I'd like to apologize in advance for my complete lack of any understanding about cars. Here's my problem. I have an '03 3.0L A4 that I bought used almost ayear ago. The other day I woke up to go run some errands and it would not start. Wouldn't turn over at all. The battery is completely dead. So my questions revolve around this:

1) How good are the sensors at detecting a alternator failure that would drain the battery? I drove it home the night before and everything seemed fine. The battery light never came on. I haven't had any symptoms that the battery would be dying. Just woke up and it was gone. (I don't believe I left any lights on) I got the car jumpstarted and drove it for about an hour and it was as dead afterwards as it was before I jumped it.

2) Called the dealership about changing the battery (because I have limited amount of tools and there is about ZERO space to get to the clamp that secures the battery) and they quoted me around $220 for parts and labor. They said that everything need to be reprogrammed after the battery was installed. Is this true? If not then there is a place that I could buy a new battery for $93 (Krage's Auto) and a place across the street that works on European cars that could drop the battery in for $10.

Any helpfull info would be greatly appreciated.

 

The alternator warning lights are almost bullet proof, if the alternator goes it almost takes a second for the light to come on. More than likely you just have a bad cell in the battery which is not un-common. Another likely problem is you left something on or there is a parasitic draw. First take the battery down to pep boys or whatever and have the battery checked, if its bad change it, if its not you have a problem.
Now the only thing you really have to do when connecting a new battery is input the radio code (which is in your owner's manual) Set the pinch pertection on the windows, you can do that by rolling them all the way up, down, and back up again, and thats about it. Sometimes the throttle body needs to be adapted but you can do that by leaving the key in the on position for about 10 minutes and the throttle will adapt itself.

 

Thanks a ton. I just don't see spending $220+ to get a battery installed....