Hi everyone. I am situated in the New Forest and I was wondering if there was any kind soul might help with battery coding. The battery on my Fabia 3 (2016) needs changing, its been complaining about it for some time, the last service I had said the battery was weak. So I have now got a Bosche 72ah AGM battery, but no way of changing the information on the computer. The number of videos I've watched makes it look so straight forward, if I had a VCDS or other tool to do the job.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

10 minutes ago, yaggiboom said:

I am situated in the New Forest

Where in the New Forest?

PM me if you like.

Thanks. AG Falco

Even with your new AGM battery don't let it get to the point of complaining, you can greatly extended the useful life of the battery by recharging the battery using an appropriate battery charger maintainer very occasionally for preventative recharges. Plenty of threads and posts on Briskoda and this forum with information on this, I know as I've put plenty of them on here.

It is very straightforward but it has to be done correctly with careful data entry (which is beyond some aid professionals) but you'll be in good hands with AG Falco as he has higher standards.

12 hours ago, AGFalco said:

Where in the New Forest?

PM me if you like.

Thanks. AG Falco

Ringwood. Battery arrives today, but its not an urgent request, the old one is still working at the moment. If you can help, thank you.

Up to you but I always fully charge the new battery after it arrives to 100% charge with an appropriate battery charger maintainer, it should take too long with a brand new battery. An AGM with potential at new of 12.7/8v can be delivered at 12.4v which is fine but I prefer to with a known fully charged battery. The VW stop/start computer program will soon have it at 80% to allow room for regenerative charging but it does the battery good to be recharged to 100% occasionally, as helpful prevention from getting too low too often and shortening its useful life.

If you're going from EFB to AGM and a change in Ah then you want the new battery 'coded in' sooner rather than later but not ultra urgent panic situation.

I'm sure AG Falco will at the same time clear any error codes that might have come up from if the last battery got too low and any other error codes deleted you want, good to have electronics/programs as clean and clear as possible.

I remember when the Ringwood brewery opened and before you know it's 25 years old then it's sold and just another brand and label with the Marsrton's name and on with our local mega-kegary Carlsburp, time can be so cruel.

Edited 20 June, 202520 Jun by nta16
typo

1 hour ago, nta16 said:

Hey, thanks for that. The battery I have purchased is an AGM 70Ah. Fortunately the only error that ever shows is that the battery needs charging by driving, and if parked, the infotainment system gets turned off. I went for the better battery as there was no point in skimping. The dealer quoted £280 to replace and code and I thought that was too expensive. The car is due its MOT and servicing in July, so I thought it was time to get the battery done ahead of that.
Yes, Ringwood brewery has been royally screwed over by the big corporation, no one was happy when they ceased brewing here. Thanks for your thoughts.

1 hour ago, yaggiboom said:

Fortunately the only error that ever shows is that the battery needs charging by driving, and if parked, the infotainment system gets turned off.

That has got a 2016 Fabia battery too low to get to that stage. First warning of low battery is when the stop/start isn't active when it should if you then drive the car sufficiently enough to put in more charge than you take out by the driving it should recover sufficiently But often just driving the car isn't enough to fully recover the battery for longer reliable battery life particularly if you use stop/start a lot, short journeys and/or heavy electric use, plus the VW system only want to go to about 80% charge to allow for retentive charging. Then you would be best to use an appropriate battery recharger maintainer for as low (amps) and long and possible to get to 100% recharge even if it takes two or three sessions. The very occasional preventative recharge with a appropriate battery charger maintainer would be even better and help the battery last longer.

By the time you get to the radio having to turn itself off again just driving might not be enough to fully recover the battery. The very last thing to go is the engine starting by this time the battery is very low indeed probably not just low in state of charge but also low in state of health and possibly useable reliable life.

Going from 70 Ah to 72 Ah is near enough not to worry until AG Falco can 'code' it. Bosch batteries I was told were/are(?) Varta batteries with a Bosch label (like other Bosch items).

You're (we're) supposed to have additional insulation for the AGM battery in the engine bay heat but the AGM battery in my wife's 2015 Fabia didn't even have the top cover for the original EFB so the AGM is well under protected but so far it doesn't seem to have mattered, or that it didn't get coded straight away, but it's only been 4 years so far so perhaps I'll find out more later.

All the best.

3 hours ago, nta16 said:

By the time you get to the radio having to turn itself off again just driving might not be enough to fully recover the battery. The very last thing to go is the engine starting by this time the battery is very low indeed probably not just low in state of charge but also low in state of health and possibly useable reliable life.

Going from 70 Ah to 72 Ah is near enough not to worry until AG Falco can 'code' it. Bosch batteries I was told were/are(?) Varta batteries with a Bosch label (like other Bosch items).

