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We just don't use our 2015 Q7 TDI that frequently. It could be days/weeks between uses (usually road trips), and I'm concerned about the battery life because we've already replaced it twice (under warranty), and I don't want to replace it a third time, because my warranty is going to end at some point. (Longer story: I left my Garmin GPS unit plugged in and it caused deep discharges of the battery, likely damaging it. I posted a different thread about that one...)
My belief is that I should be keeping it hooked up to a battery maintainer for these idle periods.
I bought a Noco Genius5 from Amazon for this purpose. First of all, it has settings for '12V' and '12V AGM' batteries, and I wasn't sure if the Q7 has the AGM battery or not.
I tried both settings, and they both tried charging for an hour or more and then gave up, claiming a 'bad battery'.
I contacted Noco support, who said that the battery may indeed be defective (even though it was replaced in Feb), or maybe the additional load of all of the Q7 electronics is confusing the charger to thinking that the battery isn't holding a charge. They thought that if this is indeed the problem, that their larger/more expensive Genius10 (10 Amp instead of 5 Amp) would be able to handle the additional electronics load, but they also recommended asking the dealer if this is a common problem. Of course I'm asking this forum first!
My questions are:
1. Should I even be using a battery maintainer for these idle periods, or is there a different product I should be looking for?
2. Do we have an AGM or traditional battery in the Q7?
3. Has anyone had problems with battery maintainers/chargers in the Q7 because of the electronics? (i.e. would buying the more expensive product instead be the right solution?)
4. Noco recommended hooking the charger directly to the battery and disconnecting the terminals to see if it's all the other electronics causing the problems. I didn't think this is easy/trivial because of the battery location under the seat. Or is there some fast/easy way to do this after all?
5. I still have about a week before my return window expires. Any other specific product recommendation I should be looking at instead?
I have 2 of these for my 3 cars. Can only drive one at a time . The BMW vert and the S Class mostly sits. But it also works great on the Q7, that sits mostly in the summer for weeks.
I have this on my B5S4 now, and attached the optional wiring connector that get's tucked away in the car after quick disconnect. It came with one of these connectors, need to get more for my other vehicles. Just so much easier than the alligator clips.
Last edited by Timtheguru; 04-03-2023 at 12:27 PM.
We just don't use our 2015 Q7 TDI that frequently. It could be days/weeks between uses (usually road trips), and I'm concerned about the battery life because we've already replaced it twice (under warranty), and I don't want to replace it a third time, because my warranty is going to end at some point. (Longer story: I left my Garmin GPS unit plugged in and it caused deep discharges of the battery, likely damaging it. I posted a different thread about that one...)
My belief is that I should be keeping it hooked up to a battery maintainer for these idle periods.
I bought a Noco Genius5 from Amazon for this purpose. First of all, it has settings for '12V' and '12V AGM' batteries, and I wasn't sure if the Q7 has the AGM battery or not.
I tried both settings, and they both tried charging for an hour or more and then gave up, claiming a 'bad battery'.
I contacted Noco support, who said that the battery may indeed be defective (even though it was replaced in Feb), or maybe the additional load of all of the Q7 electronics is confusing the charger to thinking that the battery isn't holding a charge. They thought that if this is indeed the problem, that their larger/more expensive Genius10 (10 Amp instead of 5 Amp) would be able to handle the additional electronics load, but they also recommended asking the dealer if this is a common problem. Of course I'm asking this forum first!
My questions are:
1. Should I even be using a battery maintainer for these idle periods, or is there a different product I should be looking for?
2. Do we have an AGM or traditional battery in the Q7?
3. Has anyone had problems with battery maintainers/chargers in the Q7 because of the electronics? (i.e. would buying the more expensive product instead be the right solution?)
4. Noco recommended hooking the charger directly to the battery and disconnecting the terminals to see if it's all the other electronics causing the problems. I didn't think this is easy/trivial because of the battery location under the seat. Or is there some fast/easy way to do this after all?
5. I still have about a week before my return window expires. Any other specific product recommendation I should be looking at instead?
Thanks!
I have a couple NOCO charger/maintainers and they work wonders. I keep my Coupe quattro that is V8 swapped plugged in, and it always starts up with out issue. I used one with my Rigid generator that is electric start, and it was always start right up. I also used it on my old Q7 4.2 that had bad door handle sensors and would drain the battery. The NOCO has a couple options to just plug it in to the battery. I use this on the Q7's jump start posts (you must ream the eyelet larger for the positive lead IIRC):
Well cuatrokoop, since you successfully used a Noco Genius with your Q7, that makes me suspect that either:
A. My battery is messed up.
B. Something is different with the newer Noco Genius and it doesn't work with the Q7. I don't see a 'Bad Battery' indicator on a picture of the G3500, so maybe they didn't try to detect if the battery is bad or not. (Or maybe that's the yellow exclamation point?)
Maybe it is time to (gasp!) contact the dealership...
Thanks for all of your insights! I may end up ordering a different battery maintainer and take advantage of Amazon's returns program.
Well cuatrokoop, since you successfully used a Noco Genius with your Q7, that makes me suspect that either:
A. My battery is messed up.
B. Something is different with the newer Noco Genius and it doesn't work with the Q7. I don't see a 'Bad Battery' indicator on a picture of the G3500, so maybe they didn't try to detect if the battery is bad or not. (Or maybe that's the yellow exclamation point?)
Maybe it is time to (gasp!) contact the dealership...
Thanks for all of your insights! I may end up ordering a different battery maintainer and take advantage of Amazon's returns program.
It worked fine on my '13 TDI to pick it's battery back up enough to keep the low voltage code from popping up in VCDS. I had the dealership replace the battery while they had it for NOx sensors and the recall programming to permanently fix that issue. It still had the factory installed battery in it...
I would hook up th extra leads that you get with the charger and install them on the battery, run the wire outside the seat somewhere and then attach your maintainer directly to the battery when you want to keep it charged up.
YotoWerks, I'd try, but I'm assuming that I'd need to take out the seat to install those leads directly on the battery, and that just seems like a giant nuisance for something that may (or may not) work.
03-13-2020, 08:05 AM
Battery maintainer?
. The BMW vert and the S Class mostly sits. But it also works great on the Q7, that sits mostly in the summer for weeks.
