly? I hope not lol, 😁 so these are the only options available with Carista OBd2, no fleece here. 

For that menu, AGM makes more sense than the old term 'fleece' and would be correct. I've not seen the EFB+ before - anyone know what the difference is?

Edited 14 January by Warrior193
added information

[Musa007]

Thank you so much everyone for your support, just a quick one please, If I leave the car parked at night, what am I supposed to get the value on charging levels before starting it again in the next morning? Is it supposed to be 100% or could be less than that.

 

ive driven the car the next morning and after a 5 min local drive I found these levels on live data. Is it normal or is it supposed to be 100%? 
 

and can I use Carista OBD while the engine is running to see live data or it always need to be ignition on only.
Thank you all so much

[PetrolDave]

9 hours ago, Musa007 said:

Thank you so much everyone for your support, just a quick one please, If I leave the car parked at night, what am I supposed to get the value on charging levels before starting it again in the next morning? Is it supposed to be 100% or could be less than that.

 

ive driven the car the next morning and after a 5 min local drive I found these levels on live data. Is it normal or is it supposed to be 100%?

The battery management system only charges the battery to around 80%, to allow headroom for the micro-regenerative braking system to put charge into the battery when coasting or braking.

[Musa007]

11 hours ago, PetrolDave said:

The battery management system only charges the battery to around 80%, to allow headroom for the micro-regenerative braking system to put charge into the battery when coasting or braking.

Wow I didn’t know my 2015 Skoda had Micro-regenerative braking system, so the system had it charged to 80%, and 5 min drive and braking charged it upto 89%?
If that’s the case, that’s really impressive.

 

thank you so much 👌

[nta16]

23 hours ago, Musa007 said:

If I leave the car parked at night, what am I supposed to get the value on charging levels before starting it again in the next morning? Is it supposed to be 100% or could be less than that.

You were showing 12.3v when parked up so if it shows around that in the morning that's fine, you have to consider what's being used by the car when you are sitting in it parked up (0.2v- 0.3v?) and by the Carista running its checks, sometimes accuracy of testing equipment.  Also you were showing 12.2v at new battery installation.

 

23 hours ago, Musa007 said:

can I use Carista OBD while the engine is running to see live data

You can leave the Carista plugged in to se live data and even drive with it but don't leave it plugged in like that for longer than necessary and not as a habit.  Computes and their programming aren't always (never?) perfect and can have brain-farts for various reasons as we all know whilst it matters a lot less if the Carista get messed up it matters a lot more if the VW programing or car parts do.

 

2 hours ago, Musa007 said:

Wow I didn’t know my 2015 Skoda had Micro-regenerative braking system

Have the following pdf. - SSP-426-Start-stop-system-2009.pdf

 

Edited 16 January by nta16
remove gap

[nta16]

On 14/01/2024 at 13:35, Warrior193 said:

I've not seen the EFB+ before - anyone know what the difference is?

"More effective power consumption and charging capacity:
Thanks to surface-active carbon additives – EFB+ version only." - https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/owners-and-services/servicing-and-parts/spare-parts-and-oil/battery.html

 

I missed that bit first time of looking, press the drop arrow on "The benefits of our EFB and EFB+ batteries at a glance:".

 

[Musa007]

30 minutes ago, nta16 said:

You were showing 12.3v when parked up so if it shows around that in the morning that's fine, you have to consider what's being used by the car when you are sitting in it parked up (0.2v- 0.3v?) and by the Carista running its checks, sometimes accuracy of testing equipment.  Also you were showing 12.2v at new battery installation.

 

 

Yes that’s correct I was sitting with the ignition on for 10 min while navigating Carista menu etc.

so in the morning before starting the car up, what should be the minimum voltage and charging level on it please? I can check the voltage in 2 ways, one through phone car charger which shows battery voltage, and two with OBD. Let say if the voltage is less than 12.2 or 12v, is it considered to be abnormal? 
thank you for your reply 🙏

[nta16]

7 hours ago, Musa007 said:

so in the morning before starting the car up, what should be the minimum voltage and charging level on it please? I can check the voltage in 2 ways, one through phone car charger which shows battery voltage, and two with OBD.

About the same as the same as when you was parked up before but it depends on what electric consumption your car is using at the time and whether any significant load was left running, or drain, over night.

You want to use the OBD to compare against the last OBD reading for consistency as the phone charger might always show a different result to your OBD being different devices.

Personally I prefer a reasonable quality multimeter directly on to the battery terminal posts if you want to know the battery voltage  at that point, but you would have to had taken a reading this way when the battery was first installed to know the difference.

 

7 hours ago, Musa007 said:

Let say if the voltage is less than 12.2 or 12v, is it considered to be abnormal? 

Depends on what electric consumption your car is using at the time and whether any significant load was left running, or drain, over night but I would consider 12.0v bad.  My wife's AGM battery arrived in the post at 12.4v which is fine for the battery but I personally prefer to install the battery at 100% charge, though it isn't necessary, which will show something like 12 point 7, 8 or even 9 on a multimeter (after its surface charge has been lost).

