So in determining what monitoring tool I need for the 2020 Macan S I was looking through what peculiar things Porsche has come up that I wasn't aware of or encountered in the VDub/Audi world. So one of them is this battery "registration" when you're changing batteries. What's up with that?

And what if you just don't bother and just (when needed) install a new battery assuming the OEM one is dead? I know Varta doesn't sell car batteries here so (at least Audi and VDub) I'm used to Interstate. Will the car melt on the pavement, doors will fall off or won't it start unless you "register" the new battery?

Thanx for any enlightenment!

siberian

 

The car won't melt , but you could have drivability issues. I needed a new one in my Audi Q5,,same as my new Macan. Have a great independent shop and he said don't do it. In the car's computer you need to load the specs ,CCA etc. etc. into the computer, so it knows how the Alternator needs to keep it charged. No under or over charging. And if you unhook the old battery you can lose some of the computer programing. When they swapped it out they hooked up another battery to keep the 12v power intact.

 

Thanx ef1018! Will a 9v plugged in the cigarette lighter work to keep memory? Made a little box from parts bought at Radio Shack to put the 9v in and connected it to a a cigarette lighter to keep power whenever I had to disconnect the battery. Is the alternator water cooled in the Macan? What monitoring tool do you use assuming you did it yourself or did you have the indy do it?

siberian

 

Pretty tricky stuff dealing with the battery changeover. You apparently need the PIWIS Tester and someone that knows how to operate it. This makes it really tough for folks like you that live on the very edge of the flat world.

 

Actually watched the video on youtube from one of the Porsche garages when they did the changeover, didn't look like rocket science. Just wondering if any other tester woudl also allow you to input this data.

siberian

 

Register the size, amps, type, etc so computer knows when, how long, and voltage to charge.

If you do not, it probably will think its just the old battery.

 

There is at least one other thread on this subject. OP, you will be interested in this:

I'm under the impression if you don't register the new battery it won't hurt the car, but the life of the new battery will be affected as it will not be optimally charged. I can't see how or why driveability would be effected.

The need to register new batteries is not unique to Porsche. Many BMW's have had this same requirement for years.

 

Thanx for the pointers and advice.

So I would thus surmise that somewhere in the bowels of the myriad computers is a small db which has all the batteries made that would fit a vehicle and upon entering the make/model/cca etc. it would tell the voltage regulator how much juice to optimally supply.

My latest vehicle is a 2015 so at that time Audi had not yet implemented it so it came as news to me. But it clearly is a major factor in deciding which monitoring tool to buy making sure it has this option.

Thanx again

siberian

 

Thanx for the pointers and advice.

So I would thus surmise that somewhere in the bowels of the myriad computers is a small db which has all the batteries made that would fit a vehicle and upon entering the make/model/cca etc. it would tell the voltage regulator how much juice to optimally supply.

My latest vehicle is a 2015 so at that time Audi had not yet implemented it so it came as news to me. But it clearly is a major factor in deciding which monitoring tool to buy making sure it has this option.

 

No mention of having to have the vehicle connected to a spare battery whilst you're swapping out the old one... or did I miss that?

siberian

 

Yes, it has been a good idea for many moons.

 

Many things are a good idea but not necessarily needed as seems to be the case here. It could be that the RAM or EEPROM keeps the data long enough for the battery swap without needing auxiliary power.

siberian

 

It really seemed somewhat hard to believe that after so many decades of just swapping out a battery with another one with similar specs, that now the car computer must know details about the new battery to adjust the alternator charging.
But I think it is true, found this:
"How important is it to register the new after-market battery in BMW vehicles?"

How important is it to register the new after-market battery in BMW vehicles?

