VONBOTTLE

so with the frigid temps this past weekend here in CT my battery was completely dead saturday morning and it took about 15 minutes to jumpstart, so knowing last nights temps were going to be equally as cold (-10 or so) i hooked up my trickle charger and this morning it did start, although a little hesitant. anyway, this happened last year maybe a few weeks after i had bought the car, after a very cold night the battery was dead as a door nail and was only able to jump it with a truck hooked up to the battery and a jump box under the hood, i can't recall if it happened again but i replaced the battery under warranty as it was less than a year old with an H9 size to replace the H8 that was in there......so my question is, is it a battery issue or a car issue that's causing it to die in extremely cold weather? the 12 year old battery in my wife's volvo started just fine yesterday as well as my '00 A6 which i hadn't started in a couple months. does anyone else experience this? should i install a battery heater for the occasional frigid night or just throw on the trickle charger when i know it's going to be cold? are there certain battery mfr's that are better in cold?

D's Avant

I take a lot of short trips with mine and just hook-up the CTEK when it is really cold.

frankinstyn

I had issues with mine for a few months and ended up replacing the battery. That wasn't the problem (or maybe just not the complete problem).

My issue was with the battery module. I even took the car to the dealer to have it check but they couldn't find anything wrong.

I bought one used on ebay and swapped it in myself and lo and behold my battery hasn't had a problem since. It now even shows 100% on the mmi. I has never shown anything other than 0% since I bought the car two years prior.

I'm not saying this is your problem...just hoping my experience can help.

royclark

CTEK, well worth the money. - CTEK | eBay

VONBOTTLE

what exactly is the battery module? my issues really only happen in extreme cold, this was the first time since last year, so i'm not sure if a new module is the solution or not. as i said, i hooked up the trickle charger and it was fine after the next equally as frigid night........ i like the Ctek one as it looks like you could probably permanently install it to the battery leads and the module is small enough that you could secure it somewhere in the engine bay? whereas mine is the size of a brick. or do you reconnect it every time you use it? or maybe it's the fact it has to start a big 10 cylinder engine whereas the batteries in my other two cars are only firing up 5 and 6 cylinder engines, so any slight drain from the cold and it can't crank it?

saifxnyc

You can get the battery tested at autozone or advance auto parts with a volt meter and an alternator test for free. My car did that when the temps went frigid replacing the battery solved all problems.

VONBOTTLE

where in the mmi can you find battery charge?

terak0306

Audi took the battery percent out in later models (I believe 2007 and newer) due to inaccuracy of the gauge. If you have VAG-COM, there is a setting somewhere that will allow you to turn it back on if you so wish.

frankinstyn

If it really only happens in the cold then it probably isn't the battery module unless there is a crack in a solder point somewhere.