1Wasserwerks

Ok, so back to the battery level meter. About a month ago or so I thoight I was going to have to change my battery, so I went and enabled the battery level meter. To my dismay it was reading at 100%. Apparently it only changes when it is really low.
The past few days we have had a cold snap here 18-20F at night.
Coming out from work at 7:30pm I noticed the alarm lights in the door were not blinking and the proximity/grab of the door handle was not functioning. Car was able to unlock with key fob, and started fine. Day 2 of cold snap, same conditions at 4:30pm. Car started, but the battery indicator came on momentarily. I switched the battery level meter on in the MMI and caught it inficating low. New battery purchased today and after the 8" of snow we are expected to receive between today and tomorrow I will install it.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

If you have the volt meter to check the battery voltage when it's low then it would be great.

Cheers,

Louis

mishar

Sure it works, but it is deceiving. If a battery lost it's capacity it will still show 100% but it means very little. Just a few minutes of radio or lights on and battery is drained.

TSHong

+1, it might have a surface charge but not much under a load. I never even turned mine back on after my 4610 update.

initial34

The problem you are experiencing is exactly what I experienced a few weeks back when we had a cold snap and what I experiencing now.

The battery level indicator was showing low. Doors not blinking, the door handle grab thing wasn't reacting.

My battery was original from 2007, so I changed it for a new battery.

The weather changed to warmer weather.

This week I have been experiencing the same issue again, with the battery level menu showing it's at 10% and slowly rising up as I drive the car. When the Battery level menu is low, the door handle doesn't react.

I started the car in -21 degree Celcius with no issues.

My theory is the following:

The battery is probably just fine.
The cold weather is affecting the method by which the battery level menu receives it's battery level reading.
This same low battery level reading and system is used by the power management system which in turn is shutting down the door handle proximity sensor (or whatever that very cool thing is).

mishar

Have you recoded your Power Management?

2k6blacka8

When I had my original battery in mine over the summer, when I let it sit for a 4-5 days, my alarm lights don't blink and my battery meter is at 20%. When I turn the radio and stuff on for like 15-20 mins the MMI tells me to start the engine and it will shut off in 3 minutes and I have to start it up and let it run for a bit. When I put my new battery in, it the door lights blink all the time now even after 5 days and starts up quicker.

nathanwind

Two things:

1) shortly after I got my A8, the battery started acting up and would not start the car...the battery meter did reflect the charge being down.

2) I recently installed a Bluetooth Audio Gateway so that I could stream music directly from my iPhone (which is different than the car phone Bluetooth)...initially I had wired this into a port in the fuse panel that was hot, which meant that the Bluetooth Gateway was ALWAYS on. This DID have an affect on what was a brand new battery, and after just one night I checked the battery meter the next morning and it was at around 50% (though I didn't actually check the voltage at the battery). Needless to say I found one of the few ports on the fuse panel that is ignition activated and now run the Gateway off of that and the battery is always at 100% now since the Gateway is not drawing any thing...but goes to show the meter does work.

Next time I'll try to get actual voltage readings at the battery to match the meter and see how it compares.

initial34

No I haven't. Can the power management be recoded? To do what?

initial34

If you mean, recode the new serial number and manufacturer of the battery, then the answer is yes. I did do the procedure for changing the battery as described on ross-tech.com