Battery Message & Cold Weather

[theblacksurge]

Hi, It was -6c the other night and despite my car being garaged overnight, when I started it in the morning I got the following message on the DIS - "BATTERY LOW CHARGE - WILL CHARGE WHEN DRIVING".

I wasn't too concerned at first. Then I did a 40mile motorway journey, switched off and re-started but the message came up again, and I now get it every single time I start the car.

Has anbody else had this ? does it sound like a duff battery and if so is it under warranty ? I've only had the car 6 weeks and it supposedly had the full 130ish point check.

[paultheo]

One for the dealer to sort out may be a duff battery.

[Bratty]

How old is the Battery/car (is it a Diesel or Petrol!) What sort of journeys do you make ie. only short?

Dunk

[simfin]

I would look at putting on a "trickle" charger overnight and see what happens. Depending on your car age/dealer they may just want to pop a new battery in and possibly charge you for the pleasure.

[gazza57]

The main thing here is to decide if it is the battery itself failing to hold charge or the alternator failing to provide sufficient charge either due to a fault in the alternator or lots of short journeys using lights wipers, heated screens, foglights which can push the overall level of charge downward.
Low temperatures in battery electrolyte increase it's internal resistance thus limiting the current the battery can deliver at start.
Once you've turned the engine over, wait a couple of minutes before trying again, this will heat the electrolyte and lower the internal resistance of the battery making it easier to supply more current at the next start.

An overnight trickle charge would'nt hurt, failing that a load test on the battery and alternator is what I would ask the dealer to do BEFORE just billing you for a new battery.

Gazza57

[Red 2]

My 2.5 yr old 35,000 mile car has started giving 'Battery Weak - System will be turned off to conserve power (or something like that!) warnings on the central display after the ignition is turned off but the radio kept on. Battery shouldn't be going yet as my helpful dealer also confirmed.

No other obvious signs of any problems as all the electrics are working, lights not dimming, starting with no difficulty despite living outside 24/7 but the dealer did a quick check when it went in last week for a service.

The result is that it is booked in for 2 days for an overnight drain test & hopefully a fix. Something is not right whether it is the warning system or the car's electrics but hopefully will be corrected soon.

IMHO,in this weather, far better to get any warnings checked over asap than be sitting trying to get Audi Assistance out.

[ScottyUK]

If you have access to VCDS then you can check your battery. Not just the charge state but whether it thinks it's near life ends etc :

This is mine from the other day :



Note how different the battery's MMI display value is (if you have it activated) to the real value.

[theblacksurge]

Many thanks guys,

My car is 18months old and is the TDi, so will need a bit more cranking power.
I have been running the lights, heater, wipers a lot recently in the bad weather and thought it might be down to that, but now when I turn on the ignition straight away it is telling me to start the engine otherwise it will start to shutdown some systems.

I don't have the VCDS (but hope to get one in the new year.)

Looks like another trip to the dealer (headache), I've only had the car six weeks and have been back to the dealer more times than in the last 13 years wih previous cars.

[Red 2]

Messages becoming more frequent and pessimistic. Can't get a loan car for a couple of weeks so fingers firmly crossed that whatever is causing the problems stays at bay until then.

Reminds me of the Apollo 13 film with the crew progressively shutting down systems to keep the life support going.

Must say that I am impressed at the A4's ability to manage the systems and advise what it is doing to keep the basic engine functions going. May not be quite so pleased if it dumps me tomorrow though!

Just away to look out my Audi Assistance card.....

[paultheo]

Can you take the battery voltage after starting it and once its running it should be 13 to 14volts when running if the alternator is charging. The alternator should be able to cope with just about anything that you are using when driving and as long as your journey is more than 15 minutes you should have replaced any power used to start it. If its charging OK its a got to be either the electronics monitoring it or the battery.