Installing a battery is not as simple as it used to be!

[grazuncle2]

This caused a little anxiety.. more to do with losing the ECU settings and battery registration/coding really.. However it may help some here to know what I had to do. My story is around OBDEleven adaptation coding specifically as that is what I have.. Ps You need a Pro or better plan to get into adaptations

There are many YT videos on VW coding.. look at them. Also how to remove the battery.. might seem obvious, but - more on that later.

First of all - you NEED a memory saver and a power source for it: If you don't keep the car's memory powered you will lose all sorts of settings you have made for the car and the Radio security code etc. See photo of my kit below... An OBD plug for the OD socket (blue arrow) and something to power it - My 12v car starter battery (red arrow) was perfect and I knew it could keep the power going long enough to last the battery changing time.

memory saver.png (1.06 MiB) Viewed 1772 times

Next:
from other YT video... It seems there are a few different ways of battery adaptations out there for OBDEleven app. some require you to enter the three sets of data in one line separated by a single space and others are a lot simpler Just four fields to enter battery data. I didn't know without looking first and it put me off doing it myself at first; for two reasons.

The battery I bought does not have the OEM type code on it and I would not be able to input the single line adaptation code without that information. So.. check with the app FIRST just so you know what you are letting yourself into! If you check after it is fitted and you don't have OEM coding on the battery you won't know what to enter. and second .. It would be frustrating to get all the heavy work done only to stall at this point.

However IF (as in my case) you have the simple adaption method.. it won't matter either way.. all the information you need will be on the battery - AMP Hour (60 in my case) Manufacturer (I put YUA for Yuasa) Serial number. (it was already, for original battery) 10 x 1s in my case so i entered 1111111112 to register a different battery) then the type of battery (it was already EFB so I left it as it was)


Before starting out with the replacement and watching other Polo battery removal. I realised it was not a simple matter of undoing two bolts (Pos and Neg terminals) there is an array of plastic and covered cables directly over the top of the Battery! How you get these things of is not always simple. there are clips running down the side of the battery; both sides you need a longish screwdriver to manoeuvre the clips away from the battery. There is even a metal strap over the top too (10mm nut)

You need 10mm spanner as you can't get to the nuts with a socket on my Polo with the covers. You need a 13mm socket for the loosen the battery clamp at the base and then release the plastic side clips and lift up as high as you can. Even with the cover raised up it was difficult to get the battery from underneath as the cables don't stretch away much.

In with the new battery..

remove the Memory saver (presuming your new battery is not flat!) LOL

Now put your battery details into the adaptations section of the app. Phew!

[grazuncle2]

forgot OBDEleven app route to battery adaption .. on my version.

battery registration.png (252.86 KiB) Viewed 1770 times

[MikeDO]

Good write up

Cars are just wayyy to complicated these days

[RUM4MO]

The more involved way to reg new batteries really only applies to much older VW Group cars when BEM was king, that restrictive nonsense was thrown away years ago, my old 2011 Audi S4has that "way of working", but my wife's 2015 VW Polo is the newer easier way of reg'ng a new battery.

It is, in my simple mind, a bit strange that VW and possibly Skoda just preload the "serial number" field with "1's" whereas Audi and SEAT do actually load that field at the assembly line, with the actual battery serial number, I'd think that the QR on VW Group is there mainly to make that easy to do at the assembly stage, but who knows why VW and Skoda save a bit of time by ignoring that.

I'm just writing this to give a bit of assurance to people who still have not needed to swop their own batteries, ie, it is just so easy if you have the necessary fully VW Group compliant scan tool.

The car should be able to survive being left without any power while you do this, it is probably over 20 years since radio security codes were needed, now with cars with electric windows and electric power assist on the steering, it should just be a case of resetting the electric window end stops and driving a short distance and applying lock to lock steering and then all should be okay.

I too always plan to use a support unit for the car when removing the battery, but that is mainly because I don't want to lose my fuel economy stats!! Though I prefer to use a normal battery as a support power source than a compact capacitive jump starter.

Edit:- the EFB battery in my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 8C is still "okay" - though during the Covid period I did provide it with a bit of smart charging from time to time, its replacement AGM battery has been bought, but so far the original is still looking okay when I test it, dying slowly, but not yet at risk of letting us down.

