Hi Mike, Varta G14 is the retail equivalent, assuming you don't order the OEM one from VW Parts.
Me too. Using a Deka ETX20 right now. Scooped it for $85 shipped from Tri-State Battery. I just got my car back on the road, so I haven't seen how well it holds its charge without running the car every day though.
Great thread. I have used lightweight batteries in all of my builds. Dont buy Braille or any high end BS. They are all rebranded Deka. Ended up grabbing a etx14 power sports battery from autoquest for $70. Same as the Deka ext14 just rebranded.
In sum, I can fully recommend the Deka ETX30L battery for long-term and continuous use in our cars.
Thank you for this excellent write up. Made switching out the 11 year old Varta a breeze. Locally cold temps caused negative strap reconnect challege due to stiffness. That and the mass of the big AGM we're the main challenges.
My oem battery lasted from '08 to '13. The last few weeks the car would hesistate to start. The starter would click click, dashboard lights would flicker, and the ECU and CANBUS would reset. I'd lose the auto windows and see my trip odo reset, but the battery read 12.5V and alternator read just fine too. I waited until the day I had to jump-start the car then drove to VW and bought a new OEM battery; I believe it's a Varta. After I installed new battery the starting issues went away, but I got stuck where the car would go "clickiddy clickiddy clickiddy click" and dash lights flickered like mad; new battery too! I took my multi-tool and started beating on the connections, leads, and grounds. I found the ground wire to be a bit corroded. After cleaning the terminals with 120 grit and a whopping dose of dielectric, car starts like brand new. The starter is pretty tough.
I have some extended experience with a lightweight battery in my daily driven 2006 Boxster S, which is well known for the demands it places on the battery. In spite of that, I successfully used the Deka ETX30L (21 lbs.) for almost 3.5 years.
Varta makes damn good batteries. One in my Rabbit lasted almost 5 years.
My GTI's original Varta battery lasted 7 yrs with normal driving/ number of starts.
I just upgraded mine a few weeks ago, ended up getting a DEKA AGM 9AGM47 More CCA and far more reserve capacity than the stock battery (120 mins) I was at ~35k miles and my OEM battery was failing fast.. I couldn't leave it in the accessory position without the engine running for more than a minute or two or it would barely be able to crank. The OEM battery is crap as far as I'm concerned
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