A8 D3 Battery Regulator / Energy Management ECU issues

[Shans211]

Any one had issues with their Battery Regulator or Energy Management ECU? I have a 2003 03 4.2 Q d3, no real dramas, randomly have not been able to unlock car with key remote, so had to use key in lock, which sets alarm off and then start the car before any electrical components work again.

the MMI battery level indicator at this point shows 0-10%, last few days i have done a lot of driving thinking this would charge up the battery but it hasn't at all. The issue is, well the battery is only a few months old (i changed it as i thought it was going but now same symtoms have arrisen) and started failing, i think the battery regulator has been playing up for a long time but now its had it. I have the VAG COM from ross tech and it has chucked out this...

Address 61: Battery Regul. Labels: 4E0-910-181.lbl

Part No SW: 4E0 910 181 B HW: 4E0 915 181

Component: ENERGIEMANAGER H02 0240

Revision: 00000000 Serial number: 00000000002689

Shop #: WSC 00654 210 86464

VCID: 1F46334FB7D5

Part No: 000 915 105 AK

Component: von VA0 2302280286

Coding: 303030393135313035414B56413032333032323830323836

Shop #: WSC 00000 128 00289

1 Fault Found:

02256 - Quiescent Current

001 - Upper Limit Exceeded

Freeze Frame:

Fault Status: 01100001

Fault Priority: 7

Fault Frequency: 6

Reset counter: 69

Mileage: 114366 km

Time Indication: 0

Date: 2010.07.28

Time: 01:53:13

there are loads of electrical issues at the mo, but feel they all stem from this - if a constant supply is not being found, modules will shut down or fail when not enough current is found - if the battery regulator is not functioning right, the system will not find this energy....

can anyone shed some light or experience on this before i spend out on the steelers to get a new battery management ecu fitted...?

thanks in advance

[PsYcHe]

Was the new battery coded in properly? The car needs to be told it has a new one.

The unit is very sensitive and can easily be broken by a bad jumpstart.

[Shans211]

Was the new battery coded in properly? The car needs to be told it has a new one.

The unit is very sensitive and can easily be broken by a bad jumpstart.

Thanks for the reply - to be fair I am not sure if it was coded correctly - i went to a local garage - they claim they did - i dont know what to look for with the vag com otherwise i could code it myself. if there is any advise on coding this i'd appreciate it.

I have had the car parked up all week as it wasnt much point trying to drive and park then not get in without setting the alarm off. Again took the car out for an hours drive but no charge was getting in - all components work to a degree when running but it doesnt seem right somehow - to top it all off the engine management light came on complaining about Bank 2 running too lean.

Not by week with my poor buggy.

[PsYcHe]

where are you? Maybe a local with vagcom can help you out.

[Shans211]

where are you? Maybe a local with vagcom can help you out.

Thanks PsYcHe

I'm in Wembley, north west london, and Watford. I have the VAGCOM with latest VCDS but dont know what adaptations need doing...

Incidently after sifting through the forum search, i found something related to the reset button on the battery management ecu - a bright yellow button - FYI it didnt make any different to the state of charge.

SOOOOO Frustrated ...

[PsYcHe]

Here you go..

Audi A8 (4E) Battery Replacement - Ross-Tech Wiki

[Shans211]

Here you go..

Audi A8 (4E) Battery Replacement - Ross-Tech Wiki

Thanks again PsYcHe, i will try this out tomorrow when i get back - if the battery is a non-standard NON VAG part - will it make any difference?

I noticed today that if i do not alarm the car, the remote will still talk and will not get any energy management errors even after an hour. but if i alarm the car, within 5-10mins i cannot get in to it with out manual door handle key entry.

Need DR HOUSE on this one...

I will check the coding out first to make sure it was done by the garage.

Thanks again.

[PsYcHe]

Just change the serial number by 1 digit on it.

It could make a differene if the battery is a non-VAG unit.

Did anyone jump start the car at any point? If you do that and don't use the special earth point above the battery, it can fry the management unit.

[Shans211]

Just change the serial number by 1 digit on it.

It could make a differene if the battery is a non-VAG unit.

Did anyone jump start the car at any point? If you do that and don't use the special earth point above the battery, it can fry the management unit.

The trouble is, i have in the past lent it to friends or family and who knows what they could have done - i personally have not jumped it but its possible it was done! With the random power issues with modules or components, i can only assume its the power distribution throwing it out of sync - i will check out the digit change - thanks for that...

[masterff]

Hi, sounds like your having issues like I had just 4 weeks ago, I jumped my car on the correct points etc and it looks like it spiked.