[grazuncle2]

great information and can only improve the information on this forum..

regarding the long route to battery adaptation.. I got put off initially because in a particular YT video (and i must have seen tens of them LOL) it had more steps to it (on the same OBD11 app) and it was on a young-ish vehicle (2017 Audi)

it could be the app has since been updated but the route to it was similar to my first three images in second post and then went awry and away from mine.

Regarding the battery booster... I guessed there would be some capacitance in the ECU but i was already anxious about doing it and 'if' the battery didn't come off as quick as expected, didn't want to risk it; not knowing the full implications. I will say check the output of the booster... I found mine has timed out in the past after 20 seconds on the 12v utility socket unless there was a certain draw on it.. whereas the jump/crocodile leads were, on a similar low draw load, able to keep live for 20 minutes.

I did toy with the idea of using the battery I bought and some fancy wiring... it could have worked on paper but again the anxiety showed up.. I suppose this is all amusing to many here who know coding backwards and have a lot of expereince in all of this.. I'm just hoping it will be useful for a newbie (and still am) like me.

[RUM4MO]

I found that there was lots of confusion/conflicts when I first started to spend/waste lots of time trying to be prepared as much as possible before actually replacing the battery on my 2011 Audi S4, that car uses an earlier version of battery management system but still within the the CAN-Gateway controller, what is on cars now is the easier and more logical way of doing that, some cars earlier than my 2011 Audi S4 had a separate Battery Management System controller, plus there was lots of "oh, if you don't try to create a newer version of the part number of your battery - the world will end" sort of thing.

With regards to your capacitive jump starter, my lack of knowledge of what exactly it was offering was why I was questioning using one of them, but it seems that it offers a "12V support" output, so okay. Really just a better safe than sorry way of thinking for others to consider before using one of them.

One question on that capacitive jump starter, can or do you check it for its ability to boost a battery now and again, I'm asking that question because I'm sure that I've read maybe on another motoring forum of someone ending up being let down by his one, when trying to give another car user assistance! So, as his father also bought a similar but not the same brand one at the same time, he thought that he'd check that one out, it too failed, both maybe 4 years old. Root cause of failure was unknown. They do seem extremely handy and compact things to own though, I've just not bought one yet.

[grazuncle2]

I agree wholeheartedly on the searching for information and some of replies you get.. from it is easy or, as you say.. 'the world will end!'

I find looking at more than a few sites will give a more rounded answer and you get to find who really has good knowledge rather than guessing.

My booster: I have used it on my neighbour's car many times last winter when the battery on his diesel let him down. I had it for a year before actually needing it so did wonder what was going to happen when the neighbour knocked the door 8 am Sunday morning and asked if I had jump leads.. (I don't) It spun the engine so fast a few seconds after hooking it up!.. from the few times I used it without charging it back up I guess I could have used it up to 7/8 times esp as it started quickly rather than labouring. I did start my brother's 2.5 straight six, petrol, BMW.. that turned over well but took at least three seconds of turn over before coming to life. So perhaps just 4 times for that scenario before recharging it.

This pack has jumped in price, as has everything else, since I bought it.

regarding coding.. I'm finding the options in the OBDEleven app are in German.. another hurdle.

this was funny; The options being in German only. I saw a review, by a German citizen, on a battery tester and he complained that the written instructions were only in English and in brackets he put (is this lawful?)

[RUM4MO]

My experience, many many years ago, of helping a neighbour who had a flat battery was a complete failure!
I had bought a "quality" set of longish jump leads quite a few years prior to this, but had never ever needed to use them, so when the door bell rang, I went into my garage and grabbed the leads from the boot of my car - fitting them between that car and another car that was running, made absolutely no difference - so, later I checked the crimped areas at the clamps - completely rubbish way of terminating high current leads! So, I harvested wire clamps from a faulty contactor at work, and used them to terminate the wires properly - but since then I've never needed to use jump leads! I think that I'd be very reluctant to give or accept a jump start from anyone with modern cars, unless they or I had suitable jump leads with built in spark suppression devices built in.

Edit:- mind you, I'd think that all or most of these compact capacitor based jump packs will have adequate spark suppression built in.

[grazuncle2]

OMG.. not what you expected to happen!

you did well to rescue the situation... you worked as electrical engineer perhaps?

My unit (Lithium ion) has an enclosed switch on the side and you can turn on the device after connecting up...