[align=left]Hi folks,

Longer version than the title: I have a 2000 A4 1.8t, made Jan 00. The battery died early 2002 if I remember correctly, at 18k miles. The dealer happily towed and replaced it under warranty and said the battery was low on fluid and went bad. They said these are not no-maintenance batteries.
Fast forward to now, 33k miles. I had the car start a bit hard 2-3 times last month. Brought back the memory of the previous prematurely expired battery. I wont be surprised if the same dealer never checked that battery in the last 3-4 years.
I just read how to remove the larger cover over the battery here but could not see too much in the dark and did not unscrew the cross-slotted white plugs. The all white battery says VW-audi, 70 amps I think, 60 months warranty etc and there was a code like 4OD 215 195.

Very recently I stopped going to the dealer for oil change and such since I moved to bay area last month and they dont know what a lifetime oil contract is. I got oil changed at a regular joint sunday and they claimed it was a no-service battery so they did not have to check fluid level, possibly out of laziness. should I bother open this up or is this really no-maintenance? Last 2 weeks it did not have an issue starting, it could have been bad gas and such. It was not very cold when I got the 2-3 times of slower-start in the same week before that. One was after a half hour stop only. I did not leave anything on, car was not unused for weeks/days.

Off topic kudos to these forums: I saw the petition and voted. The wonderful dealer (sunset in beaverton) had proposed to change my dashboard for 850$ + labor as I was not getting the trip computer after stop-restart at a traffic light--to get the epc light reset (longer story). The perition reminded me to search for this. As recommended here I pushed the magic button under wiper bar and all is back. I should report them to corporate for proposing unnecesary work (after making a note, doing regular service and "checking things out" they gave me this quote)
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ok.... you can add fluid to the battery but most likely you will just add distilled water... batterys go dead man its a fact and there isnt too much you can do about it... and second.... Sunset is the **** for parts I love them and have always treated me very well i dunno about service but the parts department is awesom

 

They are low maintenance batteries. Flip off the cover and top up with DISTILLED water every 6 months or so. Just make sure to keep the electrolyte level above the plates and below the filler holes.






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May not even be battery related. Could be a failing engine coolant temp sensor. I had hard starts every now and then for a while, then i got the fault code. A new ects fixed it, and if you are 2000, so am i and when i took my old ects out it was nasty corroded. Its wise to replace it anyway cuz its easy and is a $6 part and its also a revised part because the older oem ones fail early.

 

My guess is it may be a bad alternator... not keeping the battery charged. We had the same problem with my girlfriend's 02' Mitsu Montero... bad alternator. So, we had the alternator replaced, and the car runs like a champ for over a year... no battery-related issues!

For the lifetime oil service contract, that only applies to the dealer where you bought the car from. There are dealers out there that are offerring such a lifetime oil change contract, in order to get people to buy cars from them. The only one in NorCal that does this, AFAIK, is Heritage Ford in Modesto (free oil changes & tires for the life of the car... original owner only). The dealers here will not honor such a contract made at a dealer in Oregon.

BTW, where in NorCal do you live?

 

Great tips, thanks guys. Will top off, good to know ects.
Where in N Ca am I : Bay area. I thought the contract might be at dealers here too, They had no idea what I was asking about.
Oil contract: Sunset would do oil changes for ~20$ if you paid ~180$ once, was a good deal for me since they gave rides or loaners and do this in work days
Sunset service: I was treated great, I was treated horrible. It all depends on the rep you get. I know one who got "encouraged to leave", there may be others who deserve it.

 

Quick way to test the alternator... Start the car up and pull the ground wire from the battery, if the car keeps running then the alternator is fine...

SMo'