You're (we're) supposed to have additional insulation for the AGM battery in the engine bay heat but the AGM battery in my wife's 2015 Fabia didn't even have the top cover for the original EFB so the AGM is well under protected but so far it doesn't seem to have mattered, or that it didn't get coded straight away, but it's only been 4 years so far so perhaps I'll find out more later.

All the best.

I've put the new battery on charge, started at 12.8v and 1 bar and quickly increased to 13.2v and 2 bars. So I will leave it going until its fully charged. I can fit the battery myself, thats okay, but coding is the problem. I have a ELM 327 OBD11 interface, but I am unsure about whether it will allow data entry or just read the data or not.

Let AG Falco help you, he's an expert.

No need to charge a battery that's already at 12.8V, even an AGM. The first thing the car will do if you put a 100% charged battery in, and code it, is let it deplete back to around 80%.

So pointless.

10 hours ago, yaggiboom said:

Ringwood. Battery arrives today, but its not an urgent request, the old one is still working at the moment. If you can help, thank you.

I am away for two weeks.

But I need to go past Ringwood not long after I come back.

PM me if this is OK. ( Private Message )

Thanks. AG Falco

If the battery was at 12..8V (depending on the accuracy of your measuring device) then it ain't going to take long to get to 100% then (even with a 2, 2, 4-amp charger) - and yes as i put earlier -

11 hours ago, nta16 said:

The VW stop/start computer program will soon have it at 80% to allow room for regenerative charging but it does the battery good to be recharged to 100% occasionally, as helpful prevention from getting too low too often and shortening its useful life.

there's a blind echo and a parrot in the thread. 🙂

With the ELM327 it might depend on what it's teamed up with but I think you can code stuff but you'd have to ask users if they've done it successfully.

Edited 20 June, 202520 Jun by nta16

Hi, hope you don't mind me jumping on this thread.

Presumably coding the batteryis still worth doing, even with a 2016 superb.

The cheapest quote inbBournemouth I can find is £40. So if it's £40 to code it and a new battery is £160, is not coding the battery going to result in over a 25% loss in battery performance/life?

The guy who said he would do it for £40, told me not to botther and take my wife out for supper. 😃

Thanks

1 minute ago, bfg101 said:

not coding the battery going to result in over a 25% loss in battery performance/life?

Unlikely, I believe.

No one is likely to have good data about what if any effect non-coding will have long-term.

There'll be plenty of rumours and guesses though.

2 hours ago, bfg101 said:

Presumably coding the batteryis still worth doing, even with a 2016 superb.

It might depend on how different or not the new battery is to the old battery, hopefully you've seen all the posts on the important (for the sake of a word) bits of the 'coding' (data input, tapping figures on a computer program) then more important sometimes to do the data input correctly, not unknown for a professional to balls this up (why VW's computer program would allow this is another matter).

If the new battery is same type and near enough same Ah rating many feel things will sort themselves out without 'coding'. Lots of beliefs, and opinions, have no evidence yet they are still held, sometimes by masses. I'd not loose sleep either way but if there's easy and cheap 'coding' available I'd go for it, in fact I did - but I'd never pay anywhere near £40.

2 hours ago, bfg101 said:

The cheapest quote inbBournemouth I can find is £40.

Why pay £40? Particularly if you can get it coded by a Briskoda member with the facility for a beer token. If you want have a look here. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com-vcp-owners/#comment-3091029

Or perhaps A G Falco in North Dorset may be available, willing and able to help you but obviously I don't speak for him so you'd have to ask.

HTH.

Thanks for the reply.

The person 8n Bournemouth on that page you linked is apparently no longer active. I'll message AG Falco and see what he says.

Cheers

Fair enough, it was worth a look though.

Coding the battery isn't a difficult or complicated thing to do but like all computer programing, data entry stuff it needs to be done accurately and correctly and checked.

A G Falco seems very knowledgeable and very helpful and I would guess very particular and precise so if he's able to help a very good choice. He could also take a report then delete any existing error codes (any true error code problems will return of course) but you have the report for reference.

The likes of the VW computer systems will possibly have brain-farts or other type error codes on many days if you scanned the car everyday so some can be ignored and they go away by themselves, or remain and can be ignored, and different scanners can give different reports, you're relying on one set of computer programs reporting to another so who knows what reporting errors the combination might give, always best to also use the human senses (including "common sense") along with any computer stuff.

Good luck.

On 22/07/2025 at 06:35, bfg101 said:

I'll message AG Falco and see what he says.

PM me if you like.

Thanks. AG Falco

@ AG Falco, thanks for picking up on this thread. At the moment I don't have 20 content items so I can't PM you yet.

I'll post more and PM you once I'm allowed to.

Best wishes.

1 hour ago, bfg101 said:

I'll post more and PM you once I'm allowed to.

PM sent.

Thanks AG Falco