Battery Exide or OEM Volkswagen

VW lists 3 batteries, 1 AGM (68 Ah, Varta) and 2 flooded (72 Ah, Varta and 59 Ah, Exide) that may be used.

Had my '18 R since May '18 and still on original battery, 25 mile commute to work each way about 1/2 hwy . At 57,000 miles.

OEM battery in my 2016 Jetta with 215k miles is still going strong.

In Mar 2022 I went to the dealer and got a new VW battery for my GTI $151. Not knowing any better, I simply swapped it in the parking lot - I did use a OBD-II device to keep circuits alive while the battery was disconnected. All worked like it should.

good. 2014 vw tdi with 360k on the clock and on the second battery. start/stop works just as fine as when i first got it.

This one looks like it’s in very good shape, I’ve seen similar for sale for $200 to $300 but the couple I’ve seen at auction sold for $80 and $110 if my memory is correct. Both where in much worse shape than yours.

I had U350100 as a soft fault in my Tiguan's system for a while about a year ago. I had it throw a hard fault and CEL for the same code twice. I found this to be caused by a fatiguing main battery. Not able to hold a high enough charge constantly to keep all the systems happy. I replaced and coded the replacement battery (000-915-105-CC-DSP) from VW. Made sure to change it's coding to know it was an AGM battery I installed in the Tiguan. Fault has not returned since.

Since the battery weighs ~40 lbs this isn't really a significant weight change from front to rear so I've no idea if the car handles any differently. Would I recommend this mod? Probably not as it's not cheap and has no real performance advantage and more crazy than anything.

Exide Battery (demolished)

I've got an essentially new Golf R only about 3 months old and I think my battery is no good. I keep it connected to a battery tender as I dont'drive it often. Even after a week of being connected it never reaches full charge. Also, After I discomnect I put a quick load on it by turning on the lights in order to remove the surface charge from the battery tendder. Prior to putting the load on and just after disconnecting the battery tender the rading is 12.8Votls. After putting the load on by turning on the lights for a minute the voltage reading then drops to 12.28 which seems awfully load. I'm assuming my battery is no good.