Dealer says $500-$550 for new battery

[LabGuy]

Looks like I need a new battery, but the dealer wants waaaaaay too much. They said it needs re-programming, blah, blah, blah! Autozone says they can put in a new one for $200.

Thoughts?

 

[ticaf]

$550 for a battery run don't walk.
Almost insulting. Go get one at Walmart/costco/... ($120?) and call it a day.
No programming needed.

 

[AverageAndy]

I live in the land of heat (but it's a dry heat haha), where if you are lucky, you will get 2 years of life out of a battery. So I am probably on my 4th battery and have yet to need reprogramming. Mind you, after replacement there may be many system fault lights active for a few miles and the auto up/down window feature won't work until you have full open and closed them a number of times.

 

[LabGuy]

Thanks for the quick replies. I spoke to the GM at the dealer and he offered me a lifetime replacement for $350. I took the deal. Hopefully, it is worth it.

 

[johnsTDI]

there ripping You off.! & the only programing needed are the radio presets lol!
i bout a interstate battery last year for $160.00 unless there gold flakes of gold attached to the VW battery i wouldnt touch it.

 

[braddies]

Thanks for the quick replies. I spoke to the GM at the dealer and he offered me a lifetime replacement for $350. I took the deal. Hopefully, it is worth it.

Lifetime replacement sounds like it could be a good deal

*Edit* if we're talking about the lifetime of the car and not the estimated lifetime of the battery (a few years)

 

[ticaf]

Typical dirty sale tactics...
$550 sir.
What?!?!
Ok, $350 with lifetime warranty.
Fantastic!

Well, walmart batteries are around $100, with 3 year warranty. You'll have to change the battery 3 times in 9 years to break even. What a deal!

 

[06bluebeetletdi]

Sounds like they have your car confused with a newer car with the auto stop/start feature (which passats didn’t have). Paid under $200 at the dealer for my battery and installed it myself, just make sure whoever intalls it, doesn’t install it backwards.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

there ripping You off.! & the only programing needed are the radio presets lol!
i bout a interstate battery last year for $160.00 unless there gold flakes of gold attached to the VW battery i wouldnt touch it.

 

[hskrdu]

The OE VW battery for a 2014 Passat TDI goes for about $160 at the dealers near me. Install take 10 minutes. No programming for the Battery Management is needed if it's the same type of battery. I've not had to touch any radio pre-sets in two Mk7s.

At $350 for a "lifetime" replacement (is it in writing?), they are charging you 2.5 times the price, and hoping that in 8 years you won't still own the car.

VW also issues monthly online (and paper) dealer service disocunts, and I regularly see $$ off a new battery. I waited for the $20 off coupon both times for the Mk7's. If you check the dealer website under "service specials" these are often listed, usually in a rotation (most which are still rip-offs).

 

[eugene89us]

Dang, your batteries are lasting 8 years? I am on my third battery on the Passat, they die every 3 years! And I have been getting Dealer batteries each and every time. I wish it could last longer, but I guess the environment under the hood is not very conducive.

 

[oilhammer]

DPF regens crank the heat under the hood way up. And for some reason, the CKRAs got the smaller battery, with a higher output alternator, no idea why.

000-915-105-DG is the 61Ah unit, the current list price is $188 with a one year warranty.

 

[Jr mason]

I would be very curious what they consider lifetime and how many replacements is it good for.
I'm guessing they will only honor it once.

 

[hskrdu]

Dang, your batteries are lasting 8 years? I am on my third battery on the Passat, they die every 3 years! And I have been getting Dealer batteries each and every time. I wish it could last longer, but I guess the environment under the hood is not very conducive.

No, what I said is that the dealer is hoping the OP won't still own the car in 8 years. At the price paid, that's about where they are still making money off the warranty, even with a trade-in at the 3 or 4 year mark.

The H6 in the Mk7 seems to last about 5 years. The H7 in the MkIV usually longer. All variable depending on location / conditions / type of use. In the "Southern" US, the heat might take an additional toll, depending on where that is.

 

[jokila]

Buy the battery from the dealer.(not let them install).

For cars that need programming VCDS can do it. I did it for my Audi. easy peasy.

 

[eugene89us]

Mississippi, Jackson area. It gets nice, hot, and humid. Since none of us here own any shoes, going barefoot helps manage heat better. LOL.

