donpb

I learned something while messing with my BM500.

It has three selections for registering a battery as follows:

[1] Same capacity battery
[2] Higher / lower capacity battery
[3] Switch to AGM battery

If you select higher / lower battery, the car will analyze the charge of the battery over time in order to figure out its charge rate.

seanjordan20

Maybe someone else can chime in that knows better than me because that's not an option in the official BMW software when coding a new battery so how can your reader make the car do something that's not an option in the cars software.

scottalexander

You definitely want to get the charge rating and cycles correct.

Its an incentive to get INPA and ISTA operational on your laptop.

On a lighter note, a few weeks ago I watched a youtube video of a guy in California who discounted the battery registration and coding process.

While driving down the 405 interstate he heard an explosion. His battery exploded and he showed pictures of how it blew a hole in his rear quarter panel.

It looked like someone took a can opener to his quarter panel.

Ok, so there are plenty of BMW owners where that doesn't happen. We now know it can.

donpb

I read in several places online that its a function of the car. Beats me if its true or not. I selected that option. We'll see what it does.

seanjordan20

Report back. I would love to know

donpb

I shall.

I'm not worried about my car blowing up on the 405 because I hadn't registered any of my batteries for 14 years and hasn't blown up yet.

I plan to buy a different reader that actually displays the charging current. If I know what the actual charging current is, that would be quite helpful.

seanjordan20

How many have you had in the past 14 years.

The batteries should last at least 7 years.

donpb

I have had a few go bad. Maybe because I never registered them.

I remember the original battery was BMW but afterwards I switched to non-OEM. I guess I did not fret having to get a new battery because they had a 3 year warranty and if you go over that, they pro-rate. I am not even sure if I needed to replace the IBS back then.

Well things did get a lot better with a lot less Low Discharge notifications after I replaced the IBS though.

scottalexander

You say, I plan to buy a different reader that actually displays the charging current.

Here's a benchmark.

Back when your IBS was not working, the common wisdom on this forum believes the current for a non working IBS is a constant 14.4 volts (registered or not registered).

donpb

I had measured it with a multimeter and yes it was 14.4 constant at least during idle.