981 Battery

[Withy]

What is the thinking about Battery replacement for a 981.  Any compatible AGM 115E spec, or OEM for 4 times the price?

[CMA]

Depends, are you in Porsche Warranty or thinking of going back into warranty?

[Withy]

Out of warranty, not really thought about going back in either

[CMA]

No brainer then, any suitable AGM after market battery then

[JurassicBGTS]

A decent Bosch AGM battery, which I understand is what the Porsche branded batteries are anyway as long as your not interested in an OPC warranty.

[daz05]

Get one that's the same colour and transfer the stickers 🤣

[Paul P]

Risk of re opening a can of worms.  
 

But.  The 981 “needs” to be told it has a new battery.  That’s so it can calculate the state of charge value for stop start and charging.  Same principal  as connecting a Ctek or equivalent indirectly rather than directly on the battery.  
 

Will anything bad happen if you don’t.  Apparently not.  No errors,  no codes etc. but there is a diags process for it (piwis for sure and perhaps things like the Porsche specific icarsoft or foxtel units)
 

Maybe it overcharges the battery and shortens it’s life.  Maybe it stops one day and won’t restart.  Maybe it won’t go into sailing mode.  Maybe one day it won’t start because it didn’t charge enough etc.  don’t know  

I just figure that pretty much every manufacturer that uses agm has built this   So there’s a reason  

so like always. Pays your money makes your choice your car your rules etc.  so consider the the above fyi and make your own call. 

[CMA]

23 minutes ago, Paul P said:

But.  The 981 “needs” to be told it has a new battery.

"need" is not correct. "Ideally" is more accurate, from experience of not doing that and just banging in an aftermarket battery, it has made no difference over a couple of years. Yes the manufacturer has built all this in for a reason, to get the best it should be updated but in reality the difference it makes is not that noticeable as yet to me. 

[Withy]

Thanks all.  It's going into local indy for some rattly suspension soon, so I'll ask them as they are pretty knowledgeable and have PIWIS.

[Paul P]

Need was in quotes for a reason.  
 

it’s a documented process alongside many other documented processes it’s not documented as nice to have.  
 

as I say.  I don’t know of anything bad happening but in contrast how do you know that the lack of doing hasn’t had (or will not have ) a detrimental effect?  

back to my comment re choices.  If it was my car I would choose to do the process, for me there would be zero downside and potential benefits.  I am fortunate that I have the tools to do the coding and I realise others won’t.  

i coded a 981 for someone.  He apparently had noticed the charging voltage was always “high” until it was coded, afterwards it varied apparently.  
 

 Don’t know.  I don’t have a (Porsche) dog in the fight (my daughters fiat 500 has stop/start and agm like battery.  The dealers gave me a how to guide to reset the body control module for a new battery when I replaced the battery) but my 987 has dumb old school battery. 
 

if it was a case of “if you replace the battery please press the battery reset button on the connector” then everyone would do it  and not even think about it, same if it was a menu option on the on board computer which I think it should be.  
 

 The issue seems to be “requires a bit of kit that isn’t in everyone’s hands” and isn’t cheap or easy  to get.
 

Totally get that, but doesn’t change the facts that it’s there and like the “don’t connect chargers directly to the battery” I believe it’s there for a reason    
 

as before   It’s a choice and someone might choose “ it’s worth the price of a pint to get it done by someone on the forum”  or worth 20 quid at the best Indy in world

Or they might decide it’s not worth the effort or money   

 

 

 

[JurassicBGTS]

When my Macan was in for its service I asked about the cost of replacing my none Porsche battery for a Porsche battery if all other parts pass the 111 test for its warranty.

With my PCGB discount Bournemouth quoted £295, which I didn't think was too bad.

[GTSMarky]

Can you not just piggy back another 12v battery via crocodile clips and change it over?

Much as you would if your own battery was totally flat say after leaving the lights on for a jump?

[BrianJ]

I changed my 8-year old original Porsche/Banner recently for a Bosch Type 115 S5A11 from Tayna Batteries. 5 year guarantee and is absolutely identical externally to the original - even the temporary terminal covers fit in the same holes. £135.38 delivered next day. I do not have Porsche Extended Warranty and don't have plans to do so. Original battery still functions OK (has always spent non-driving time on CTEK) but I had two very odd low cranking incidents and changed it proactively in case I got stranded somewhere remote. No problems doing the change or since - there's lots of anecdotal evidence particularly from the US that many Porsche dealers don't code a new battery into the car anyway. On a recent OPC visit to get my power steering rack replaced they pointed out the non-Porsche battery and offered to charge me over £90 to code it in, which I declined. 

Edited December 15, 2021 by BrianJ

[Paul P]

1 hour ago, GTSMarky said:

Can you not just piggy back another 12v battery via crocodile clips and change it over?

Much as you would if your own battery was totally flat say after leaving the lights on for a jump?

The whole “coding” thing is to tell the car that it’s got a new thing and to potentially adjust its parameters.  If you don’t it just carries on with its assumptions  based on the old battery. 
 

To its mind (as far as the state of charge goes ) it doesn’t know that anything has changed so in this case the keeping it live by croc clips makes no difference to it. 

collecfive wisdom seems to be that as long as the battery going in matches the one coming out in “technology” (agm) and capacity (ah) then coding or not doesn’t seem to make any difference. 
 

but the process is there.  And like a number of things (torque of whee bolt vs “tight enough” or “only use these bolts once vs they are fine put them back in” ) it might matter to some people enough for it to be a consideration,

[Richard Hamilton]

5 hours ago, Paul P said:

“technology” (agm) and capacity (ah)

Those are the important bits entered during coding.  You have to enter a part number and serial number as well, but any string of digits of the correct length will work.

I believe original fitment to 981s and 982s are by Banner.

[BrianJ]

15 hours ago, Richard Hamilton said:

Those are the important bits entered during coding. 

Thanks for confirming that Richard. That's what I assumed when I bought the Bosch. I also found an article somewhere that Banner, Bosch and Varta of this size are all made in the same Varta factory, which doesn't necessarily mean the internals are identical but does explain why the cases are.