GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Peter_S on 22 October 2019, 15:50
-
I took the car this morning to the local VW dealer to have a wheel alignment adjustment.
It sounded a bit "tired" when I started it up (in the garage at home) so I asked them to check battery and alternator.
The car is MY16 (April)
Complimentary Express Visual Check two weeks ago gave a battery ok report - I asked them to specifically to check it because it had gone flat on me a few days before.
When I picked the car up I was presented (very nicely and politely) with a "Battery worn out" printout.
They're quoting £328.65 including labour and presumably VAT to supply and fit a new one.
Can this be right? !!
Peter_S
-
At the very least I'd be asking for a breakdown of that cost...
See quite what they are doing to make a 10 minute £100 battery swap into that sort of eye watering figure.
-
A top spec Bosch AGM battery is currently aboout £205 with express delivery from eurocarparts with discount code GHOST80
-
Main dealers! Audi were going to charge me half an hour labour to change the headlight switch on my old A4 which took the service assistant less than 1 minute to do (no exaggeration, I was shocked how quick it was and how much they wanted to charge me, bloody robbery). A different Audi garage wanted nearly £50 off a colleague to change a rear indicator bulb, a 5 minute job, the same to adjust the washers and £175 to replace a rusty exhaust clamp!
As for the OP's battery, do it yourself or just go elsewhere. Bear in mind though that apparently the car's brain needs to be told the battery is new. If you can't do it yourself then perhaps a friendly fellow forumite with OBD11 can oblige...
-
Colleague of mine at work today mentioned her battery had failed local garage said there had been batch of dud batteries put into golfs they were able to check and are putting in a new battery under warranty her car is two year old maybe worth checking out
-
After several in-car warnings about it needing charging I expected a similar report during my service just before end of warranty, nothing was mentioned. About 2 weeks later I had an experience when it took a few goes to start, took it to the garage, similar quote for a new battery. I argued the toss , was offered some money towards it, rang VW uk and actually got it FOC, the customer advisor was quite surprised with that result. I guess I was lucky it was literally only a few weeks out of warranty.
-
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
-
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/archive/what_causes_car_batteries_to_fail
-
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
Well my battery gave up the ghost last year at 30 months old at around 17k miles (replaced under warranty) and I’ve had stop /start disabled (via obdeleven) for most of the life of the car. There been quite a few R owners have had the battery fail within the original warranty period, replaced under warranty.
-
that is very interesting!
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/archive/what_causes_car_batteries_to_fail
-
I think I was so shocked at the time I forgot to ask for a breakdown.
I've since found out the price incl VAT of the battery from another dealer in the same group, £190.66
Enhanced Flooded something I think they said, hence the high cost.
So that would give fitting, disposal etc. of £137.99, right?
Yesterday, the Service Supervisor said the work would include inputting several "codes" after the battery is installed. Does that make sense?
Not like the old days when all we had to remember was the radio code after we put a new battery in!
Peter_S
At the very least I'd be asking for a breakdown of that cost...
See quite what they are doing to make a 10 minute £100 battery swap into that sort of eye watering figure.
-
Info on battery types, coding etc:
https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7926
Long gone are the days of a 40 quid battery from Halfords and fit in 2 mins yourself
-
I had an AGM supplied and fitted by Halfords in April, £180 ish including the coding to tell the car it had a new battery.
-
I had an AGM supplied and fitted by Halfords in April, £180 ish including the coding to tell the car it had a new battery.
That's more like it...
-
what is a normal SOC % after a long drive?
-
Thanks for that comparative info, at least the VW battery quote is slightly less which is a good thing of course.
Peter_S
[quo te author=boardlord link=topic=285795.msg2611804#msg2611804 date=1571758691]
A top spec Bosch AGM battery is currently aboout £205 with express delivery from eurocarparts with discount code GHOST80
[/quote]
-
I had an AGM supplied and fitted by Halfords in April, £180 ish including the coding to tell the car it had a new battery.
The AGM battery is £125.60 with the Trade card now, and coding is simple 5 minutes to do by anyone with a cable local or OBDEleven. £328 is a total dealer rip off.
-
Thanks Watts, again.
It’s beyond my capabilities I’m afraid.
But I’ll ask the indie who looks after my wife’s MINI Cooper if they can do it.
They’re very good and I trust them.
Peter_S
Main dealers! Audi were going to charge me half an hour labour to change the headlight switch on my old A4 which took the service assistant less than 1 minute to do (no exaggeration, I was shocked how quick it was and how much they wanted to charge me, bloody robbery). A different Audi garage wanted nearly £50 off a colleague to change a rear indicator bulb, a 5 minute job, the same to adjust the washers and £175 to replace a rusty exhaust clamp!
As for the OP's battery, do it yourself or just go elsewhere. Bear in mind though that apparently the car's brain needs to be told the battery is new. If you can't do it yourself then perhaps a friendly fellow forumite with OBD11 can oblige...
