odoboyusa

I just figured I should share this because others might be dealing with this issue.

So my 3.2L A6 was doing this:
- cranking several times before starting after sitting overnight, would start instantly if restarted or started in a couple hours of shut down
- I would occasionally get a low battery warning (battery is 1 yr old) and would have to drive for more than 1 hr for the battery indicator to show full
- the car would stall if idling for about 15 minutes
- the battery module would show all these "Quiescent current stage - X - intermittent" faults.

in the winter of 2014 I replaced the existing varta battery because the car drained the battery twice in very cold weather. However, a load test on the battery showed it was working perfectly fine.
I kept the battery and even after 1 yr of sitting it still tests fine on the load tester.

So since I was able to find a battery management module (or energy management module) cheap on ebay ($50), I decided to replace it.
This is the module in the trunk, next to the battery, hooked up to the negative cable.

To my complete surprise, with this one it took 10 minutes to charge the battery to full and startup now is pretty much instant every time.
I really think the old module was turning things on and off when it wasn't supposed to (in order for the car to start with what the module thought was a weak battery).
Also i think the old module was not controlling the charging properly.
What I think it boils down to is that the old module was always confused about the battery state of charge.
So in the trash it went.

I hope this helps others with the same problem.

enoch861

I've had those exact same symptoms except for the multiple cranks. The car always starts right up.
Do you have a link to the module you bought? For only $50 bucks, it's worth a shot. I ended up just not worrying about it.

odoboyusa

4F0 915 181 A is the module part number. just search ebay for it.
You can take a quick look at yours and check to make sure that's the part number.

My car is an 05 and i bought the module from an 06. same part number. i think up to 2008 they had the same module so the newer the better.

also, because it's a used module you could have the same issues. i always make sure i buy from a dismantler, not from a regular guy that only has that specific module for sale because it's very likely you're buying his defective one.

cebo0650

I've got exactly the same long crank issue you describe. I've never gotten any low battery warnings but I'll see if I can get a decently priced module to replace mine.

Hopefully that will help, because I've tried many things and nothing so far has solved the issue.

odoboyusa

Before i replaced the module I would always get these "Quiescent current stage - X - intermittent" faults in the battery module.
With the replacement they're not showing up anymore. I think that's what might have been messing up with startup.
At this point I am sure it's not my imagination as far as the startups are concerned. The engine turns over once, maybe twice and it's up and running. Before it always used to be 4-5 turnovers before it would start after sitting overnight. Starter was turning the motor at the proper speed before, so it wasn't a weak battery.