pavils

Was (unpleasantly) surprised today by having the battery in my '07 S6 die! Dealer diagnosis was confirmed by Redmond European (thanks Justin, John!).

Battery seems mighty young - 3 yo, 31k miles, living in the PNW - to be moving on to the afterlife, and have certainly been chagrined to learn replacement costs (all-in) can run into the $275 range. Shoot, that's a good chunk of the way to the APR/Unitronic chip on my to-do list

Any of you with similar experiences on an '07 or later that were able to get the battery replacement covered by warranty? I have gone through pierreb's TSB library links, there's one that might apply but not sure my VIN is in-range (and only A6, not S6, is called out as applicable).

Any thoughts, suggestions welcome...

am_ver

I can't tell if your car is under warranty or not. If it is, wouldn't the dealer have to put in a new one if the old one doesn't work?

Replacing the battery should be as easy as unscrewing 2 screws- how much does the part run? Anyone know if we can run non-audi battery - like the 'Die Hard' ones they sell at Sears for about a $100?

pavils

Car is still within the 4y/50k warranty, but service tech referred to his cheat sheet and it appears the battery is only covered for 12m/12k; will be double-checking that shortly.

Genuineaudiparts has the OEM battery for $180; independent shop said their source quotes $225 (!) for an applicable Interstate battery, and an autoparts store was in the same $230 range. The dealer quote for the battery was $175; yes, the dealer was cheaper than the other sources and yes, the world did seem upside down for a moment.

The extra money (dealer or independent) is the shop charge (between 0.5-1.0 hrs) for resetting a bunch of stuff post battery change. They use a booster battery during the change-out to preserve basic settings, but said there was a bunch of other stuff still requiring resetting...

raaizin

I have a 2007 A6. I believe it takes the type 49 battery. My battery went bad. I only have 17k miles on it and know it died from not driving enough. I bought one from walmart of all places. It was $75.00.What I did was use jumper cables to the jumping posts under the hood of the car. This was to keep electrical charge to the system. I wouldnt open any doors or turn anything on when doing the swap. I then did a simple swap and replace. Be sure to hook up the vent tube. I originally bought a battery from Sams club but it didnt fit correctly even though it was for my car.

Ray

pavils

Nice solution to preserving your settings! I thought you still had to calibrate the power management unit to the new battery, perhaps you found an exact match to the original...

The potential of a warranty replacement - as noted by the initial service adviser, based on concern there could be an ongoing current draw - is what had me decide to finally get it done by the dealer (vs self-install or independent shop).

Such hopes firmly dashed today but at least the jumper cables now get to go back to being passive passengers in my car.

You know you've been owning & servicing German cars too long when you're happy to find out the battery 'only' cost $150...

raaizin

I am truely amazed at what these dealers charge.. I know the parts cost a bit more but they really do seem to take advantage. I have always done my own mait. I will try to do all maintainence myself on this as well.

pavils

Attempted Service Tech salve: "Wow - it's cheaper than an A4 battery!"