Rubbish Battery Quality!

[Teflon]

What sort of rubbish is VW fitting on cars nowadays?

Last year, my wife's Eos (10k miles, always garaged) needed a new battery at less than 4 years old. Cost me £70. I put it down to maybe the demands of the electric roof mechanism, but to be honest, I was pretty miffed.

This morning, my Passat (3.5 years old, 20k miles) needed the RAC to jump start it. I didn't flatten the battery, it had discharged overnight so it looks like another £70 is going to be down the drain. Strangely, they were both Varta, whereas the Bosch on my Golf is still going strong.

[gingernut352000]

£70 is a cheap battery now adays mine was over £100 and the same on my iwfes beetle and that wasnt from ********* a recommended motor factors. who only supply top notch. did come with a 5 year warranty though.

[ToMBoY_C]

I bought a Varta Platinum or something, over £100!

[jmm86]

at those milages are you doing lots of short journeys?

[Quatrelle]

My Passat, just over 5 years old, 42,000kms (25k miles approx) has a Varta battery, and no problems (famous last words), so I doubt if it's because the car isn't used very much. Do you have any after-market accessories that might be draining them?

Either I'm lucky or you're very unlucky!

Edit - I don't use mine for journeys of less than 20kms - I use the Laguna for short trips which incidentally starts fine on a 6-year-old cheap battery.

[passa]

Yesterday I put on a new Bosch battery to replace the existing Varta on my 07 B6 because it was starting to get a sluggish turning over in cold weather and it's absolutely fine now. That's not to say it will be for ever, but I got the Bosch from Costco, £72 inc VAT and a 4 year replacement warranty.

[Stuart W2]

My battery was well on the way out before the warranty ran out.

When my fuel pump packed in I flattened the battery trying to turn it over just two or three times.

They replaced the pump under warranty OK, but said it was my taximeter that had flattened the battery, because they noticed it was switched on when they recovered the vehicle.

That was drivel because the meter shouldn't pull the battery down even with the car stationary a few hours and I always switched it off at the end of the night anyway, and failing that it switches off automatically after it's been inactive for half an hour or so. There had been absolutely no problem when the battery was new.

Anyway, the battery just got worse and when I took it in for the next service they managed to flatten it while doing the service so it wouldn't start!

But by that time the warranty had run out so I had to pay £100 for a replacement.

The replacement has been fine, and there was obviously a problem with the original, but of course it was all my fault!!

Ironically my auto electrician has since told me that the reason the meter had been switched on when VW recovered the car with the flat battery was because the low voltage switches the meter back on. Which seems illogical to my mind, but I don't know much about auto-electrics!!

Having said all that I suspect my duff battery was just a rogue rather than a wider problem, or the B6 forum would have been full of similar complaints over the years, but I can't really recall anyone complaining.

[Teflon]

Just looked up a replacement for the Passat. Bosch
£70 is a cheap battery now adays mine was over £100 and the same on my iwfes beetle and that wasnt from ********* a recommended motor factors. who only supply top notch. did come with a 5 year warranty though.
Just looked up a replacement for the Passat. Could get Bosch as cheap as £64 (3 year guarantee), but a real beast of a battery was £74 delivered. Exide £69. I'll not be buying any more Varta. I've got a mate with a little garage, so £70 was for the biggest that would fit in the wife's car, fitted, using his trade discount.

The queer thing is that the battery is a scrawny little thing, only 61Ah and 510A. Much smaller (physically and in terms of capacity) than my Golf. It just doesn't seem right for a diesel!

I wouldn't mind if I'd had all short journeys, but it gets a reasonably mixed regime. The problem was the day after a 3 mile journey in daylight with the heated seats on. The alternator tested fine, so it's definately the box of volts.

[Crasher]

To be honest I think you have been misdiagnosed or just unlucky as I find VAG genuine batteries are excellent and they typically last around six years which is very good. Genuine replacement batteries are my preferred choice, they are surprisingly affordable and fit properly, the number of cars I see with poor fitting non genuine batteries is depressing.

[Europa25]

My Passat is 6 years old this month, and the start turnover is very slow at times, though it starts in a second or so. :D

Haven't used the car in less than 5c yet this winter, but think it needs to be changed.
Going for a express diagnostic on the battery this week.

However, VW quoting £182 for a replacement (2.0 TDi) . Seems high to me, and could do without it post christmas ! (Incl fitting)
Guess it comes with standard 2 year guarantee.

