My mother in law sent me a text this evening saying her CEL was on in her 2019 Jetta SE (21,000 miles). I told her I’d come scan the codes after work. It came back with a P0071. I googled it and couldn’t find anything rock solid as to what the problem could be.
During diagnostics I tried to start the car….click, click, click. No juice.
The car is 3 years old with 21k miles which seems a bit premature for an OEM battery. Our 2014 Jettas factory battery made it a bit over 3 years, but with around 40K miles before it needed a replacement.
At any rate, I told her if it was one of my cars I’d go ahead and replace. I offered a jump but we both agreed it would likely be a matter of time before it died again, and next time it may not be as convenient as in her garage.
The factory battery did not have any markings showing what size / group it was. Naturally I Googled but had quite a difficult time finding a definitive answer. Possible options were H5, H6 and H7. I took the old battery with me to Walmart hoping someone could confirm size. Unfortunate their database only listed VW’s through 2017! The end result was me buying the H5 as visibly it was a match.
I installed the battery after some fussing with the battery cover, pressed the start button and it started up as strong as ever….with about every dash light and warning message illuminated and flashing!
I cleared the CEL, and upon driving off all the other lights and messages went away. I did 4 drive cycles and no more CEL!
Hopefully this story is closed. She made a dealer appointment for the CEL before I came over but they were booked out for 2 more weeks. She will keep the appt for a few days to make sure the CEL stays off
The odd thing is there were no issues prior to the no start.
Anyway, that’s all.