According to BMW dealership the new after-market battery must be registered to the on-board computer, because, otherwise, the car would think that the old battery is still in and it would end up be...

mechanics.stackexchange.com

 

But like IPv6 we're still a ways from 48v batteries across the industry despite the explosion of "accessories" which hang off our trusty 12v...

siberian

 

My wife's car starts perfectly every time she attempts to start it. When I tried hooking up my Cobb Accessport tuner the voltage was measured at 11.8 V. So I hooked up my Deltran Battery Tender and trickle charged it for over 19 hours until it was determined to be fully charged. I recently purchased the iCarsoft POR-II Porsche OBD-II Scanner Tool Multi-systems ABS SRS (POR II) to use when servicing her Macan myself. I thought for sure I heard somewhere that this hand held scan tool could also register a replacement battery too. I have tried calling their Customer Service number listed but have yet to hear a person's voice. I have left countless voicemails with no returned calls or e-mails. Ieven used their e-mail contact with the same pathetic results......Nothing. I started checking the battery each night and it always shows up as below 80% charged. On the morning that I installed my most recent Custom Tune I made sure that her Macan was showing fully to be fully charged, yet when I installed the Cobb Tuner the battery voltage was still only showing to be 12.1 V. After the download was completed, I picked up two engine messages as well as 3 DME codes. . I looked into purchasing an INTERSTATE H8 (49) AGM Battery for this vehicle for $177.99 from Costco, but sadly found out that even though this INTERSTATE battery item # 1355853 with 900 CCA , 1000 CA, and an (Ah) value @10 hours is 95 Amp hours is listed on their website, not a single Costco store has access to this battery. So I ended up leaving with the only H8 (49) regular NON-AGM battery that cost me $132.99. Will it matter that this battery is not an AGM battery. I have not installed it yet because I wanted to find out if there is a hand held scanner available that can pair the new battery with the Macan. Any insight or help with this matter would be greatly appreciated

1: PSM FAILURE Consult a workshop. Adapted driving permitted
2: STEERING SUPPORT RESTRICTED. Adapted driving permitted.
3: DME CODES UFF00, P28202, UD123 No description available.

 

I ended up leaving with the only H8 (49) regular NON-AGM battery that cost me $132.99. Will it matter that this battery is not an AGM battery.

It matters. @ef1018 is correct. Auto start/stop, for example, is dependent upon AGM technology. The old fashioned batteries are not robust enough to handle it.

 

The electrical systems in your Macan and most every other newer German and many others is really complicated. There are numerous systems that interact with each other as you listed in your notes. ie driveability issues if the battery is not registered and it MUST be an AGM with all the OE specs . CCA and charge rate etc. I have an outstanding independent Porsche shop that let me buy the right battery NAPA had it in stock and charged me $60 to install and register it.

 

It is an interesting question though if it's really needed if you have stop/start shut off.

I have yet to replace the battery in the Macan, but if it's like the BMW, the registration process asks you if the battery is AGM or not. Assumedly the car adjusts the charging strategy based on the type of battery.

That being said, don't think I'm willing to be the guinea pig for trying an non AGM battery. There may be other factors that are way beyond my knowledge, and the upcharge for AGM batteries seems to be decreasing as they become more commonplace.

 

Thanks for the info you guys entered. I really was hoping to be able to by the H8 (49) AGM battery for $179.99 especially with Costco's incredible return policy but for some unknown reason they cannot seem to order that exact battery. So if I were to install a battery myself will my car still function or will I be left stranded and have to have it towed to a local stealership? Has anyone purchased a Scan tool that can register or pair a new aftermarket AGM battery with their Macan? My wife's Macan is a 2016 Turbo with 63K miles on it and a production date of DECEMBER 2015. Is this about the time that the batteries start to fail?

 

So if I were to install a battery myself will my car still function or will I be left stranded and have to have it towed to a local stealership? Has anyone purchased a Scan tool that can register or pair a new aftermarket AGM battery with their Macan?

Read the posts in this thread

For example https://www.macanforum.com/threads/replacing-the-battery.84682/page-10#post-2553275

 

The "kicker" is the sticker on the battery....A BMS sticker. (Battery Maintenance System). Look on your OEM battery and you'll see the sticker. All that info from a new battery must be entered into the ECU to "register" the new battery. Trouble is, all the aftermarket batteries don't have the BMS sticker...Just the ones from the dealer.