My other diesel has automatic start-stop, the battery is HUGE, and lives in the trunk. So it has benefits of being oversized since I coded of ASS, as well as being away from extremes of heat and cold. Most folks on those forums report batteries lasting over 8 to 10 years, when they start getting weird undervoltage codes in ECM. Passat just quits cranking one day without any prior warning. None! And when they test, they say battery is bad..... I wish there were some warning, so I would not get stranded. Now I got Audew Li Ion booster per Project Farm recommendation, so it will never strand anyone again!

Passat has basic charging system, it does not need programming. My other car does, but there are plenty of apps to do it (Or ISTA+ that most of us have anyways).

 

[x1800MODMY360x]

I paid $190 at costco for an AGM H6, won't buy a new battery for the life of this car.

 

[John Wesley Hardin]

$550 for a battery run don't walk.
Almost insulting. Go get one at Walmart/costco/... ($120?) and call it a day.
No programming needed.

True that. Plus Wal Fart puts them in for free. Same as tires and on Sunday. I believe the battery group # is 47. Had mine replaced there recently my old battery was probably five years old just replaced it anyways. Believe I paid around 150.00

 

[oilhammer]

Ah, the "free battery install", providing a source of wrong batteries, missing hold down clamps, mangled terminals, missing battery covers, and broken cars in perpetuity. If I had a dollar for every VAG product I get in here that was messed up in some sort of fashion I'd be retired by now.

 

[seahawkdodge]

I bought a Diehard AGM battery from Advance about a year and a half ago. I think I got an H7? It barely fit. I had to "massage" it into place. Advance said an H8 would fit, but it did not.

 

[eugene89us]

@seahawkdodge I am curious to see how long it lasts. Is H7 larger than OEM battery? I don't mind "massaging" one in, if that results in longevity. I presume you cannot use OE battery cover for the H7 battery? I also need to check if ours is AGM also or not, I think it was regular lead-acid battery. I am generally noticing Passat engine bay is pretty cramped. By other ride was designed to run both 6 cyl and 4 cyl engines in the same engine bay, engine running longitudinally - so with 4 banger I get a ton of space toward the bumper of the car, as well as decent space to the sides once you remove the air box. Now reaching behind it is impossible, but all there is at the rear is the timing chain, so those will require engine pull out to replace. Hopefully not in car's lifetime.

If you can snap a pic, I would appreciate it, just to see how that fits for future reference.

 

[oilhammer]

The H6 fits no problem, but will require the bigger cover than the H5. The H7 would be a tighter squeeze. The short-lived VR6 NMS has its battery in the trunk. The NMS TDI's OEM battery would be like the H5.

 

[740GLE]

Our 2015 has an H6, was around $189 at the dealer, same felt box fit. 000-915-105-DG was what came out and went back in, that comes up as 72 AH per the parts guy.

Don't confuse Mk7 MQB and NMS.

Our Golf (while being a TSI) had a smaller H5 from the factory, but when that needed a new battery this past December, in went the same H6 of the Passat. Both cars needed new batteries within 4 months of each other. I've been rocking the no felt box on the Golf and will prob skip trying to fit the smaller one to the larger battery.

I did change the golfs battery in the dealers parking lot to avoid multiple trips and the stupid core charge.

 

[seahawkdodge]

My 2013 never had a cover.

 

[hskrdu]

The other thing I have found with the "parts specials" coupons on dealer's websites is that many will honor offers from other dealers (often the guy at the parts counter doesn't even know these offers exist, and the coupon printout isn't dealer specific). That often allows owners using offers such as the current "15% off p/n 000-915-105-DG" to get the current $189 H6 price down to $161 at a dealer more convenient to them. The only shady action I've seen is when this coupon appears under a "service" special, and they try to say it's 15% off the battery plus install (and in these instances, they charge for install).

And side note, the UK Mk7 forums say the fabric cover is listed by VW somehwere as battery fiberglass insulation, and is also available sized for an H6.

 

[ymz]

I've heard of "lifetime warranty" claims being denied on account of the merchant attributing the demise of the battery to a faulty charging system - whether true or not...

 

[Lightflyer1]

Every "lifetime warranty" or any warranty really has exclusions which can be used to deny coverage. Remember that when signing up for one.

 

[oilhammer]

It is all a case of the retailer playing the odds. The odds that you won't have the car that long, or that when the component dies again, there won't be a convenient way to take advantage of said warranty.

Autozone would have gone out of business decades ago if this sort of thing was taken advantage of as much as it is handed out.

 

[jokila]

I've heard of "lifetime warranty" claims being denied on account of the merchant attributing the demise of the battery to a faulty charging system - whether true or not...

I never buy any warranty, but I don't think I have been offered a warranty on batteries purchased from a dealer. I don't need it anyway as in my experience they last about 5 years.