Took my car to the dealers this week for oil change and battery replacement as it had died three times during the winter.

As I do not drive the car much these days and it spends a long time parked up, I thought an AGM battery would be a good option.

Battery priced and ordered by dealer, then about two hours after dropping the car off I got a call.

It would take 3 hours of coding if they fitted the AGM battery to my car.
Apparently older pre LCI cars need a lot of power modules recoded for an AGM battery to work properly, the way the battery get charged, it's output characteristics etc cause problems with older power modules and older software versions.

These problems are not always immediately apparent, but can cause module failures at later dates.

So be warned, planning on a DIY battery change, and using a newer AGM battery when your car was not fitted with one as standard, might cause problems.

Check compatability first.

I settled for an old lead/acid type !!

 

You're right about the recoding.
Some members droped an AGM battery in their cars without coding and one of the effects were reduced battery charging eventually resulting continuous dead battery sitiuations. A newer AGM is recommended if you're planning mods like pro nav, comfort seats, powerful audio setups etc. plus it offers enhanced reliability.

 

3 hours makes no sense, Yes, Battery needs to be registered , but that should only take a few minutes. Purpose is to clear all info out of the system pertaining to the "old" battery and avoid false warnings. Also, I understand that it changes parameters on state of the battery condition (For warning purposes on center display) to correspond to the changed capacity of the new battery.

 

That's the whole point of this post, a like for like repalcement needs registering, as you say just a few minutes.

An upgrade to an AGM battery is different, certainly for older cars, it requires re-coding of the power modules, the way the battery charges/discharges is different due to its composition.

 

Thats not what my dealer told me, BMW actually suggests AGM replacements for "difficult situations" in BMW'S words. They certainly did not mention having any issues No mention in any of the technical literature they let me read, if this was the case , I am sure it would have been mentioned, or would be the subject of an SIB by now. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe you had a very early version of Progman that may have had some issues, but I don't think you can generalise by saying all pre LCI cars.

 

Pete, you can take whichever view you like, all I said was this was the case in my car, you can see the age and progman version in my sig, as can everybody else.
I said MIGHT cause problems. it's a heads up, people can choose to ignore it if they wish.
I'd rather raise this now than wait until somebody messes up thier car and then post " Oh yeah, I knew that, just chose not to warn anybody". It may well be that later progman versions cope with this better, but how would anybody know?

The AGM battery is without doubt a superior product and would be ideal for my situation, but the work entailed did not make it a financially viable option.

I have no reason to doubt my SA, the battery was in stock as they had ordered it for me, it costs more, so they would have made a bigger profit, if it had been a straight swap there is no reason on this earth why he should have told me otherwise. He was quite shocked at the coding listing for the replacement.

 

Hi

If you replace battery , or should have anything else coded etc. TV,DVD.HUD.ULF ( except mp3 function and some other small options ) , the progmann will allways "check" the current version of software in the car , and before that is up to the "level/version" with the "level/version" in the dealerships computer , it will have to up-date the cars software to this "level/version" , before any new coding can be done , also coding new battery to the car , this is the same for pre LCI and LIC models , thats the short version of the story

 

Kaf and Ben , Attached is copy of info given me from BMW TIS , read carefully on bottom of page 1, under battery renewal. Also note, only says to register battery, not to RECODE entire vehicle. My guess iis service fella started a recode, instead of merely changing the registration, and hence of course it went through all modules. This may be the root of the problem, if one checks the threads around here on some of the exorbitant quotes given for some battery replacements. Registration should only take a few minutes. Just trying to disseminate correct info.

 

What is pre LCI?

 

Thanks Pete,

Interesting.

Wish I had access to this three days ago !!