Golf 7 UDS battery replacement

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Anyone done one of these yet? The VCDS' drop down menu for the CAN-Gateway Adaptations is completely different than their video shows. This is the first Golf 7 (with an AGM) battery I have had to replace and I cannot figure out the way to do it. Car in question is a 2017 Golf R.

This is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJAScg6JrYI

And the car in question uses the UDS protocol (so the last segment) but where their drop down menu clearly shows the ones needed to be changed, mine has literally about 500 lines that pop up, nowhere in there can I find anything like what is shown, and no matter which line I try, the "sporadic communication" error comes up.

I *think* I was able to use the [awful] Autel scan tool but it really was not very clear on what I was actually entering in which field.

The battery I removed was dead, and an Exide. The new one is a Varta, so I clearly need to make some changes.
 

Nuje

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Location
Island near Vancouver
TDI
2015 Sportwagen; Golf GLS 2002 (swap from 2L gas); 2016 A3 e-tron
Someone in the comments section of that video stated that they swapped batteries in their 2015 GTI, no coding in VCDS...and it just worked.

Another one (comment) said that simply changing the serial number to anything (random text/numbers) forces the Gateway to "forget" the old battery and start "learning" the new battery - so the process isn't quite as crucial as VCDS made it out to be.

Having said all that....remember that these are commenters on YouTube. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
I figured at least some of the reason for the battery manufacturer and serial number was for warranty purposes, which is of no concern to me. And the Ah rating of 59 was the same for both the original Exide and the replacement Varta. I just wanted to be able to do it all correctly.

Like I said, the Autel at least let me get in there and confirm the Ah was input, and it had already auto-populated the serial number as '111111111' so maybe that is their way around it, just changing it so the Gateway recognizes it as new.

We've run into a problem before on a BMW where the tech (not me) did not tell the car a new battery was installed, and the ECU had already stopped trying to charge the old battery that was dead. So the new battery went flat several days later, and after some sporadic searching and trying to condemn an $800 alternator, I found out how to properly reset it, and it was fine (after we also recharged the new-but-flat battery with an appropriate AGM friendly charger).
 

Matt-98AHU

Loose Nut Behind the Wheel Vendor
Joined
Apr 23, 2006
Location
Gresham, OR
TDI
2001 Golf TDI, 2005 Passat wagon, 2004 Touareg V10.
I figured at least some of the reason for the battery manufacturer and serial number was for warranty purposes, which is of no concern to me. And the Ah rating of 59 was the same for both the original Exide and the replacement Varta. I just wanted to be able to do it all correctly.
Like I said, the Autel at least let me get in there and confirm the Ah was input, and it had already auto-populated the serial number as '111111111' so maybe that is their way around it, just changing it so the Gateway recognizes it as new.
We've run into a problem before on a BMW where the tech (not me) did not tell the car a new battery was installed, and the ECU had already stopped trying to charge the old battery that was dead. So the new battery went flat several days later, and after some sporadic searching and trying to condemn an $800 alternator, I found out how to properly reset it, and it was fine (after we also recharged the new-but-flat battery with an appropriate AGM friendly charger).
And before a battery dies on most vehicles with battery registration, they change their charge rates depending on battery condition otherwise, too. They'll actually attempt to apply more voltage than normal to keep a marginal battery going, but you need to tell it that it has a new battery to return the charging behavior back to normal so it isn't so aggressive on a new battery.

Haven't had to do battery registration yet on a UDS Mk7, though. I will also say that some of the newer UDS cars, the old Hex-CAN USB isn't fully compatible with. Have to get the new Hex V2 or Hex-Net for full compatibility on the latest cars.

I've grown to like Autel's tools, but there are definitely times where VCDS is the much better interface on VAG vehicles for many functions.
 

SilverGhost

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Location
Back in So Flo - St Lucie
TDI
'05 Golf - totaled :(, wife's '13 Beetle - buy back, TDIless
Couple of odd ball cars had battery monitoring, but no sensor. Last year or two most all have switched over so if you see the fancy negative cable then you need to do the battery reprogram.

Have seen a couple cars come from parts store with battery/charging issues, but not too many. Most of the cars with this system are still under warranty so we get them first anyway.

@oh - I think the serial number is similar function as the serial number of fuel injectors - calibration data that fine tunes the charging control. Also If you sit and watch charging voltage at idle it will drop down to 12 to 12.5v for a while. Computer is dropping charging to reduce idle load. I wish there was a adaption to force charging to return to a classic model. Would be handy when you are actually trying to diagnose an alternator.

Jason
 

billy.whizz

Active member
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Location
uk (cornwall)
TDI
golf mk6
I replaced the battery on my mk6 golf ,this has uds system, all that was needed was too replace the battery, no vcds input needed ,I couldn't find any info on recalibrating for this either. if I remember right I went onto rosstech and posed the question , reply was adaptation/calibration wasn't needed.
 
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