Dealership Passat Battery Install

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
Staff member
Joined
Sep 25, 1997
Location
Illinois
TDI
2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
I received a coupon book for my local VW dealer and one of the items is a free battery install. VW has competitive pricing on batteries so why not. I called the dealer to make sure the correct battery was in stock and to schedule an appointment for this afternoon. Here are the prices and how involved the procedure was (VCDS coding, battery serial number, etc).

This turned out to be an interesting afternoon and went as I thought it would.

I present myself and the VW coupon brochure at the service writers station at the appointment time. The service writer gives the coupon brochure a strange look as he reads the one about the free battery installation. He looks at the cover to make sure it's the correct dealership listed, it is. First he has heard of this. He tears the coupon out and staples it to the work order. No problem, I'm good to go. I mention that I'd prefer if they used a data saver so my settings will be saved. He nods his head in agreement. We'll see where this goes. ;)

I go over to the parts dept and talk to the parts manager who I've known for years and is a good friend. Back when I used to own my B4s I used to print off ETKA with my parts highlighted and my VIN written on the paper. This would take a 15 minute part look up down to at most 5 minutes. They loved me for this. The parts manager back then told me if everyone did this, he estimated they could sell 20% more parts per day. He entered me into their customer database for the wholesale price, automatic 20% discount. This is a H6/Group 48 size battery. Dealer list is $147, my price with discount? $117.60! As an aside, my wife's 2.5L Passat came with a smaller H5/Group 47 size battery.

Here is the old battery, different part number than the new one and says it's made by Enertec.


New battery part number #000-915-105-DG-DSP. No Enertec logo but it's the same manufacturer and same ratings as the old battery.


I go wait in the lounge and surf the internet and play Freecell. Eventually my car is ready and I pay my bill. I get into my car and I notice the trip odometer is at 0. My clock is reset but is a few minutes off. I reset my clock every time I notice it's off so it's always within a minute of being correct. The tech just disconnected the old battery and dropped in the new one. This is pretty much what I expected.

Bottom line, I got a good battery at a great price. I can live with a lead-acid battery for $117.60 and a free installation. At Autozone, its H6 Duralast Gold lead-acid battery is $178, $160 with a core. The H6 Duralast AGM is $218, $200 with a core.

Drive more and worry less.

:)
 
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06bluebeetletdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2012
Location
Middlesex, NC
TDI
'14 Passat TDI SEL and '13 Beetle TDI
Nice! I price checked batteries a couple of years ago and the dealer battery was the cheapest. I put a copy of my battery receipt in the glove box, so if i ever need it while traveling I am good to go.
 

jck66

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 4, 2001
Location
Greenwich, CT, USA
TDI
12 Passat SE / 14 BMW 535d
So did they save your data like you asked? Was there any coding needed? I didn't know this was a thing with VW.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
still glad I stood my ground for a new battery when we picked up our 2015 in 2017, I'm hoping to get at least another year+ out of it.
 

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
Staff member
Joined
Sep 25, 1997
Location
Illinois
TDI
2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
So did they save your data like you asked? Was there any coding needed? I didn't know this was a thing with VW.
No, they did not use any data saver device. I expected as much. On the NMS Passat all you lose is your clock setting and odometer reading. When I was driving out of the dealer lot I noticed my odometer was at 0 miles and my clock was 12 hours off. I have my clock set on 24 hour mode so for it to be 12 hours off they did reset it. So something was communicated to whoever did the work.

The NMS Passat does not use a battery management module so there is no coding or any need to use VCDS or anything else for a battery installation.

I don't follow hybrids but battery management modules are usually used on those cars. Also, cars with the stop/start feature (mostly hybrids but not always) typically use battery control modules. Those models often have AGM batteries as standard and have to have some sort of battery management.

I could have swapped out my battery in the parking lot at the dealer and used my own data saver (so I could return the core immediately). As I said, I got a good battery for a great price. That's my bottom line.

Drive more and worry less.

:)
 
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jjblbi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2000
Location
lbi, nj
TDI
2014 Passat SEL TDI
Found this deal at Burlington VW (just north of Phila). Bought our first TDI-Beetle from Chris Farnham there in 1999! -RIP my friend.