See Halfords do 3 types, with the Bosch Platinum coming in at £130. 5 year guarantee. £7 fitting.

Is the Passat battery change just standard like any other car - and would you trust the Halfords guys not to blow a / the circuit ?!!

Beginning to think a new VW battery should last 5 years anyhow (80% motorway use), and is another £45 just worth it for peace of mind ?!

Just seems alot of cash, I remember when car batteries were expensive at 20 quid !!

[Crasher]

See *********(!)

I thought we had banned people referring to Halfords in that manner? :(

[Europa25]

Apologies crasher, just thought it may be a forum term used in banter, I have corrected it .

In fact my first job in 82 was in Halfords and served me well :D
Glad to be a proud member / contributor of VTTS -Vulcan to the sky- too.

Didn't mean to offend, all the best

[fat controller]

My Passat is 6 years old this month, and the start turnover is very slow at times, though it starts in a second or so. :D

Haven't used the car in less than 5c yet this winter, but think it needs to be changed.
Going for a express diagnostic on the battery this week.

However, VW quoting £182 for a replacement (2.0 TDi) . Seems high to me, and could do without it post christmas ! (Incl fitting)
Guess it comes with standard 2 year guarantee.

See Halfords do 3 types, with the Bosch Platinum coming in at £130. 5 year guarantee. £7 fitting.

Is the Passat battery change just standard like any other car - and would you trust the Halfords guys not to blow a / the circuit ?!!

Beginning to think a new VW battery should last 5 years anyhow (80% motorway use), and is another £45 just worth it for peace of mind ?!

Just seems alot of cash, I remember when car batteries were expensive at 20 quid !!

Eurocarparts sell Lion batteries for just under £50 (http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volkswagen_Passat_2.0_2007/p/car-parts/car-electrics-and-car-lighting/electrical/car-battery/?444770271&1&5600b0afdbc42d0f773feba511eb711ead5e7d50&000020) - admittedly, they are a bit of a no name brand really, but it comes with a three year guarantee (I know that says £56.34 on there, but there is 15% off batteries on their website at the moment.

This Bosch one (http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volkswagen_Passat_2.0_2007/p/car-parts/car-electrics-and-car-lighting/electrical/car-battery/?444770275&1&5600b0afdbc42d0f773feba511eb711ead5e7d50&000020) works out at £55.03 after the discount.

Batteries are easy enough to fit (certainly not worth paying Halfords another £80 or so more!), and if you can't do it yourself, I'd like to bet that there is friend or a neighbour that could help?

[Darektarantula]

I've bought Varta last Dec. from Thompson's @ ebay, it was around 90 quid.

[Europa25]

Thanks fat controller, Euro Car Parts have a choice of 24 batteries!

Got a Bosch one, 4 yr guarantee. £100 cheaper than VW, mechanic fitting it next week .

Didn't even realise there was a Euro Car Parts in Sussex, looks brand new, just behind Toyota on Manor Royal.

[fat controller]

You're welcome :)

I've used Eurocarparts a few times, and they have never let me down; they do seem to be expanding too - good luck to them, I say, as their prices are decent and they seem to carry huge stocks of parts.

[Crasher]

good luck to them, I say

I don't feel the same way but at least someone managed to get the knife out of my back!

[ToMBoY_C]

Apologies crasher, just thought it may be a forum term used in banter I have corrected it .

In fact my first job in 82 was in Halfords and served me well :D
Glad to be a proud member / contributor of VTTS -Vulcan to the sky- too.

Didn't mean to offend, all the best

Of course it's car forum banter! Been that way for years!

[Crasher]

Of course it's car forum banter! Been that way for years!

I know it is but how would you feel if someone jokingly referred to you as a fraudster? For myself it is the same as calling main dealers ******** (this will be **'d out hopefully) which infers they are thieves. I don't and never have worked for either and I know that neither is perfect and in the case of a main dealer the service is very variable and Halfords are quite expensive with often very young and inexperienced sales staff but both perform a useful, in the case of the main dealer indispensable, service.

[fat controller]

Have you had a bad experience with Euro then Crasher?

To be fair, although they are expensive, Halfords have also proved handy to me over the years - I had a bit of an issue many years ago with their 'garage servicing' who raided my wallet on a number of occasions, attempting to fix a Volvo that I had. In fairness to them, the car was a bit of a lemon, so in hindsight it should maybe have gone to a more specialist sort of place.