-
Toeman, funnily enough I was thinking along those lines this morning.
Thanks for your suggestion.
I definitely will check it out.
I recall that my Mk V GTI (bought new by me 2006) had its battery replaced under warranty after 5 months.
I'm going to get a trusted second opinion from an non-VW dealer on the condition of the battery before I go back to the VW dealer.
Peter_S
BTW, just for clarification, your colleague's car was Golf, right? Also, the local garage was a VW dealer, right?
Colleague of mine at work today mentioned her battery had failed local garage said there had been batch of dud batteries put into golfs they were able to check and are putting in a new battery under warranty her car is two year old maybe worth checking out
-
Yes, I took advantage (if that's the right word) of the Express Visual Check a couple of weeks ago. I specifically asked them to check the battery (outside of EVC) which they did. Battery and alternator reported ok. Yesterday, same garage said "Battery worn out".
I got those in-car warnings about 2-3 weeks ago too.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, very interesting and useful to know.
Did you personally contact VW? Did they fit it for too?
My warranty ran out in May 2019 but full-service history from new - I'm still willing to give it a go though.
Peter_S
After several in-car warnings about it needing charging I expected a similar report during my service just before end of warranty, nothing was mentioned. About 2 weeks later I had an experience when it took a few goes to start, took it to the garage, similar quote for a new battery. I argued the toss , was offered some money towards it, rang VW uk and actually got it FOC, the customer advisor was quite surprised with that result. I guess I was lucky it was literally only a few weeks out of warranty.
-
Talk-torque, interesting point.
I have always turned it off as soon as I get in the car though.
However, I understand why some say it works great in combination with DSG - just leave it in Drive when you stop/start. That is good.
Peter_S
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
-
A really excellent article that makes a lot of sense - well, at least to a non-technical person like me.
I'm now really minded to wait a few weeks to see if things settle down.
"During the last 20 years, battery testing lagged behind other technologies. The reason: the battery is a very difficult animal to test, short of applying a full charge, discharge and recharge. The battery behaves similar to us humans. We still don't know why we perform better on certain days than others."
I'm really concerned now about the VW dealer battery test printout yesterday showing "Battery worn out".
I think this may be right. A few months ago I heard someone on a BBC Radio 4 science program saying the same thing. She was a professor of physics at some celebrated university who had just won a prestigious scientific award on something to do with batteries. Anyway, she openly admitted that we do not know anything like we should about what chemistry exactly goes on inside batteries. It was a big problem.
Now, back to my case. It's made me think that 8k miles pa is not a lot is it? The car can sometimes sit in the garage for 2 or 3 days, probably three times a month. We do the normal short runs but we do go on longer motorway journeys 3 or 4 times a month. We do like our heated seats on low in the Winter months and the A/C is always on. The infotainment including Car-Net and Apple CarPlay is never off. I won't bore people with the other habits I'm ashamed to admit to that I know consume power when I'm in the car e.g. Huawei E8372 Wingle permanently hooked-up to the 12V socket in the boot.
Maybe the battery does need a damn good charge and or refresh cycle. My CTEK 3600 battery charger is temporarily in store just now otherwise I'd go out and put on full charge after reading the article fredgroves provided for us.
Peter_S
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/archive/what_causes_car_batteries_to_fail
-
Really good to know. Thanks.
Very very interested in "stop /start disabled (via obdeleven)' and I'll come back to that in another separate post or PM to you if that's alright?
That's really given me confidence to pursue a warranty goodwill claim even though mine expired May 2019
Don't they test for these things at services - it's called preventative maintenance I believe.
Short service (well not that short, as it cost me £465 I recall) was done at dealer's on 16 May this year, just before warranty ran out.
Peter_S
I wonder if the battery is more likely to fail early if stop/start is used? We currently use it on both our cars, (my Golf and wife’s Fabia Estate) as it now works so well, but is this, maybe, a reason not to?
Well my battery gave up the ghost last year at 30 months old at around 17k miles (replaced under warranty) and I’ve had stop /start disabled (via obdeleven) for most of the life of the car. There been quite a few R owners have had the battery fail within the original warranty period, replaced under warranty.
-
jv, brilliant - thanks. I'll study that link later tonight.
I left the dealer's yesterday with the impression that only they had the kit and expertise to swap batteries.
Well, I suppose they would say that wouldn't they?
Yes, it's hard for some of us to move on from those good old days isn't it? Good times though. :smiley:
Peter_S
Info on battery types, coding etc:
https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7926
Long gone are the days of a 40 quid battery from Halfords and fit in 2 mins yourself
-
This is getting even better, many thanks.
I'm going down there (full Halfords servicing and repair garage) tomorrow for a quote - only 5 minutes walk from where I live. Always a very busy place so they must be doing something right.
I know the manager of a local KwikFit (don't laugh) who has done good work for us so I'll contact them too.
I'm still not sure whether to laugh or cry at the VW quote of £328.65!
