Battery swap VW California (T6) / Camper

[Lagerlout]

OK so my battery died in my newish 2017 camper. I swapped it with the right size AGM Battery and now the van won't run properly is cutting out etc. I had to change it myself as I've managed to bog the damn thing on part of my property where VW service won't get to. I've heard now that the battery has to be coded to the car, is that right, is it not possible to DIY a battery change?! Is there anyway to do this yourself?

[normalbloke]

Does the Cali only have one battery of some carlos split charge shenanigans?

[Lagerlout]

For the engine? One AGM battery type 096. It has a leisure battery in the back.

[Dr mtree]

If the battery isn’t coded properly on modern cars I’ve heard of error messages and charging issues, but never heard of the engines cutting out. I would think that is unrelated. Best speak to the dealer to confirm.

[GreenV8S]

Dr mtree said:

If the battery isn’t coded properly

Are you talking about some sort of electronic module integrated with the battery that gives the battery an identity? I've never encountered anything like that. The only issues I've seen relate to ECUs working incorrectly under low voltage conditions and either generating spurious fault indications, or losing adaptive settings so that they have to be reset and spend some time re-adapting if the battery dies completely. And even that is not something I'd normally expect.

[Classy6]

Dr mtree said:

If the battery isn’t coded properly on modern cars I’ve heard of error messages and charging issues, but never heard of the engines cutting out. I would think that is unrelated. Best speak to the dealer to confirm.

My moneys on this. Common on modern cars with AGM batteries.

Battery control unit (or whatever system is responsible) needs to be told it's got a shiny battery fitted. Can cause all sorts of weird & wonderful issues if it's not been programmed from cutting out to just not charging.

Some manufactures have button press procedures to reset others you'll need the appropriate diagnostic tool to go into the module and reset it.

[Mr2Mike]

GreenV8S said:

Are you talking about some sort of electronic module integrated with the battery that gives the battery an identity? I've never encountered anything like that. The only issues I've seen relate to ECUs working incorrectly under low voltage conditions and either generating spurious fault indications, or losing adaptive settings so that they have to be reset and spend some time re-adapting if the battery dies completely. And even that is not something I'd normally expect.

The ECU has to know the battery type to track battery charge status and apply the correct charging profile. "Coding" in this case is just seting/resetting some parameters in the ECU to tell it a new battery has been fitted and the type of battery. IME this is more important for stop/start systems as this may stop working if the coding operation isn't done.