 

Hopefully you are fully sorted by now.

 

As my wife does lots of short journeys I found I have done more preventative charges of the AGM battery fitted June 2021 with an appropriate battery charger and maintainer than I expected, not many but more than I expected.

 

Cheers.

 

Edited 16 January by nta16

[Musa007]

On 15/01/2024 at 12:26, PetrolDave said:

The battery management system only charges the battery to around 80%, to allow headroom for the micro-regenerative braking system to put charge into the battery when coasting or braking.

Hi there, 

is this the reason voltage goes up and down when the engine is running? 
im asking because I’ve noticed that my car shows 13+v while driving and goes upto 14.9v when I leave the accelerator or press the brake pedal. It keeps going up and down between 13 to 14.9v with the engine running or driving.

hope that’s not an anomaly with the alternator or battery itself. 🤞 😀

 

[RoddersUK]

It's the BMS (battery monitoring system) doing its job, so it's not over charging a new battery that doesn't need it.

[nta16]

5 hours ago, Musa007 said:

13 to 14.9v with the engine running or driving.

hope that’s not an anomaly with the alternator or battery itself

Always take cheap or low priced electronic plug-ins or computer programs as a guide rather than always being spot-on with figures.  Any electronic or computer figures are best checked with another reasonably reliable device to confirm reasonableness.  Any variations between the two as long as they remain consistent can be accepted.  A third device may give a third set of figures, doesn't really matter for most things as long as all are within reasonable tolerance and parameters, multimeters come to mind.

 

Unless you are recording live data for checking or diagnosis don't leave anything plugged into the diagnosis port(?)/socket when not really required, the car's computer systems are expensive you don't want anything upsetting them or causing any harm.

 

Edited 28 January by nta16

[Musa007]

14 hours ago, nta16 said:

Always take cheap or low priced electronic plug-ins or computer programs as a guide rather than always being spot-on with figures.  Any electronic or computer figures are best checked with another reasonably reliable device to confirm reasonableness.  Any variations between the two as long as they remain consistent can be accepted.  A third device may give a third set of figures, doesn't really matter for most things as long as all are within reasonable tolerance and parameters, multimeters come to mind.

 

Unless you are recording live data for checking or diagnosis don't leave anything plugged into the diagnosis port(?)/socket when not really required, the car's computer systems are expensive you don't want anything upsetting them or causing any harm.

 

I was checking live data using OBD port via Carista App and at the same time with my phone car charger which shows the voltage, although car charger shows always .02 value lower than the OBD2. If OBD is showing 14.8v, car charger will show 14.6. 
as @RoddersUK said BMS must be doing it’s job to not overcharge the battery hence it’s shows 13.2 while driving and when braking or just release the accelerator it goes above 14.5. 

 

I keep the car charger connected while disconnect OBD2 after checking live data. 

[PetrolDave]

On 28/01/2024 at 05:08, Musa007 said:

Hi there, 

is this the reason voltage goes up and down when the engine is running? 
im asking because I’ve noticed that my car shows 13+v while driving and goes upto 14.9v when I leave the accelerator or press the brake pedal. It keeps going up and down between 13 to 14.9v with the engine running or driving.

hope that’s not an anomaly with the alternator or battery itself. 🤞 😀

Yes, it's the BMS operating correctly.

[nta16]

On 29/01/2024 at 01:23, Musa007 said:

 

I keep the car charger connected while disconnect OBD2 after checking live data. 

Just checking, do you mean you disconnect the OBD2 (from the diagnosis port) after you have checked live data and separately to this you plug in to a 12v cigarette / aux socket a little digital device to show voltage, if so great.

 

[Musa007]

On 30/01/2024 at 22:42, nta16 said:

Just checking, do you mean you disconnect the OBD2 (from the diagnosis port) after you have checked live data and separately to this you plug in to a 12v cigarette / aux socket a little digital device to show voltage, if so great.

 

That’s absolutely correct, one day for about half an hour I left OBD2 connected while I was driving and looking at the live data, then when I finished I just disconnected it, and apart from that I got an little phone charger which has a little digital display where it shows car battery voltage in real time, I keep that connected most of the times. 

[nta16]

7 hours ago, Musa007 said:

I got an little phone charger which has a little digital display where it shows car battery voltage in real time, I keep that connected most of the times. 

I wonder how accurate these are for showing voltage and how long they might remain reliable, how the figures compare exactly to a multimeter and/or Carista doesn't really matter as long as the phone charger item gives constant results.

 

Obviously you do as you feel best for you personally I would not bother too much with watching the battery voltage figures and just do periodic checks and/or battery charging as required and/or use the battery charger maintainer twice a year and then as required.

 

You have a good new battery now and the knowledge to get a good life's use out of it so you can relax about the battery.  All the best.