The Mk6 Golf Battery Thread

[seiken]

I had mine replaced under warranty on my last service. There was like only a couple of weeks left before it had expired so I was pretty lucky haha. They said that it had lost charge over the 3 years I had it which wasn't great.

[spellbound]

First went at 3 years and 3 months , second today 3 years 5 months RAA , another RAA , common life on the modern car full of electrics , said mr RAA .

MMMM brides Swift , sold after 7 years same little torch battery still going strong .

Will monitor her A200 as its now 3 years old .

[The_Hawk]

Looks like my battery might have finally packed it in a shade over 6 years.

It's started OK recently, no noticeable signs, drove 20+ minutes each way on Wednesday and to the station and back the last two days. But this evening I went to start it and no go. lots of clicking. (and probably a pile of errors now too).

The multimeter says it's slumping to 6V on crank (well attempt to crank) which isn't a good sign. I've got the CTEK working on it at the moment to see if it can be revived or not.... Hopefully I can drive it somewhere tomorrow for someone to check to it out properly, but I think it's had it's time.



I had a quick look at RACV (one of the first hits google provided for batteries) and they provide these options. I'm pretty sure it's not an AGM job, which makes the cheaper options attactive.



Anyone used these? Are they worth it or should I hunt down another Varta? Or something else?

I'm also open to recommendations on where to get one... at this time of year

[Transporter]

The BOSCH S5 p/n 574.068 is my choice, and I’m sure would be even cheaper.

[Jaffs]

Holy thread revival.

Went to start Mk6 GTI this morning and there was nothing. The MFD was barely showing and cabin lights were dim. When turning the key on there was no power to anything. Panicked for a minute. Funny because I only drove it the night before without any sign of a problem, but it seems batteries die just like that (especially calcium ones??).

Got a SuperCharge Gold MF66H for $220 from Autobarn (on special, $40 off), with a ridiculous 750 CCA (17.4 kg, 40 month warranty). The MF55H is also ok (600 CCA, $20 cheaper and 3.6 kg lighter) but the SuperCharge car look up thingo only shows MF66H as applicable (a pretty big battery but fits within the plastic battery holder including with lid attached, no problem). Fired up straight away with only an ESC error that cleared within 5 m of driving forward.

For Century, a DIN53LH MF (500 CCA, 14 kg, 24 month warranty) is recommended but a gutsier one is a DIN65LH (660 CCA, 17.4 kg), although that doesn't come up when using their look up thingo. An RAA (SA automobile assoc.) 600 CCA one came out of the car (Club Assist 3554, same as MF55H), but I have no idea how long it was in there.

Century have a battery selection guide and an AU battery cross reference chart (with Exide, Yuasa, AC Delco, Club Assist, etc.) in pdf if you want to Google it. There are also things on the net that explain the codes for the battery, where L is the polarity (earth terminal on left like we need), H is for something to do with height (I think, lol, didn't look that up) and MF is maintenance free.

It's interesting to look at the different CCA for the equivalent battery code across the different brands, along with price, weight (probably all the same) and warranty. Unless you are loyal to a particular brand, it could well help with making a decision.

[The_Hawk]

What a coincidence!

I thought I had replied to this the other day saying that my 2011 era battery was still going, although living most of it's life on the CTEK because it's driven so infrequently. I was also going to say that I should pull out the multimeter and check just how far down it slumps on cranking these days since it seemed a little sluggish to start despite having been on the CTEK and only having started a handful of times running back and forth the other day...

Then this morning I went out to go to work, went to unplug the CTEK and noticed it was still sitting on stage 3 of it's charge cycle (meaning it hadn't yet reached 80%)... after 3 days...

It clicked a little, but turning the auto lights off got it cranked (just) and it fired up so I could drive it to the Battery World on the way to work. They installed a new battery in no time and got me on my way to work. While I might have liked something other than the in house YUASA brand, it's the appropriate size and comes with a 30 month warranty so I'm sure it will be fine, especially in my application.

[tonymy01]

I just replaced mine a few days ago too. ~August 2011 complianced Golf R, bought Jan 2012. The original battery only lasted 2 years, so back then I put an AGM Yankee made battery in (Federal AGM Exact Fit Din66 Tall Case 9AGM48 in May 2014), lasted the past ~5.5 years, I don't drive the car much (car is over 8 years old <50K on the clock, sometimes will go 3+ weeks without a drive) so the battery really cops a hammering. Has been slow cranking the past year, but I throw it on the CTEK MXS 5.0 charger quite often. Went to start while out last Friday and it didn't crank, decided this was about time to get a new battery (it cranked on 2nd attempt thankfully. I have been resorting to roll starting if I park on a hill just to avoid having the starter motor hit it hard, this is one of the nice things of owning a manual car).
I was tossing up between these two as they are both on special until 1st March (Hi perf DIN65 Century Batteries from Supercheap Auto >$50 off RRP)-
Century Hi Performance Car Battery DIN65LH MF | Supercheap Auto
Century Overlander 4x4 Battery DIN65LHD MF | Supercheap Auto
Ended up getting the Overlander as it is isn't that much more expensive than the Hi Perf and is partially AGM so can probably deal with the deeper cycling that I put the battery through with having a Blackvue camera with parking mode and not always getting it fully charged on each drive. Also is a bit more robust compared to the 1st option.

So nice to be hearing it doing fast cranking again, haven't heard that sound in a few years

[The_Hawk]

Your usage sounds about the same as mine. Late 2011 car with 37K and change at 8+ years old. Same CTEK too, although I dont' have parking mode on my current dash cam.