Quick recap: 5 year old battery was getting tired so I swapped it out with a BattiesPlus Rayovac battery. Battery was exact spec and others on the forum have had success with it. I never got around to registering the battery. Soon after I began having problems: 1 dynamic drive failure (only when it was cold outside) 2 vent/heater surging 3 radio clipping in and out. Had the battery tested and all was ok. I finally brought it to BMW for an unrelated issue and had them look at it. Tech said that the battery was the problem - I had a hard time with that. He offered to register the aftermarket battery to see if that helped - it did not. I finally broke down and bought a battery from the parts dept and dropped it in myself. Sure as sh$& - it worked!! Problems gone. So for some of you an aftermarket battery may work or it may not. Registering the battery may or may not work - I guess that each of these cars are just different enough to make a differece. I'm just glad to have this fustration over. One positive note - BatteriesPlus took it's battery back after 30 days use. Hope this helps someone

 

What the hell are we going to do when BMW stops manufacturing these batteries?

 

Uh you got a bad aftermarket battery, should have exchanged it, i had i drive go down, abs, active steering go down, strange surging, and hard starts(random and would go away for days) on my 5 year old battery that still started the car and ran somewhat good, yes the batteries need to be in top condition, but i got one at autozone $179 made in germany with 3 years free replacement, with MORE CCA and better IMO, the car starts stronger, runs faster, no more surging and all seems great...... no registration needed thats a bunch of bs, the active steering came on i turned left and right and that was gone.....

 

I'm getting an OEM one - don't wanna mess with anything electrical. 200 with coding and all from Bay Diagnostic in Brooklyn.

 

i've been using a non oem bmw battery for few months now, no problems. Exact same specs....

 

strange its like there are gremlins in our cars

 

why go with aftermarket and same specs? to me they seem almost equally priced

 

This is my 5th year with my OEM battery, so I am SO glad to have both CPO and Maint warranty - it should be covered right?

 

really? BMW was charging me about $450 for the battery. I got the aftermarket one for $170. Go figure

 

Under $200 for battery from BMW Center with coding.