Important Battery replacement info

[aus]

Saw this on the E90 side. Apparently, you need to program the car when you change the battery or it'll blow up!!

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=468750

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[e46e92love]

Originally Posted by aus

Saw this on the E90 side. Apparently, you need to program the car when you change the battery or it'll blow up!!

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=468750

.

People are cheap and stupid.....they buy a BMW for all of its advanced stuff, then bitch and moan when teh advanced stuff means you can't just throw any old after market replacement part. Its always "stealership this" and "stealership that". Geez, maybe, just maybe, there are some things the dealer knows and can do that the average aftermarket joe shmo can't

Cheers,
e46e92

[M3maniac20]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

People are cheap and stupid.....they buy a BMW for all of its advanced stuff, then bitch and moan when teh advanced stuff means you can't just throw any old after market replacement part. Its always "stealership this" and "stealership that". Geez, maybe, just maybe, there are some things the dealer knows and can do that the average aftermarket joe shmo can't

Cheers,
e46e92

+1

[donovan]

+2 Ja das is korrekt

[Dntlvet]

Ok, seriously ...
I like to work on my cars.
I just finished the Besian Vanos procedure on my E39.
Personally rewarding procedure to diagnose, research & complete.
Battery replacement doesn't really need to be a dealership only procedure.
Think of the back log of work if every blasted car needed the dealer service dept.

[quality_sound]

There is no way you have to "tell the car you're putting in a new battery". None. It defies basic electronics. If you had to reprogram the car for a new battery you'd have to do the same thing any time you disconnected the battery and I've disconnected and removed mine a number of times. What? There's some malicious code in the ECU that tells it that OEM electrons are different than non-OEM electrons and in that case blow the battery up? Give me a fucking break.

Typical M owner superiority complex. It's a car, not rocket science.

[Dntlvet]

So I read over the link and realize this battery replacement is a really big issue. I too have a 2006 330XI and I also replaced the battery "without registering it". Now I got to look further to determine if I need to visit the dealer to reprogram the car.\
Thanks for the post!!!!!

[Dntlvet]

Originally Posted by quality_sound

There is no way you have to "tell the car you're putting in a new battery". None. It defies basic electronics. If you had to reprogram the car for a new battery you'd have to do the same thing any time you disconnected the battery and I've disconnected and removed mine a number of times. What? There's some malicious code in the ECU that tells it that OEM electrons are different than non-OEM electrons and in that case blow the battery up? Give me a fucking break.

Typical M owner superiority complex. It's a car, not rocket science.

Now I feel a lot more comfortable, however the original link seems to imply the dealer told the 330i owner he needed to program the ECU.

[Georgeair]

I get that if I change battery types or ratings I might need to have the superduper electronics reset to whatever the specs are, as crazy as that actually seems.

However, if I'm replacing the OEM battery with an identical OEM battery of the same ratings, why in the world would this still be necessary? I understand they would tell me it was, but in this instance is it actually?

[cloud8r]

Registration is not necessary. This is just another example of poor service training and corporate brainwashing so that they can charge you $400-500 for a $150 battery.

[FruitCake]

its bullshit.

[Technic]

Well, this is slightly more complicated than it seems.

The reason of the battery registration is that BMW uses an "intelligent" alternator variable algorithm that monitors the battery condition (charge, rate of discharge, etc) and simply shuts on and off depending on this condition. That reduces engine load thus increasing efficiency -power and economy.

When you replace the OEM battery you in fact are not telling that algorithm that the battery adapted values stored so far no longer apply -they were collected over a period of time from the old battery condition. So the "old" algorithm continues to do its job although the variable values changed. This could either under/over charge your new battery just because its charging/discharging characteristics not necessarily will have to match the old battery's.

So the sole purpose of the battery registration is to update that algorithm to the new values, by starting over the collection of adaptive values from the new battery so it is charged/discharged exactly -or close to it- to its most particular efficient capacity.

Sometimes it seems that the battery registration was not necessary when there are no problems with the new battery install. That's most probably due to the new battery condition pretty much matching the current alternator algorithm and that you are not asking too much from that battery... in other words, just luck. Sometimes it really messes up the new battery after awhile as the current algorithm keeps the battery under/over its real capacity.

My suggestion is simple... try to find an Autologic shop and get the new battery registered just in case. It takes less than 5 minutes -just press "Register" in the screen and that's it- and most probably the guy there will do it for free if you ask nicely (I did that). In the worst case is half an hour job or even less.

The dealer as always is making this like a big job which it isn't. By the way, I'm using a Sears Die Hard battery instead of OEM.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by Technic

By the way, I'm using a Sears Die Hard battery instead of OEM.

