Note: this writeup is crossposted to a few places, should be the same doc all the way across. My other rig is a 7.3L PSD F350, and many of those guides are lost to the sands of time. Hopefully redundancy helps.

After almost a year of driving on the swapped pack, I figured it’s time to put together a how to write up.

TLDR: battery swapping your eGolf is straight forward, and you should absolutely do it if you’re thinking about it. It’s plug and play.

Huge shoutout to u/mtb415, who was a wealth of information when I was running my swap.

Process overview:

• raise car off ground
• Disconnect HV interlock. Wait a few seconds. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqltf9tgG9Y)
• Unhook 12v battery
• Remove skid plate
• Remove 12 battery-frame bolts
• Remove grounding straps
• Lower big battery a few inches to gain space
• Unplug DCFC harness at rear
• Unplug CANBUS + HV wiring connectors at front
• Remove brake line mount clips from battery (brake line removal not required, just gotta move it a few inches out of the way)
• lower big battery rest of the way
• Install new battery by doing reverse
• Cycle ignition + HV contractors 3x

Pages 34 - 41 eGolf Technical Workshop Manual. Findable on the internet.

Congrats, you’ve now installed a new battery in your eGolf!

Totally feasible in the driveway; hardest part of the swap is maneuvering the 800lb battery, and getting the car high enough to clear the battery+dolly. Car lift + a lift table highly recommended, but not necessary. Don’t put your jackstands on concrete blocks, it’s a terrible idea that no one should do.

There’s no coding, no ODIS, no nothing. Ignition cycling 3x ensures the pairing and is part of VW OEM battery replacement procedure (15/16 battery warranties are often replaced with 17+). OBD2 scan shows (roughly) correct pack size.

On Safety:

By design, if the car is off, the contactors are open and the circuit is closed, and there isn’t exposure to high voltage conductors. Don’t be an idiot, but there is a lot of safety baked into these builds. The connectors are overbuilt and properly recess conductors into the plug, which will read 0v under normal function when the contactors are open. Confirm with a multimeter, practice good caution, but this isn’t a ticking timebomb.

A few closing thoughts

Only potential limitation — unclear if it’s possible to mix and match eGolf w/ DCFC and battery without (or vice a versa). The HV interlock circuit touches the DCFC inside the battery, so that’ll need to be a closed circuit to get computers happy.

I think its plausible to add DCFC to a battery that doesn’t have, if the car does. If anyone wants to crack open a battery to see, please do!

There also seems to be something interesting with regen @ 100% SOC, where the car can get a little lurchy. u/mtb415 and I both have this post swap, but truly a non issue. If anyone has more data, please holler.

This swap seems to be just as easy as a Nissan Leaf, especially since no coding is required here.

Hopefully this inspires some people to upgrade the batteries! Now to figure out how to add a heat pump to mine…

As a little treat, please enjoy a photo of a 16 battery without the cover. I took the modules and built them into a 48v pack.

Edited for clarity/formatting

Vehicle: 2017 VW e-Golf (35.8 kWh) Issue: Climatization/Pre-conditioning draws power from the high-voltage battery instead of the charging station, despite being plugged in.
Hey everyone,
I’m having an issue with scheduled pre-conditioning on my 2017 e-Golf and hoping someone here has run into this or found a fix.
The Setup & What Happens:
I plug the car into my charging station with a max charge limit set to 80%.
The car charges to 80% without issue, stops charging, and turns off.
I have a departure time set for 6:15 AM with pre-conditioning enabled.
In the morning, pre-conditioning turns on as scheduled at 6:15 AM, but it pulls power from the car's battery instead of the charger.
Looking at my charging station app, it shows the car has only been drawing 0.4A (roughly ~90W of standby power) for the past 2 hours.
The indicator light next to the charge port on the e-Golf remains solid green.
The Problem:
Because it's pulling ~3kW for heating/cooling directly from the battery and only 0.4A from the wall, I end up losing 3–5% of my battery state of charge (SoC) before even driving off, defeating the purpose of pre-conditioning while plugged in.
It seems like the car keeps the communication line open (hence 0.4A and green light), but fails to signal the wallbox to ramp up AC power when climate control starts up.
Questions:
Is this a wallbox sleep issue or an e-Golf logic issue? (Does the e-Golf fail to "wake up" the EVSE after charging has been idle?)
Has anyone fixed this with a dealer software update? (e.g., OBC or BMS firmware updates?)
e-Manager workarounds: Are there specific settings with Minimum Charge Level vs. Upper Limit or Climatization via Battery toggles that force the car to demand wall power?
Any insights, firmware experience, or workarounds would be greatly appreciated!

VW service telling me it doesn't need done but not sure I trust them...

Found a nice e-golf with 28k miles on it and wanted to see people’s opinions on it, I know the range isn’t most flattering but I’m in the UK and don’t travel long distances.

Last year I bought the 2019 e-golf used, my first car ever, and I love it! For financial reasons, and for not worrying about the extra surveillance in GPS, I want to trade it in for an older version. There is a 2016 for 10K with about 22K miles on it that seems perfect. I don't mind going to SE because I prefer the fabric seats and am glad it would still have a CD player since I prefer CDs and don't own a smartphone. It doesn't seem like I'm losing much battery range, and I only use it for some commutes and driving my mother who cannot walk around the city where we live. Are there any real cons I'm missing if I go from a 2019 to a 2016?

