I performed a search on this topic and got several irrelevant topics.

I need a new battery for my 2005 545 and I'm checking to see whats available and what others have used. I obviously prefer not to go to the dealer. I read some posts regarding different battery brands in the past but, cannot seem to find them.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

bump! need a battery too! What brand, how to install and how to reset system after install?

 

I put a Duralast 49DL in my 2006 when the factory one started to go. Works great and has good specs (1000CA, 850CCA, 155 Reserve). It's slightly smaller than the factory battery but it wasn't a problem. The dealer wanted over 350 dollars to put one in, which I wasn't about to do.

I did quite a bit of research before making the purchase and also saw that people use Autocraft Titanium 49-1 and Interstate MTP-93 (or MTP-H9). I can't say anything about these since I don't have any personal experience with them.

 

I'm still researching this myself, I'll share what I've found.

The OEM battery is made by Exide. However, if you go to their website and try to find the right battery for our cars, it spits out a completely different models with different specs (lower specs in fact):

http://www.showmethe...com/n2ebattery/

Here's the OEM for 2006 530xi (it's the same for 2008 535xi):

http://forums.5serie...ttach_id=161705

Your best bet is to buy local, cuz s/h on a battery is gonna be $, but you never know. If you search hard enough, there might still be better deals online.

So far, I've found these choices:

• http://www.exide.com...-transportation
• http://www.trademoti...M&siteid=214672 | Search for PN: 61216901815
• Pep boys
• AutoZone
• Checker
• Costco
• Sears
• Batteries Plus
• Autobarn

And these guys which sell Exide wholesale, but I don't know how much their s/h is:



Not sure which of those fits our cars exactly?

As you can see, lots of choices, I'm still trying to figure out the best one to get. Feel free to chime in

 

I used an Interstate Battery. Same size, dimensions and specs. It's been 3 years and I never had an issue.

 

Did you register it?

 

+1

 

I did a search on Interstate's site and it returned this battery:

http://www.interstat...tery_L6%2f3.0L)

What's the model you bought? My main 2 concerns are that:

1. The image doesn't look like the OEM battery
2. The CCA is lower than the OEM's rated CCA of 850.

 

I ended up getting an OEM battery from the dealer, paid $200, when I swapped mine out.
Walmart, Sears, and Batteries Plus did have the correct battery size but I decided it wasn't worth going aftermarket since they had less CCA's and only cost $20 less than the OEM battery.
I installed and registered it myself using the Bavarian Technic diagnostic cable.

 

Yea, I thought about doing that too but ending up finding an exact replacement from AutoZone:

http://forums.5serie...mw-oem-battery/

I saw lots of posts of people using AutoZone DuraLast brand in the past so I figured it's gotta be pretty decent.