Using the same battery type and equal or higher rating should pose absolutely no problems, just like your Die Hard. And I'm pretty sure all such data gets erased with battery disconnection anyway. Maybe if I was switching to those lightweight ones I'd look into it, but as it was mentoned, there're no BMW-coded electrons that I know about . Same with light bulbs and other parts; just use equivalent specs and car will run fine. But you'll still have to 'initialize' the auto feature in windows and sunroof.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Using the same battery type and equal or higher rating should pose absolutely no problems, just like your Die Hard. And I'm pretty sure all such data gets erased with battery disconnection anyway. Maybe if I was switching to those lightweight ones I'd look into it, but as it was mentoned, there're no BMW-coded electrons that I know about . Same with light bulbs and other parts; just use equivalent specs and car will run fine. But you'll still have to 'initialize' the auto feature in windows and sunroof.

No... adaptive values are stored.

Again, you can assume or you just don't. I know for sure that before registering my new battery I used to have "increased battery discharge" errors often as soon as 5-10 minutes after turning my radio on with the car off, something that I never had with the OEM battery before it started acting up just because I like to play loud music with the car off -which kills my batteries in a couple of years. The new battery was fully charged and there was no problem with it or with the charging at that particular moment according to Sears.

After registration the error disappeared.

[Navypat46]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

People are cheap and stupid.....they buy a BMW for all of its advanced stuff, then bitch and moan when teh advanced stuff means you can't just throw any old after market replacement part. Its always "stealership this" and "stealership that". Geez, maybe, just maybe, there are some things the dealer knows and can do that the average aftermarket joe shmo can't

Cheers,
e46e92

Cheap and stupid??! What's wrong with wanting to do your own work? Granted we're not talking about engine swaps or anything major, but there's no f'in reason why I need to drive 2 hours to my dealer in Seattle just to change a battery, drive 2 hours back, and buy a tank of gas. LAME. I love my new M3 to death, and don't trust anyone around her. Like I read earlier, nobody cares about your car more than you do.

[aus]

Originally Posted by Navypat46

Cheap and stupid??! What's wrong with wanting to do your own work? Granted we're not talking about engine swaps or anything major, but there's no f'in reason why I need to drive 2 hours to my dealer in Seattle just to change a battery, drive 2 hours back, and buy a tank of gas. LAME. I love my new M3 to death, and don't trust anyone around her. Like I read earlier, nobody cares about your car more than you do.

I agree completely. It's a damn battery. Anyone with half a brian can replace a batter, and I like to replace the crap stock unit with a YellowTop battery. I put a YellowTop in our van since the kids watch TV in the car all the time while I run in doing quick stops at stores/shops. It killed the stock battery, but the YellowTop take it no problem.

Do we have AGM batteries? I'm pretty sure the start/stop cars have them. I would imagine it would be bad to replace an AGM one with a non-AGM battery.

[ersin]

Originally Posted by quality_sound

... What? There's some malicious code in the ECU that tells it that OEM electrons are different than non-OEM electrons and in that case blow the battery up? ...

Sure. Didn't you know. The ECU inspects each electron as it passes by. It's a lot of electrons and that's why the ECU has to be so fast. Most electrons are programmed to lie but there's no foolin' the ECU. OEM electrons have a German accent. When it encounters a Chinese accent it makes the ECU really mad and it sends evil ninja electrons back down the wire disguised as Chinese electrons to infiltrate the battery. Then it goes BOOM.

Yes, I'm bored tonight.


Cheers.

[dexx]

over engineered crap. Also BMW should give away their tools for free or for a nominal cost. Someone could probably go after them over that legally, but I know no one will so *shrug*.

Imagine youu could only by Exxon Mobil gasoline and you had to recode the car for new gas. Of course, there are clear laws against this...

[BimmerM]

Interesting thread. So would using a trickle charger (such as the Battery Tender) be bad?

What if the battery goes close to dead one day? Can you simply charge it up using a battery charger?

Any issues with either?

[aus]

If a lead acid battery is drained, even once, it's never the same. It's meant to be slightly drained and recharged regularly.
The AGM/Deep Cycle/marine battery's can be drained and recharged over and over again.

[tom @ eas]

Originally Posted by ramyar

Registration is not necessary. This is just another example of poor service training and corporate brainwashing so that they can charge you $400-500 for a $150 battery.

AGM type batteries are much different.

More info can be found in this post: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...5&postcount=24

Originally Posted by BimmerM

Interesting thread. So would using a trickle charger (such as the Battery Tender) be bad?

What if the battery goes close to dead one day? Can you simply charge it up using a battery charger?

Any issues with either?

Fronius has an article posted here that should explain things a bit:

http://www.fronius.com/cps/rde/xchg/...1_ENG_HTML.htm

Most trickle chargers are fine.

[BimmerM]

Thanks for the replies on my questions pertaining to charging however what I was really after was what effects will that have on the adaptive values being stored? Thanks.