I've changed the battery on my Mk3 Fabia (EFB for EFB) and have a couple of questions.

1. New battery is Varta and the Ah is now 60 (I believe the original EFB one was 59) so after reading several threads on here I need to have it coded. I've reached out to someone from the VCDS list on the site but they haven't posted since 2023 so hopefully they are still doing it (they are only a few miles away from me too).

2. I've just watched a video of someone changing the same battery as me. On one of the terminal covers is a plastic plug which he broke off and inserted into the hole on the "+" side of the battery. Do I have to do this? It did have plugs in when I received the battery but all the documentation said to remove these straight away which I did.

I removed mine as well as according to the info I got with the battery there for transit only if I remember. I believe the battery needs to be coded if its start stop. Someone on here may clarify that.

Yes it is best to code if you can but as you have kept the same type of battery and near enough Ah it's not desperate to be done and some owners haven't bothered with no issues years later. Whether no 'coding' the battery in these circumstances really makes any odds to battery life is debatable and I'm not convinced even VW would know now or tell you as the programmers and program origin would be some sort of "legacy" to previous contractors and employees, I might be wrong, try asking VW if you enjoy a challenge.

The coding is to let the computer program know you have replaced an older battery with a new battery and change the program if it is of a different type of battery (AGM normally) all the rest was for VW statistics and even then the factory didn't bother by some reports from owner's on here, my wife's 2015 car had the ten 1s as a "serial number".

The following was from a Briskoda member with an OBDEleven that done the coding on my wife's car, as you can see I didn't even bother with the three letter battery maker code, if the chap hadn't have been a VW Aldi fan I've have asked him to put the battery as Tosch, and of course VW can't call AGM as AGM but as "fleece", because they're like that.

IF your previous battery had a venting tube attached to it then you would put that in one or both battery venting holes, if only one venting hole is used the other end would be plugged - but as the battery is in the engine bay it probably doesn't have venting tube(s) so both vents on the battery remain unplugged to vent.

HTH.

7 hours ago, zom414 said:

I've changed the battery on my Mk3 Fabia (EFB for EFB) and have a couple of questions.

@zom414 Where in the UK are you.

PM me, if you are local to me.

Thanks. AG Falco

12 hours ago, AGFalco said:

@zom414 Where in the UK are you.

PM me, if you are local to me.

Thanks. AG Falco

Thanks AG Falco but my mate has got VCDS so gonna do it tomorrow for me.

I'll be back if there's any problems though 🙂

Do check he gets everything correct, computers are very, very, dumb, and their programs have errors and omissions so you don't want to add any of your own - we had one poster who had an auto-electrician put in 7 Ah instead of 70 Ah and the new battery didn't last too long with this, why the VW battery program allowed such a low figure is a matter of VW programming error.