Home 2014 Volkswagen Passat Battery 000-915-105-DE
Vehicle Battery - Volkswagen (000-915-105-DE)
OEM VW Vehicle Battery For 2008-2019 Volkswagen

Vehicle Battery - Volkswagen (000-915-105-DE)
List Price: $147.00
You Save: $28.66 (19.50% off)
Sale Price: $118.34
This part fits your 2014 Volkswagen Passat
Change vehicle
UNABLE TO SHIP
Product contains hazardous materials that we can't ship.
 

TDI321

Active member
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Location
Space Coast FL (321 area code)
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SEL, phase 2a
Vw dealer battery in 2015 tdi

Also took our SEL TDI 2015 in for a battery last month to the dealer. ADV auto was similar pricing but since the computer blew a bunch of codes when battery was failing. It lasted 5 years, unless the compound in Ab, MI popped a new battery in it before we got it with 11K 2 years ago.

Our Prestige Melbourne FL dealer experience was like this: service in under an hour. For an extra $90 they changed the diesel fuel filter with OEM parts via dealer restart procedure. Battery has 5 year warranty — rep said that will mean a new battery for free in 4 years in FL. Car was WASHED, vacuumed and spotless for free. People were so nice and it really opened a door for me to go back. Rep said the 40K DSG service is like 299 or 399 but it includes more than tranny. Which I might consider. My audi service is about the same for just the tranny.

Adv auto would not touch the free battery install - probably due to codes, their machine hooked into the OBD2 said - dealer only service. Odd because their machine was fine with my Audi. Must have been codes they didnt want to blamed for.
 

Fixmy59bug

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, NV
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE
Found this deal at Burlington VW (just north of Phila). Bought our first TDI-Beetle from Chris Farnham there in 1999! -RIP my friend.

Home 2014 Volkswagen Passat Battery 000-915-105-DE
Vehicle Battery - Volkswagen (000-915-105-DE)
OEM VW Vehicle Battery For 2008-2019 Volkswagen

Vehicle Battery - Volkswagen (000-915-105-DE)
List Price: $147.00
You Save: $28.66 (19.50% off)
Sale Price: $118.34
This part fits your 2014 Volkswagen Passat
Change vehicle
UNABLE TO SHIP
Product contains hazardous materials that we can't ship.
I dont care what their website says, the DE battery is too small. it is a Group 47 (H5) battery. Our Passats take the DG battery as shown in the original posts. It is a group 48 (H6).
 

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
Staff member
Joined
Sep 25, 1997
Location
Illinois
TDI
2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
The 4/5 cylinder gas engine Passats get the Group 47/H5 battery. This is what my wife's 2014 Passat SE 2.5L came with. When I replaced it I went with a Group 48/H6 battery, what the TDI models use.

:)
 
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Fixmy59bug

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, NV
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE
The 4/5 cylinder gas engine Passats get the Group 47/H5 battery. This is what my wife's 2014 Passat SE 2.5L came with. When I replaced it I went with a Group 48/H6 battery, what the TDI models use.

:)
Right... but, uhh, not too many people here talk about equipment installed on gassers. LOL.

I’m just saying, jjblbi’s sidebar says they have a 2014 Passat SEL TDI. and they said the website said this was the correct battery for their Passat.

So I assumed they were talking about their TDI, in which case the website would be wrong.
 

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
Staff member
Joined
Sep 25, 1997
Location
Illinois
TDI
2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
Right... but, uhh, not too many people here talk about equipment installed on gassers. LOL.

I’m just saying, jjblbi’s sidebar says they have a 2014 Passat SEL TDI. and they said the website said this was the correct battery for their Passat.

