twh

Don't forget to make sure the vent hose is attached to the battery. Very important.

You are supposed to get the car programmed to tell it there is a new battery. I haven't decided how important I think this really is. I will say that if you are switching between a Regular flooded battery and a AGM battery, you will need to have the car programmed.

JeremyM

My battery died on me and replaced it with one from Orielly's. A month and a half later the car electronics would turn off and back on again real quick while on the highway and transmission failure/TPM failures and kinds of other stuff would pop up in the Idrive. Took the car to BMW of Dallas and they said my battery was bad even though I had just replaced it. I paid the diagnostic fee and went down the street and had it replaced at Orielly's and I still had the same problem a day later. I took the car back into the dealer and they diagnosed it as a bad alternator but blamed the aftermarket battery and not having the new aftermarket battery registered. They highly recommended a BMW battery because "the aftermarket battery could cause future issues". I went ahead and had the aftermarket battery "registered" because I wasn't paying $350 for a battery when I could get an AGM battery with the same specs for half the cost. Car was CPO so I only paid $50 for the new alternator but I still had to pay $128 diagnostic fee the first time the car was in and $145 to "register" the new battery.

I feel that the issue was misdiagnosed the first time it was in and that they should have diagnosed it as the alternator the first time. I also can't believe that they told me the second time I went in that the alternator was good the first time I brought it in and that the second aftermarket battery caused the alternator to go bad (even though I was experiencing the exact same issue). As for the battery registration I don't know how I feel about that either. There are a lot of people that say it is not required and then some that do. I went ahead and did it so that they couldn't point the finger at it if I had problems in the future.

I do know one thing, I will never ever go back to BMW of Dallas for Service or Sales. I actually have an appt. with Classic BMW to have a burning oil smell checked out. It is nice to live in a market where I have a choice of dealers.

AP Sales

I think this re-programming requirement is a myth. I had my battery done at my local Goodyear tire shop and haven't had any issues.

twh

See this thread on AGM battery going into a car that didn't have an AGM to begin with.
https://5series.net/forums/index.php...pic=75524&st=0

Also, see this attachment (in the same thread) explaining BMW's logic for registering that a new battery has been installed. It does seem that they could have software that keeps track of battery "wear".
https://5series.net/forums/index.php?act=at...st&id=99890

I was looking for the BMW Bulletin on the topic, but haven't found it yet. I know there is something I have read that has more details on the above.

BMWRINO

I had AAA Roadside Service replace my dead battery back in July 2009 ($140 for the battery, $4 labor, $10 old battery disposal fee, plus tax.. $167.32) ...never had it "registered" at BMW.. been running fine since.

porsche911targa

Might be a crap shoot. Might work on some and not work on others, but why take a chance?

BlueRocket

Last month I replaced my 545i battery with a new Autozone 49-DL. $93, self installed in one hour. It took an hour only because I was unfamiliar with the set up. Next time, 20 minutes. 7-year warranty on battery. As a precaution, I took my 12v boat battery and connected it to the jumper posts under the hood, to maintain 12v across the system. Also, to extend the battery drain, join the existing hose with the one provided with the battery, since the 49-DL vents on the other side. Works perfect.
"Registering" the battery with the computer? WTF!! The battery is fixed. The car draws what it wants. End of story, or explain to me otherwise. Dealer BS. It might just be recording in memory somewhere a date of replacement, having no effect on the electrical system.
On a similar note, a coupon sent to me by BMW for an oil change warned against doing this yourself, posing the question, what should be removed first, the oil or the filter. Like it really would matter. They're just preying on customers, who might well be competent DIYer's, but are put off by the complexity of these cars. We need to keep each other informed via this forum. Happy Motoring!

jsal

There are some weird things that can happen with the Batteries on these cars dependent on the systems that you have. Being an electrical engineer some of the things make sense, but some don't. The thing that makes sense is that if you have a low battery condition going on, the system flags it and will shutdown somethings to make sure critical system continue to function like the engineer control, abs, suspension.... This is why you need to reinitialize the computer to tell it you have a new battery.

The other thing that can happen, which is very vehicle dependent and does not make any sense but appears to be true. Another user had this problem and communicated to me that an OEM battery fixed the problem and I am about to do the same thing. I noticed this when my original battery got weak and I am having the same problem occurring again with an aftermarket battery (note the replacement battery is the model listed for the car and same amp rating).

I have a manual, and when it is cold (which does not happen often out here) like in the 40's and the car is cold, for the first 5 minutes of driving when I do low speed shifts like at 2k rpm, and the rpm drops rapidly, my radio will cut out for a second. If I happen to be in a curve when I do this, the suspension system will fault out.

Again, I would not have believed it, but had another forum member had a similar problem fixed by replacing with an OEM battery. I am about to do the same.

Granted, you probably will not see the problem with an automatic or if you don't have the active roll suspension, but if you do, it may be worth spending the few extra bucks for an OEM battery.

And, if you start having any weird electrical issues after replacing a dead/low battery, you may want to consider the system initialization.

