I need a battery for my 2008 B8 S5. Any recommendations?

[Willi_must]

I heard that you need to program the batteries for this car which raised a few questions. Do you actually have to program the battery? Where do you get it programmed? Can any battery be programmed or just specific ones? How much does it cost to program a battery? OR Could I just do it myself with an OBD tool? (kinda a stretch but free is always better)

This is my first car and we bought the car knowing that the battery would need to be replaced but I was trying to hold out for as long as possible before pulling the trigger on a new one. That was until I got my car stuck and LOCKED in a car wash at 10:30 at night 6 hours before I left for a trip. Let me know if you have any suggestions or have useful information that I could use to make a decision. I just need to get a battery I can rely on to start my car every time. Thanks!

[s5_08]

If you can get a good deal on OEM battery that is what I would go with. I replaced mine after 13 years and that was proactively. Just knew I was on borrowed time. I have Rosstech VAGCOM and was able to change the serial number of battery. Car if I recall correctly adapts to condition of the battery so that it is why you need to change the serial number. Now on the new OEM battery I put in the firmware wouldn’t accept the serial number format on battery. So what I did was just change 1 digit of the existing serial number format. Worked great. I didn’t have to do that on my 2013 Q5.