Hello everybody. 1st post here. I purchased a CPO 2008 A4 in the north Austin area a few months ago, and it's an awesome car. However after letting it sit a week recently i had problems getting it started. Slow to turn over, clock was resetting...definitely bad battery.

Called the dealer, they verified it's not covered under warranty, and quoted me a couple hundred. So i took it to advanced auto parts, they verified the cold-crank amps on the original one was way low, sold me a new one for less than dealer, and installed it for free.

So my question is, whats the expected battery life for the A4's if driven regularly? Seems a little soon to have to replace the battery, but it could have been 4 years old. Not sure how long the car was sitting around before i bought it, but previous owner had a 3 year lease on it.

And BTW, if you have to reprogram your 'switchblade' key fob after changing the battery, here's what worked for me:
1> use the key to turn the ignition on, but don't start the engine.
2> turn it off, then turn it back on again four more times (5 total).
3> close doors, test the lock button, and it should work.
4> repeat process for your 2nd key fob.

 

i'm also wondering this. it's been 4 years and i'm still using the original battery.

 

Battery life is going to depend on a lot of things, especially the environment it lives in. 3-4 years is pretty fair. I've had one last 6 years in my Mustang and I've had them go as fast as 2(ish) in our Jeep.

Do your auto up/down windows still work? I thought there was a bunch of stuff that needs reprogrammed when you pull the battery on these Audis.

 

Yes, as far as i know the auto up-down still works. I'll test that next time just to be sure. Only other thing i had to do was reset the time/date.

I suppose 3-4 years is to be expected, but it seems that i've had better luck with batteries in my other vehicles.

 

My Audi's original battery died a sudden death at 4 and a half years. the battery on my Jetta GLX on the other hand lived a long 7 and a half years, with plenty of warning it was going to die. When the dealer replaced my Audi's battery, it messed up the fob and other stuff. It was so bad that the procedure above didn't work for them. The dealer had to hook my car up to the computer and reprogram it.

 

I have an 2006 A4 Quattro and just had to change the battery in Jan. 2011. It never did not start on me, but was a little slow starting on the cold mornings, so I just decided the battery was 5 years old, time for a new one. I picked up a $100 MAXX battery at Walmart and installed it myself. It made a huge difference on starting quicker. If the battery is not out of the car for more than a minute or so, you will not have to reset the radio. I did not have to reset anything but the clock. Oh, I did have to reset both sets of remote keychains for the remote lock/unlock. The owners manual explains how to reset them. I have reset them before due to the battery going bad in both remotes after 5 years.

 

a couple of weeks ago the dealership checked my original 4 year old battery and they said it's perfectly fine.

 

My 2008 A4 battery has just died, I guess that's 3 years. clock reset, slow to start then this am it wont start. Taking it in tomorrow...

 

The #48 in my car lasted 5 years, and was replaced twice, in Oct. 2005 and Jan. 2011.