UncleFodder

I did the exact same thing two weeks ago - Autozone battery (the 'standard', not the 'gold' as the standard has more cold cranking amps). I had to use extra hose in my case (550i) to get the battery vent to reach the existing vent hose due to the vent being on the long side of the battery, facing the fender. Once installed, just had to reset the time and driver options, and was good to go. Was $93 + tax. The previous battery completely died, losing all the settings anyway. Good idea about the battery charger.

top6491

Adding this here as I did to the other battery thread:

Foreign Service
Motor, Jun 2009 by Marinucci, Dan

Vehicles are becoming increasingly self-aware with each passing yean Its no longer enough to replace a battery when necessary. Many late-model BMWs also need to know whenyou replaced it

Last month I discussed a timely trend in higher-end European electrical systems, the absorbed glass-mat (AGM) battery. This time I'll focus on another one, relearning BMW charging systems after battery replacement. You read correctly - relearning the charging system.

First I'll recap the AGM battery information. An AGM battery is more damp than wet inside because it isn't flooded with liquid electrolyte like a traditional battery is. Also, AGMs are designed to be very low-gassing batteries. These features make them especially well-suited for locations inside the vehicle. Some higher-end European vehicles have an AGM battery somewhere inside the vehicle powering on-board electronics while a separate battery under the hood handles starting duties. Finally, fully recharging an AGM battery safely and quickly requires an AGM-capable charger.

Okay, let's get back to those late-model BMW charging systems. First, the electrical system is so sophisticated that it tailors charging as closely as possible to both the type and the age of the battery. There's a computer, which goes by several different names, that controls the alternator. Whenever you replace a battery, this computer really needs to know because it doesn't charge a fresh battery the same way it charges an older battery. What's more, this computer needs to know if you've updated a vehicle from a conventional battery to an AGM type; it charges the AGM differently than a traditional battery.

Second, the process of updating this alternator-control computer is called battery registration. You don't ab- solutely have to register every new battery you install in these late-model BMWs. Ignoring the registration process after replacing a battery won't trigger a DTC or turn on the MIL. Howev- er, a savvy BMW specialist warned me that skipping the battery registration process can dramatically shorten the life of a battery in these vehicles, be it an AGM or a conventional battery. For instance, he's diagnosed cars on which a new battery didn't even last a year because it wasn't registered! The charging system could shorten the life of an unreg- istered battery by charging it too aggressively when it's cold; it also could shorten the life of an unregistered AGM battery by overcharg- ing it, he said. To say the least, premature battery failure can be aggravating for the customer and embarrassing for you and your shop.

Third, several problems can cause premature battery failure. On a latemodel BMW, skipping battery registration can be one of them. Don't gamble; always register a new battery on any BMW equipped with MOST Bus - a single-line, fiber-optic ring network BMW introduced in the early 2000s. Typically, the easiest way to identify a vehicle equipped with MOST Bus is to look for iDrive. In turn, the quickest way to spot iDrive is to look for the fancy LCD control display screen up on the instrument panel. Among other things, this display screen shows the driver climate control functions, navigational info, entertainment system controls, etc. (To my knowledge, the lone exception to this is the 2006 3series cars without iDrive, which still use the MOST Bus network.)

Here's when MOST Bus appeared on the most common BMWs your shop would encounter:

* 2002 for 7-series (E65/66 vehicle platforms);

* 2003 for 6-series (E63/54 vehicle platforms);

* 2004 for 5-series (E60/61 vehicle platforms);

* 2006 for 3-series (E90/9 1/92/93 vehicle platforms);

* 2007 for X5 series (E70 vehicle platform);

* 2008 for X6 series (E71 vehicle platform).

Fourth, registering a battery is easy but it requires a scan tool that communicates effectively with these BMWs. If you want to service more of these vehicles, shop for scanner updates or a new scan tool that will do the job. The screen capture on page 10 from an AutoLogic scan tool is an example of one of those you'd see during the battery registration. You also could look up battery history on this same screen. Notice that the first entry is "Last battery replacement (km)"and the reading is 0.00. Meanwhile, all the remaining entries are the same value of 528,392 km (about 328,000 mi.). These readings show that if someone has replaced this car's battery, he did not register it.

One BMW specialist pointed out to me that sometimes you can quickly check to see if the car's got the original battery in it. He said that BMW traditionally stamps the battery's manufacturing date on the negative terminal. The date stamp shows the week first, then the year. For instance, "42 05"indicates the 42nd week of 2005; "33 07"would mean the 33rd week of 2007. If the date stamp on the negative battery terminal is fairly close to the vehicle build date, then it's extremely likely that it's the original battery.

Look at the screen capture again. The BMW ace told me that if the battery had been replaced and registered correctly, the number in the top box or window would be 1.00. Next, the second entry there would be the kilometer (km) reading when the new battery was registered. Then, the rest of the entries in those little windows would show the vehicle's then-current km (odometer) reading.

So, while you may replace the battery yourself with your own choice of batteries, having the car registered is a good idea.