So I assumed they were talking about their TDI, in which case the website would be wrong.
My point is there are 3 different batteries for the NMS Passat, H5 for 4/5 cylinder gassers, H6 for TDIs, and H8 for the VR6. When searching online it's easy to get the wrong battery in your results. Many websites only list the most popular items and fail to list the correct parts for the TDI models. Dealer websites are notorious for this as they farm out the formatting of the web pages. Online parts suppliers are usually more careful as they are more specialized, and many do most of their webpage formatting in house.

jiblbi knows he owns a TDI. What we don't know is how are the website battery options listed? In the menu is there a TDI option? Is the wrong battery listed under TDI? As I see it, one has a 1 in 3 chance of getting the correct battery when searching for a battery for a TDI. If ones doesn't know the exact part number for the battery, then ordering the wrong one is quite easy to do. VW isn't much help. If you look at my photos a few posts back, VW has a different part number on the original Vs the replacement battery. Add to this VW doesn't put the SAE group or the EU DIN 'H' size of the battery on the label, only the specs. You have to know the TDI battery is the 72ah rated one.

I 100% agree that the H5/group 47 battery is too small for a TDI. Matter of fact, I believe all TDIs from the 96 B4 onward have always used a H6/group 48 battery.

Drive more and worry less.

:)
 

BarryT82

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Location
Charleston, WV
TDI
‘12 JSW TDI
I bought an H6 AGM Duracell Platinum for $139 at Sam’s Club a few weeks ago. The coding was pretty easy using VCDS.
 

jjblbi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2000
Location
lbi, nj
TDI
2014 Passat SEL TDI
Update: I jinxed myself. I noticed a slower crank after the car sat for a week without any use. Next time it sat idle for a few days I checked the voltage before starting 12.2v, too low for my liking heading into winter. So after 6.5 years I replaced the original. I checked with Burlington VW and they do list two batteries for 2014 Passat TDI. The original I posted is 60ah, the one I bought was 72ah, same part number and price just a different suffix letters. You must order online for the price and pick it up.
Swapped out yesterday, no issues.

Vehicle Battery 2
000-915-105-DG
Battery

72 AMP HOUR
 

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
Staff member
Joined
Sep 25, 1997
Location
Illinois
TDI
2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
jjblbi, excellent!

If my thread can prevent one person from installing the wrong battery in their TDI, then I declare this thread 100% successful. Mission accomplished!

:)
 

Hamsterdiesel

TDIClub Enthusiast , Veteran Member & HO5G CoFound
Joined
Jul 30, 2002
Location
NH
TDI
1999 Golf IV, Black and now 2015 Reflex Silver Passat SE
Hey BK - do you recall the mileage on your car when you had the battery replaced? I have just over 80K miles at exactly 6 years (Happy Anniverssary Passat!) Every once in a while I have to let it crank 1-2 times more than ususal. Thinking that it might be time...maybe wait until fall...
BTW - what is the CCA rating on our stock battery? Can't find that tidbit anywhere!
 

06bluebeetletdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2012
Location
Middlesex, NC
TDI
'14 Passat TDI SEL and '13 Beetle TDI
I did mine at 4 years old 10/17 (build date 10/13) around 54,000 miles. The car had sat most of the previous 18 months at this time. I’m at 101,000 now. The bug was 1/18 around 64,000 (build date 6/13). The bug battery lasted another year in my brother’s jetta. I’m in North Carolina, most last 4-5 years here, since I didn’t want to be stranded, i did them around 4 - 4.5 years. I replaced with oem batteries.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
i think i got 5 years and 120K out of my Jetta Battery, I was impressed
 

Skimax

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Location
White mts, NH
TDI
97 B4 variant(retired at 330K), 2000 B5 1.8T passat retired, 2013 SE (buyback5/17) 2015 SEL, 2015 E-Golf SEL sold March 2019, 2018 Volt LT and a 2007 PRHT MX5 for fun
I bought a 3120 John Deere compact utility 3cyl Yanmar diesel tractor in 2009. It has the original battery.
Our 2015 Passat SEL TDI we bought new in 2017 had the battery fail a few months after we purchased it. It was replaced after a tow to the dealership along with a $100 gift card for our inconvenience. It's about 4 years old now and the car starts fine.
I hope I didn't just curse myself;-)
 
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AverageAndy

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2020
Location
Phoenix, AZ
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL, 2013 Golf TDI 6MT, 2013 Jetta TDI 6MT (R.I.P.)
You guys are lucky! Here in the heat, batteries almost always fail and get replaced well within the 3yr battery warranty. In fact, I'm usually lucky if I get much past 2yrs😲
 

Fixmy59bug

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, NV
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE
You guys are lucky! Here in the heat, batteries almost always fail and get replaced well within the 3yr battery warranty. In fact, I'm usually lucky if I get much past 2yrs😲
Wouldnt we (desert dwellers) be the lucky ones since it is always under warranty?