The car had to be towed on a flat bed to tetbury audi :mad:

The Authorisation module ECU underneath the passenger seat fried,

£998.00 later car is sound, all due to a jump start potentially, I swapped the battery on the car last year and it was fine until last mth when I hadn't been using the car much. I never got it coded at the time as I didn't know it needed to be done. Daft in this day in age that a battery has to be coded to a car, even if it does have alot of electricals.

my rear parking motors had to be removed for the car to be towed aswell.

a heads up, becareful if you are going to try and jump the car - Last year when I swapped the battery I did it without having to disconnect the old battery completley.

[Shans211]

Hi, sounds like your having issues like I had just 4 weeks ago, I jumped my car on the correct points etc and it looks like it spiked.

The car had to be towed on a flat bed to tetbury audi :mad:

The Authorisation module ECU underneath the passenger seat fried,

£998.00 later car is sound, all due to a jump start potentially, I swapped the battery on the car last year and it was fine until last mth when I hadn't been using the car much. I never got it coded at the time as I didn't know it needed to be done. Daft in this day in age that a battery has to be coded to a car, even if it does have alot of electricals.

my rear parking motors had to be removed for the car to be towed aswell.

a heads up, becareful if you are going to try and jump the car - Last year when I swapped the battery I did it without having to disconnect the old battery completley.

Masterff, it does sound similar indeed - one of the errors on the vag com does show antenna authorisation ecu issues too - but drivers door side at the moment but is intermittent - the car has been at an independant audi specialist the past few days - they claim to have cured most of the electrical faults but i doubt they have got to the source of it - i will know tomorrow if i get the car back that is.. my battery was replaced 3 months ago now and for it to go dead is rediculous - i can only imagine it was the coding that hasnt been done - which is probably all the garage has done... if there was a power spike when the change over was done then its possible other modules have been effected -

This has left such a sour taste in my mouth with my car - I love this machine to bits - i never want to sell it but i'm getting itchy feet now... I have had many cars in my life, but this is the most comfortable and fulfills all my needs and expectations... ok thats my rant over....

[masterff]

I don't have the luxury of using a VAG Com unit, only one of these VAG 2253 units and it shows the errors that the dealer mentioned to me.

One being the DSP Amplifier is in Component protection mode, which they said they couldn't get out.

Another error with a front engine mount, they said it wasn't anything serious.

I too love my car, but spending a grand on a part including labour has left a bitter taste in my mouth, and even with a warranty in place - they probably wouldn't of covered it.

Im probably going to get shot of it shortly, or maybe after i do a trip round europe in it haha.

having done nearly 2000 miles in my other car ( fabia VRS ) which in turn worked out at about 8p a mile on the whole journey, I probably will only get to france and turn around haha.

[Limoncello]

I have just been away for 2 weeks, after starting the car got a Power Management Warning Battery low

The MMI shows the battery at just below 10% and running the car doesnt seem to change that

However the car still starts ok, and im wondering if this MMI battery meter is now giving a false reading causing the power managemnt to give warnings that arent correct.

I dont have a VAG COM so cant check any errors, but everything seems to be working ok. my question is - if it continues to work ok, can i find someone with a VAG , and switch of the meter. will this stop power management warnings? or maybe upgrade the software as the new software disables the meter anyway.

on the other subject I also had an issue with the protective mode of the AMP, after installing the bluetooth phone module the protective mode stopped one channel of the amp from working. I went to two audi dealers (Warrington and Leeds) explained it needed to be connected to the server in germany etc, neither knew what i was talking about and one said they had never heard of it. (though Leeds did offer to look at it in two weeks time). finally Craigyb helped me out and got Audi manchester to do it for me. took them about 5 minutes once they got the car in.

[Limoncello]

Battery has now gone back up to 100%, very strange

[mcobinad]

@Shans211,

I have exactly the same problem of battery management as you only that am not (IT) inclined to use VAGcom to predict a particular problem. I drive an A8 03 which i love madly. I have roughly spent over £5,000 to upgrade this car. It looks great only that the electrical components are costing me an arm and a leg. Audi even told me to sell it and get a recent model from them. But i have spent so much on this car to sell it at a give away price which i know no one will be willing to give me over £12,000 for a seven years old car and thats why i have decided to keep it. But this car is making me bankrupt in that any time i sort a problem out, a week later another problem emerges and all these closely associated to electronics. I only use Audi for diagnostics but i always try to negotiate with them and the price comes to a normal price which any independent garage would have charged if i used them but diagnostics with Audi is always precise and accurate. Back to my request, in May this year, i changed my battery with a genuine Audi battery but had it fixed by an independent Audi specialist who claimed he worked with Audi. Ordered the battery from Audi and gave it to him to change but i doubt if this fellow coded the battery. A month later, the engine management light came on the dash and i was furious. I took the car to Audi and they discovered this fellow did not code the battery to the management unit. Test carried out showed that battery manager is faulty which is £411.48 + J523 Display Unit £892.49. This left a bitter taste in my mouth. I postponed the repairs for short of finance at the moment, but recently i have noticed that i can't use my remote car keys to get into the car without having to use the manual key hole and when i do so, the interior lights that normally comes on when i open the car doors stays off until i start the engine before everything comes back again. Even the alarm triggers off when i use the manual key hole and i had to disconnect the alarm because it goes off every 10 minutes and my neighbours feel disturbed right in the middle of the night. I had to take the car to Audi to disconnect the alarm till further notice. The parts are not the problem with Audi, where the problem lies is that Audi labour charge rate is damn too expensive and i have gone this far in expenses for this car because i love it but my question is will i continue to spend like this on a car over 7 years? Please how did you go with your battery management issues? Did you finally pay the full cost at Audi stealers to sort the problem out or did you use an alternative specialist? To this day, i have vowed never to use any car independent specialist because they will end up making things difficult for one and never will they accept responsibility for any damage caused. They will still end up sending you back to Audi to get a proper treatment for short of diagnostic equipments and lack of in depth knowledge of the brand and knowing well that these flagships cost over £100,000 when new. So fellow Audi forumists, it's better to pay a little more but resolve the problem permanently than using a short court and still find your self going back to square one and in return spending that money which you did not want to spend initially. Are these problems common in the early D3's? Hope to hear from you soon. Cheers.

