Battery conundrum

Started by Pristle, December 26, 2020, 05:38:40 PM

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Pristle

After joyously owning my Mk5 since days before the NZ lockdown of 2020, I encountered the issue of a flat battery a few days before Christmas. Fantastic timing given so many businesses closed early this past week, with many of them not being available until January.


With everyone being closed I started with the diagnostic process myself. The battery has an indicator glass that should go green if the battery has failed, it remains black. Check voltage on battery connected to the car, it sits at around 10.5VDC, disconnect from the terminals this steadily climbs to 12.3VDC in a few minutes. So last night I disconnected the battery and placed it on a newly purchased 'automatic' 4A 8-Stage charger overnight. This morning I disconnected charger and voltage is only sitting at 12.3VDC.


Using a jump starter box I checked for drain sourced in the car and learned that there's a resting draw of 95mA. Remove relay A1 in the engine compartment and this drops to zero. Voltage drop checks show a value of 2.3mV across F12 is the kick plate fuse box, door control mules(?).


After running those checks I went and checked the still disconnected battery and found the voltage had dropped further. I suspect despite the indicator glass, I have a faulty battery. Perhaps in conjunction with the current leak. The battery age is at least 4-years, there's a Japanese service sticker noting a '16 date.



Now the conundrum, What should the battery spec be? Some sites suggest it must be 'calcium' (which makes sense as most modern batteries are) yet others insist that it should also be AGM. And this is where I am stuck, as there are availability and price differences.


The battery that is in the car has a part number 000 915 105 DG or Exide TU3. Ratings are 72Ah/380A and then 640 EN. No where does it mention this is an original nor whether it's AGM or not.



80 Vert

#1
Reading that, your battery is stuffed. If not stop start there's no need to get an AGM battery, the problem you'll have is finding a decent battery as all NZ made ones are utter crape like most things made here.
To get 4 years from a NZ battery is doing really well.

Modern vws also take some time to fully power down or go in to sleep mode so draw on the battery can be visible for a while.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

Pristle

Thanks for the response John.

The battery in the car is a unit 'Made in Spain'. There's a "Volkswagen Professional Service" sticker on it that read 2016/9. However I suspect this may be a factory original, as the serial number code suggests 08. If I'm right it's given great service.

80 Vert

Possibly replaced with a genuine battery in Japan, not uncommon to see 10 plus years from a quality battery like Varta, Bosch or Sonnenschein.
2-4 years from a NZ crap battery is the norm.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

le mans

Try Battery Bill on Ti Rakau. They supply Delkor batteries which are reputably good quality (same corporate head organisation as Varta I think).

dummer

I got my Varta(I'll double check over the weekend if it's made local) from batteryworx in Onehunga...so far so good
or you can get proper one from the stealer... $$$$$ though

Pristle

Having been a long weekend, I've had a lot of time to review options. But necessity required me to find one, using a jump pack isn't a long term option and not a good look in front if customers. So Monday morning I opted for a Century DIN66 ZLAGMF. Not my first choice, but at the price and a 3-year warranty I wasn't passing it up.

@le mans : While owned by the same parent company as Varta, Delkor batteries come out of Korea.

le mans

I believe that is correct, yes.