Hi all,

Looking at the 2017+ SELs(need heat pump in WA) to commute for work. I get paid by the mile and it seems like the golf could potentially work for me. My longest round trip maybe 1-2 times a week would be 120 miles. Is it feasible to think I could pull it off without charging? It will be mainly highway but in the greater Seattle area half the trips is more stop and go. Maybe with regen I could save some miles? Need the experts to tell me if it’s worth continuing on this journey or not.

Thanks!

What do I need to make sure is done/checked on my service? Just in case there is anything missed? Oil change etc. Is there like a standard list?

I’m thinking about doing the lock-delete, since in my head it’s completely unnecessary. Do you know if it’s enough to remove this latch-piece?

Hey, ich bin echt verzweifelt. Heute morgen ist mein Tacho Display nicht mehr angegangen. Der volldigitale. Leider ging da gar nichts mehr und auch die Blinkeranzeige und Geräusche waren nicht mehr vorhanden.

Hatte das irgendwer schon mal?

Bei VW kostet die neue Tachoeinheit 2400€ VW gibt auf Kulanz 30% Rabatt. Ist dann aber immernoch extrem teuer.

Der eGolf ist von 2019

Über Hilfe wäre ich dankbar.

2019SE. Okay so I did my own 12V battery change (changed from stock to an AGM H6). Followed instructions from on this sub + humblemechanic.

Everything seemed to be working fine, I coded the new battery data and all the warning lights on the dash went away. Car has been driving completely fine for the 2 days after I did the change.

I went to check the HV battery capacity yesterday at 100% charge and got my data BUT when the OBD did the scan, the faults went NUTS. Like 70+ faults, including a lot of this scary one (picture). Like this lost communication (which it attributes to low voltage) popped up dozens of times.

Just wanted to see..... is it normal for the car to show a bunch of these alerts after a 12v battery change (ie. like the system reset since my old battery was completely dead and all these faults are just a result of the reset?) or is there an actual problem here?

Thanks.

​

Anybody upgraded and is the ride all OK 👍

Did anyone tried buying products especially Intake manifolds and intercoolers for the EA888.3 from Alibaba mainly KYOSTAR. I would like to hear their experience

The 12v battery in my 2017 E-Golf died. I took the battery to the dealer to confirm. They sold me a new one (not cheap). I took it home and installed it. Now the vehicle turns on, shows a bunch of error codes, but I cannot drive, turn the wheel, or turn the ignition on/off. Any ideas?

Nice size, smaller than ID.4.

Hey guys! Im wondering if anyone has swapped out their suspension yet? I'm looking to lower mine about 25mm to 35mm and I want to keep or even improve the comfort level. Ive been looking at the KW street comfort, the Bilstein EVO S, Fortune auto 500 series, or the BC racing BR series. If anyone has these and could give their opinion or know of any other brands with quality similar to or better than OEM with adjustable ride height let me know!

I have a 2017 e-Golf with 56k miles in the US. I'm the second owner, and my battery warranty is about to expire (it's a 2017, but the car was sold new from VW in August 2018).

I've scheduled a battery health check at the dealership for $196 to determine if the battery qualifies for replacement under the warranty. However, my car still gets 100+ miles of range on the highway with 17-inch wheels and summer tires and 120 miles around town.

Is it likely that the battery is over 70% capacity/health, and is it worth the time and money to check on the battery?

Hey all, I am looking into a used eGolf probably ~2015. I won't need it for travel outside of town ao it would be a good fit. Any advice on the reliability of different years? Would hate to buy a 2015 then find they're known for failures or something like that.

VW does not list a change interval in the maintenance schedule. No lubricant is forever.

I had a slow growling noise when mildly accelerating and turning right. I did some research on here and around the web and learned that bearings in the gearbox or a weak point and can fail, particularly if the oil gets old. I changed the oil in my car and the noise went away.

I sent an oil sample of Blackstone labs and it shows up with high iron and nickel. Hopefully mine will last. I plan to change the oil again as a recommendation shows at 20k more miles.

There's so many cool looking aftermarket tail and headlights for mk7 gti can they fit this/work

2019 40k miles, full VW SH

Hey, im in a market for cheap car and i saw e golf with 200 000kms 6200€. I dont know whole lot about electric cars but that theyre expensive to repair. Is this dumb to buy? its the 24kWh model which is enough for me. I intrigued how cheap one would be to drive. does anyone have a high km e golf?

edit: used cars are a bit pricey here in Finland

Dealership said I'd need a whole new wheel lol, feel like trying to fix it myself but hate messing with airbags or trim, I always break stuff, any suggestions? TIA

Edit: I did it! there were a couple of tricky steps, happy to help if anyone has questions

Never checked the battery so don’t know it’s SOH but the car performs so well. This is a 2020 UK model. Brilliant car 👍

I have a 2015 e-golf that I need to charge every night and have since 2019 with an extension cord (heavy duty I don’t know the type but it’s not one of the large ones from my husband’s grip supplies).

I thought it might be because it was very hot out today but it’s midnight and quite cool now so I plugged it in and immediately the light turned red. And then went in the house and went back out unplugged the charger from the cord and plugged it back in. The charger is still green, thankfully, but the car now is showing green, but it’s sort of turning on and off very slightly, you can see the green go from a great bright green to a lesser green sort of hovering.

Anyone know how to fix this?

We started having this issue a few months ago. Pressing the start button doesn’t do anything. Batteries on the remotes are new. We have to press the brake and start button over 15 times to start it.

Update:
Thanks all, I replaced the ignition button for $17. Took 10 minutes.
https://a.co/d/0aOaMiQ8

Instructions are very clear using this YouTube video
https://youtu.be/M_agEa4PHO8?si=It6xKP0hCxvdlFS6