Edited November 26, 2010 by mcobinad

[nicksaint]

I also have a June 2003 A8 D3 which was also consistently reporting low battery condition (40-50% charge most of the time) despite driving on long runs.

Consequently it was shutting all sorts of circuits down. The dealer has just checked the battery and alternator and both are fine, they have upgraded the MMI software to a later version and it's now showing 100% charge - fingers crossed this will last!

[Limoncello]

cross your fingers - but it may not, im on the latest software and mine is still going up and down when it pleases, basically it stays up unless i do a couple of short hops (specially in the cold weather) sometimes it goes back up by itslf after a few days, other times it stays down, when it goes down i use vagcom to change the battery serial number and it works again for a few weeks or so.

[jsf79]

I have a 2004 D3 4.0tdi LWB and it too has decided that the battery is down to 5%. I've had fourrings in Kent check it(my local Audi specialist) and they said the battery and alternator are fine so have siad I need to take it to Audi. Trouble is they're quoting scary money to update the software with no guarantee that it will fix it.... Doesn't fill me with joy!

Does anyone know a specialist who can update the software?

[mcobinad]

Try Craigyb who is a specialist. He is also a member on this forum. You can PM him. He updated my ex-A8 4.2 software and even the MMI to 3D. Hope this helps.

[varcolac1987]

Hy i have a audi a8 tdi 2005 and i just change the alternator and the battery on it now when i start the car it appears on the dashbord energy management level and it shows me the battery.....when i change the battery i just took the old one out and put the new one it nothing else...anyone can help thx?

[cruiser647]

Welcome to TSN!!!

Go to the General Forum and introduce yourself and say hello

I think you need to plug in VAGCom to tell the system you have a new battery.

Although, my A8 is stating the same as it starts. But, when the weather is warm, the battery symbol doesn't appear and the car starts better. So I'm not really sure it's a battery issue now. :confused:

Edited May 11, 2013 by cruiser647

[varcolac1987]

anyone can help?????? i have a audi a8 3.0 tdi quattro 2005 just had the battery the alternator and the throttle body changed on it....the car runs super but when i put the ignition on it shows th error BATTERY MANAGEMENT LEVEL and when it starts sometimes it choke's first spin then it starts or it just spins the engine 7-10 times before it starts....i had a diagnoze on it ant they told me is something electric wrong but they did know what.....another thing is that sometimes is got periods when it starts for about 1 minute it take out some white blue smoke.....please can anyone help me?thx

[Swiftys A8]

hi all,ive got a 2005 A8 4.0Tdi had same issues as you guy's. Flat battery every morning :-(....went to halfords spent £160..00 on a new Bosch battery and coded it to the car with Vag-Com......................worked fantastic ever since (touch-wood)..............Even when i had Aux heating on over the winter and it was running for 45 mins..... nice warm car :-)love my car but as you all say, Some Audi Garages havent got a clue............ i nearly bought a 2003 4.0tdi about 3 years ago and then realised that it had a battery drain on it, Every time i turned up for a test drive they couldnt start it. but i walked away in the end as the garage couldnt find it after 6 weeks of auto electricians and audi played with it. lol............ i was a checky little git and offered a stupidly low price (half asking price) to take it off their hands but the said bugger off.............anyway, i just followed Ross-tech web site and all was well :-)hope you have some good luck.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Swiftys A8

[MichaelV8V]

I wonder if there is something intermittently using battry power, so the problem isn't the battery or that battery management unit, its something like a faulty alarm that is occasionally flattening the battery?

[varcolac1987]

i had my one sorted...got a original battery from audi £185 code it to the car and no problem after...