 

NC Trackrat, how sure are you about the need for accurate serial and part number information?

After my experience with our X5, I came away with a strong impression that the battery part number and serial number were recorded merely for informational purposes and do not affect the charging strategy as the size of the battery, the type of the battery, and the age of the battery do, and that information might be used, for example, for someone working on the car at a later date to verify that the current battery was actually registered in case there are subsequent electrical problems with the car or there is a need to verify the age of the current battery.

Of course the Porsche battery registration system may be very different than what BMW uses, but the more I learn about it, the more it seems like it’s very similar.

 

This hostage Porsche holds over you for battery replacement is unconscionable. We should create a poll requesting whether Porsche should unleash the mystery of battery replacement so we normal people can walk into Costco and buy and register a replacement battery without going through a dealer.

 

We should create a poll requesting whether Porsche should unleash the mystery of battery replacement so we normal people can walk into Costco and buy and register a replacement battery without going through a dealer.

This is getting old.

Technology from Porsche trickles down from the top of the food chain to the bottom. If I remember right, AGM batteries became standard in 2012 with the first 991.1, then onto the 981, not sure about the Cayennes. Macan came out in 2014. AGM batteries are robust enough to handle continually turning on the engine for start/stop. For start/stop, you can thank the environmentalists in Europe. If you want to understand how AGM is different than the old lead/acid batteries, go to Battery University and start reading. The charging voltage is different and battery chargers have different settings, that is, 14.4 vs 14.7V. They are supposed to be more sensitive to rapid charging and heat. In your MFD add the voltage to your display. You will see it move around from 12.5 to as much as 15.4, dependent upon what's going on. Its also temperature dependent.

Its not 1965 anymore. The car has a battery sensor. "Programming" the battery means registering with the computer the capacity, technology, series number, and part #. If you choose not to do this, everything I read says that the computer will think the old battery is there with its data, and more important, if you use the exact same part #, the old state of charge. So the car will be "charging" that new battery as if its near death resulting in a shorten life span. But since I'm not a Porsche mechanic, that's just what I've read. YMMV

Clearly there are now Autel diagnostic units to do the programming. Watch the video.

Complaining about this won't change a thing. Stuttgart isn't going to read some post buried in thousands of threads in one of dozens of pcar forums and decide "Hey, yeah, we need to go back to the old way of business and just make things cheap for our customers, pick up a DieHard from Sears, bolt that thing in, and done. Lets loose the energy management system we just spend $$$ doing R&D on to allow our cars to meet those EU emissions regulations and avoid the fines cause we want to ripoff the customer ?".

Sorry, but as "they" say. You can never go home. Progress is the future.

 

You have my support!

 

What mystery? Seems to be no different than what BMW does. I have yet to replace a Macan battery but I don't intend to get ripped off at the dealer.

 

Standard lead acid batteries produce hydrogen gas when recharged. In an open environment like under a hood it’s not an issue. In your trunk the gas builds and becomes explosive at concentrations as low as 4%. This is why you must use a AGM battery in enclosed spaces.

 

AGM batteries don't do the same? Then in the videos above why do both the old and replacement AGM batteries have vent tubes?

 

Interesting article on AGM batteries:

Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) Battery Information - Battery University

Learn what differentiates Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) batteries from other lead acid battery types

batteryuniversity.com

 

While I’m not a battery expert, the way it was explained to me is that the gas is produced in an overcharged situation. AGM handle higher voltage charging well and don’t gas as much, but still need venting.

I think these AGM batteries are remote mounted because they really don’t like heat. It’s been years since I researched the topic and moved the battery to the trunk of my 57. That was a stupid amount of work, BTW.

 

According to the Battery University article I attached, AGM's are sensitive to overcharging. Wonder if that's the reason for battery registration...so that the vehicle can more optimally charge the battery according to it's capacity and age.

Never knew AGM's are sensitive to heat, but the article mentions that too. I always thought the reason for trunk mounted batteries was for weight distribution. Perhaps that's merely a secondary benefit.