When the battery gets replaced, it has its own 5 year warranty (3 years free 2 years prorated). And if it fails within that warranty period, it gets it own fresh 5 year warranty.
 

Tom in PT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2017
Location
Twilight Zone, WA State
TDI
2005 Passat sedan - SOLD; 2013 Passat DSG; both purchased new
I'm still on the factory original battery in my '013, and it cranks like new, no issues with it. Its a WA state car since new and stored in a garage so that helps. Winters are mild and the summers are freezing cold LOL.
My '05 would need a new battery every 4-5 years.
 

tadawson

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2013
Location
Lewisville, TX
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL, 2015 Passat TDI SEL
Be afraid! We had had a battery replaced under warranty, iirc, on my 2013 way back when, and it just went out again recently. Went to change it and found that the lazy useless *#**@#*# that put it in the last time was too lazy to bother with the clamp and bolt . . . the battery was being held in place my gravity and prayer! $20 later for that little tiny stamped plate and a bolt, and it was back to normal.

As others have said, you get what you pay for, and battery installs are so easy that even free is too much!
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
Do you not check your car after service? Seems a quick easy check would have shown this at the time of replacement. You shouldn't have to but there it is. Dealers aren't the only ones that do this either. Any lazy mechanic can do this kind of thing. Take a peak next time after the work is completed and see if anything obvious isn't right.
 

calimustang

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2010
Location
Central FL
TDI
2011 JSW DSG (buyback, RIP), 2014 JSW TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2013 Jetta TDI.
Yep be careful to allow someone connect your batteries for “free” I ended up paying for main fusible links on both cars within a week. Both got fried by connecting the battery wrong. They denied their wrongdoings. Never agin will allow them touch any of our cars.

Yep I replaced the main fusible links myself and they runs much better, starts easier. My 2014 JSW had some corrosion forming. Guess it was meant to happen and allowing me to catch it in the process.

both cars were buyback cars that came with “el-cheapo” VW batteries that don't last more than a year. (2014 JSW and my girlfriend’s 2015 Passat)
 

xpert

Member
Joined
May 9, 2017
Location
Montreal
TDI
2015 Passat Comfortline 6-speed Manual
After 6.5 years on a hot day (35 Celsius = 95 F), my battery could not start my engine. My wife kept the ventilator on for a couple of minutes after turning the engine off. I called AAA, took a while to get them and was given a 75 min waiting time. After 20 minutes, I tried and it had recovered enough to start the engine. My garage had told me that it would not get passed next winter, so I called him to replace right away as I have a long trip coming next week. He said: come and I will replace it to you on the spot. Now, when I checked he installed a Bosch H5 s5532b. Specs are 76 amps, which is better than 72 amps OEM, cca 800 / 1000. But everybody here says: H6 for TDI. What do you think? Should I challenge my garage to upgrade it to a H6? The warranty replacement period is 3 years.
 

CleverUserName

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Location
NorCal
TDI
2014 OZ Cruze CTD & 2010 JSW 6MT & 2017 GMC Canyon CCLB ATX 2.8 Duramax
After 6.5 years on a hot day (35 Celsius = 95 F), my battery could not start my engine. My wife kept the ventilator on for a couple of minutes after turning the engine off. I called AAA, took a while to get them and was given a 75 min waiting time. After 20 minutes, I tried and it had recovered enough to start the engine. My garage had told me that it would not get passed next winter, so I called him to replace right away as I have a long trip coming next week. He said: come and I will replace it to you on the spot. Now, when I checked he installed a Bosch H5 s5532b. Specs are 76 amps, which is better than 72 amps OEM, cca 800 / 1000. But everybody here says: H6 for TDI. What do you think? Should I challenge my garage to upgrade it to a H6? The warranty replacement period is 3 years.
if it’s the wrong battery then he needs to replace it. If bought 2 TDIs in my life that had the wrong battery installed due to cost or negligence by the previous owner.
 
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