Do you think the VW dealer would price-match the Halfords or Kwikfit Price - I bet they would.
Peter_S
I had an AGM supplied and fitted by Halfords in April, £180 ish including the coding to tell the car it had a new battery.
-
Yes it is, isn't it?
I had an AGM supplied and fitted by Halfords in April, £180 ish including the coding to tell the car it had a new battery.
That's more like it...
-
At the risk of being off-topic, what was that undocumented battery condition function I recall that we can call up on our MFD?
Peter_S
what is a normal SOC % after a long drive?
-
State of Charge SOC but I think it's been deleted on most models now probably due to cost cutting. My 2013 gtd had it but my 2016 GTi doesn't.
-
mcmaddy, thanks for that.
I must have got it confused with my Mk V which I believe had it somewhere, hidden.
Peter_S
State of Charge SOC but I think it's been deleted on most models now probably due to cost cutting. My 2013 gtd had it but my 2016 GTi doesn't.
-
Philip, I've been to Halfords today.
This is it isn't it: https://www.halfordsautocentres.com/car-batteries/halfords--096agm-start-stop-agm-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee
Now £157 plus £25 fitting and disposal incl VAT, £182
No brainer really especially with it being a Yuasa and the 5 year guarantee.
It will be interesting to see if the VW/Varta made in Korea one can match that.
Thanks again for that tip.
Peter_S
I had an AGM supplied and fitted by Halfords in April, £180 ish including the coding to tell the car it had a new battery.
-
I think my question above got missed, what is a normal SOC % after a long journey?
-
Philip, I've been to Halfords today.
This is it isn't it: https://www.halfordsautocentres.com/car-batteries/halfords--096agm-start-stop-agm-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee
Now £157 plus £25 fitting and disposal incl VAT, £182
No brainer really especially with it being a Yuasa and the 5 year guarantee.
It will be interesting to see if the VW/Varta made in Korea one can match that.
Thanks again for that tip.
Peter_S
Yes, that’s the one. I can’t testify to the longevity as I part exchanged the car three months later but I have seven Yuasa AGM batteries on my boat which are still holding full charge and output after two years of deep cycle discharge / charge so I have absolute confidence in the quality.
-
anyone else seeing huge ads within the posts, like this:
(https://i.ibb.co/HCGkhGv/Screenshot-2019-10-29-at-09-57-57.png) (https://ibb.co/VxMPwMy)
-
anyone else seeing huge ads within the posts, like this:
(https://i.ibb.co/HCGkhGv/Screenshot-2019-10-29-at-09-57-57.png) (https://ibb.co/VxMPwMy)
Yes, very annoying aren't they! Probably a necessary evil of this 'free' to use forum!
-
Hmm, that's Google and their auto ads feature, way too aggressive by the looks of it so will sort later.
-
thanks, yeah that's the word for it!
-
Philip, noted thanks. That's good to know.
When we lived in Weymouth many years ago, I think we were the only people in the neighbourhood who did _not_ have some sort of a boat!
I've always regretted that :smiley:
I made up for it though by doing quite a bit of fishing in the then Portland Naval Base/docks and off Chesil Beach. Good times.
I'm still not sure if I can trust the dealer diagnosis "Battery worn out" (a very technical expression, not.)
I'm monitoring it for the next few days before I get a second opinion and decide to replace it or not.
Peter_S
Philip, I've been to Halfords today.
This is it isn't it: https://www.halfordsautocentres.com/car-batteries/halfords--096agm-start-stop-agm-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee
Now £157 plus £25 fitting and disposal incl VAT, £182
No brainer really especially with it being a Yuasa and the 5 year guarantee.
It will be interesting to see if the VW/Varta made in Korea one can match that.
Thanks again for that tip.
Peter_S
Yes, that’s the one. I can’t testify to the longevity as I part exchanged the car three months later but I have seven Yuasa AGM batteries on my boat which are still holding full charge and output after two years of deep cycle discharge / charge so I have absolute confidence in the quality.
-
jv, it's nice to know your looking after our interests. Thanks. Peter_S
Hmm, that's Google and their auto ads feature, way too aggressive by the looks of it so will sort later.
-
Should be back to the basic simple advert top and bottom of each page.
Yes it does help pay the bills so if you don't use adblock and click on the odd advert occasionally...
-
Philip, I've been to Halfords today.
This is it isn't it: https://www.halfordsautocentres.com/car-batteries/halfords--096agm-start-stop-agm-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee
Now £157 plus £25 fitting and disposal incl VAT, £182
No brainer really especially with it being a Yuasa and the 5 year guarantee.
It will be interesting to see if the VW/Varta made in Korea one can match that.
Thanks again for that tip.
Peter_S
If you know anyone with a trade card it is just over £125, takes 5minutes to fit and Halfords recycle the old one free. Any local with VCDS cable or OBDEleven can code it for the price of a pint. It can save even more.