[maddogphysics]

Don't buy a new battery.

Buy a C-Tek battery charger which will re-condition your battery and de-sulphate it all for about £60.

Well worth the money and will save your existing battery and breathe new life into it.

[Crasher]

Have you had a bad experience with Euro then Crasher?

More than one!

[Teflon]

Don't buy a new battery.

Buy a C-Tek battery charger which will re-condition your battery and de-sulphate it all for about £60.

Well worth the money and will save your existing battery and breathe new life into it.
So the option is to spend £70 on a new battery, or £60 on a doodad that (even if it works) is only for batteries up to 32Ah (i.e. motorbike/jet ski sized)? I know which route is for me.

I've seen snake oil that can decoke a VNT turbo, magnetic modifiers that can improve fuel consumption and I'm sure that someone, somewhere is selling psychic crystals that will make your engine run sweeter. I'm not suggesting that this is in the same category, but I'm not taking the chance.

I looked with an open mind, honest I did. I even looked on their website to find out how it miraculously brings a battery back from the dead. It doesn't. Looks like a dead parrot stays just that; it's shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir evisibule.

[maddogphysics]

....er, where did you get the figure of 32AHr's from?

My C-Tek is capable of charging up to 220 AHr and has already reconditioned countless batteries at my place of work, including my battery and two of my caravan leisure batteries, one of which was initially refusing to charge on my original Halfords battery charger.

It's not magic you know, it's called Chemistry and Physics.

[Crasher]

I lost the wall charger for my 40Ah jump pack so I used my friends C Tek. It fully charged the battery according to its display very quickly but then again the jump pack is brand new. However when I found the wall charger it took another few hours before the jump pack itself said it was fully charged. The first C Tek he bought failed immediately but they did replace it. Personally I would rather have the peace of mind of a new quality battery but unfortunately these days the quality bit is hard to find. As people are tight for money these days there is a huge market for cheap batteries and they are rubbish as are Chinese tyres, you get what you pay for. You can tell tell a lot about the owner of a car by their tyres, just as in days of old when people used to say a persons shoes said a lot about the wearer.

[Teflon]

....er, where did you get the figure of 32AHr's from?


I clicked on your link, where it says............drum roll ......... "The CTEK XS0.8 Battery Charger is an advanced battery charger, suitable for batteries up to 32Ah".

Busted!

It says the same on their website. http://www.ctekchargers.co.uk/ctek-xs08.php All they are claiming is that it is a battery charger with a very underwhelming 0.8A.

They do sell big boy chargers up to 25A (maybe the one Crasher used), but nothing that does anything special and there's no claim to breathe life into a corpse. To be fair it looks like they make good tackle if what you need is your battery charged and they can deal with deeply discharged ones that maybe a Halfords special will struggle with.

As for "chemistry and physics", until they (or you) provide an explanation of how it achieves the previously impossible, I'll settle for voodoo and BS for the easily led. A lot of chargers claim to deal with an amount of sulphating. I know a good place where you can buy a perpetual motion machine if you fancy one.


Later ........ I see you've edited the link from your post. I'll take that as an apology then. For those who missed it .............http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_2 55205_productId_818863_langId_-1

[maddogphysics]

..quite right, I'm afraid I made a mistake.

The C-Tek charger I bought is the same in the following link and has proved itself on a number of occassions:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CTEK-Multi-MXS-5-0-12V-Battery-Charger-Replaces-XS4003-NEW-MODEL-/120779405672?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item1c1f037968

However, this one charges to 110 AHr (I thought it was 220AHr but that is a higher spec model)

Sorry about that.

But it does work and has already resurrected one of my caravan leisure batteries.

[maddogphysics]

oh, and by the way, the older you get Teflon, the less you seem to know. How true.

[Teflon]

oh, and by the way, the older you get Teflon, the less you seem to believe. How true.

There. Fixed it for you.

I was going to apologise for the rant, 'cos you caught me in a bad mood. But then I remembered you are the only forumer I've ever taken to task for spouting BS before. So you've got form.

By the way, the line at the bottom of my sig was a direct quote from one of your pupils.

[NorthDownsVW]

Mine went dead over Christmas, which isn't too bad as it was still the original one from Sept 2005 (60k miles) !! Replaced for me by the AA, within an hour of diagnosis. The patrolman also confirmed that the car wasn't drawing power when 'off' so deffo the battery.