BMW battery do you have to tell the car?

[wjwren]

Ive heard people with 7 series and Range Rovers (BMW era) advise that when a new battery is fitted you have to tell the car and use diagnostic equipment. Is this true? Ive got a 645 04 age.
thanks

Edit - according to this I do. Is this a DIY job?

http://bimmertips.com/bmw-battery-registering-and-...

[Mr Whippy]

Hmmmm.

Uplugging battery to swap, you'd think these adaptive things would reset.

Then a brief re-learn cycle begin.

Why store battery data while it's disconnected if by definition the battery is likely out for servicing?



If the battery is the right spec I'd just leave it and see what happens.

Unless you've read horror stories of 1yr battery life or electrics exploding on a simple battery swap?


Lastly, what does the manual for the car say?

[wjwren]

Haven't checked manual, dont think ive ever read it. I tend to find BMW and Merc manual refer everything back to the dealer and nothing is for DIY.

Il look on ebay, see if I can pick a cheap reset tool up.

[ian in lancs]

Swopped a battery in a 2007 Z4M with no setting or coding

[helix402]

If you have an ibs battery you need to register a new battery, easiest diy way is Carly for BMW app and dongle.

I think all E63s have ibs. I know E60s of that era do.

Edited by helix402 on Thursday 30th November 23:45

[TheD]

If you are on Face Book they have a BMW enthusiast page where they all help each other out and one of the most asked questions is the battery. They provide links to the right tools and explain how to.

[Mr Whippy]

ian in lancs said:

Swopped a battery in a 2007 Z4M with no setting or coding

I did my Z4 earlier in year with no ill effects, so maybe no e85/86 cars needed it?

[Mr Tidy]

I'd be surprised if it needed coding on an 04 plate car - in fact I really hope it doesn't!

My 56 plate Z4 Coupe had a new battery a year ago and just needed to have it disconnected, removed and replaced. (OEM one fitted by my local BMW Indy was about £110).

Whereas my E87 123d with stop/start and one of those "marvellous" AGM batteries needed a new one after 4 and a half years and 55K miles! By the time it was coded it cost just over £250 at an Indy (Sytner wanted nearer £300)!

Then 2 years later it needed a new starter motor just before 80K miles - a cool £600 at Sytner (I couldn't wait for a booking at an Indy).

Turned the stop/start off every time I used it after that! I'd have happily paid for a higher band RFL to avoid those bills! (So I sold it before the cam-chain failed).

[Jaybmw]

It won't I done 3 e60s the last 2 weeks I have inpa and didn't need it at all.. all cars had ibs just be careful not to blow the pyro charge changing it

[SebringMan]

Mr Whippy said:

I did my Z4 earlier in year with no ill effects, so maybe no e85/86 cars needed it?

I'd guess so. They are sort of based on an E46 I guess which is where that will come in.

From what I understand on IBS cars you don't need to code the battery but not doing so will shorten the life of the battery ; The IBS compensates for a battery as gets older etc.

[Collectingbrass]

wjwren said:

Ive heard people with 7 series and Range Rovers (BMW era) advise that when a new battery is fitted you have to tell the car and use diagnostic equipment. Is this true? Ive got a 645 04 age.
thanks

Edit - according to this I do. Is this a DIY job?

http://bimmertips.com/bmw-battery-registering-and-...

I have the exact same car and swoped the battery this time last year without doing any coding changes. Since then it has thrown no end of spurious warnings on the dash, such as dynamic drive failure. It's current fault is turning the idrive screen to mush. These are all fixed by using a solar charger for a day even though my commute is 30 miles of circa 40mph driving.

So I'd say you don't have to, but if you don't you'll be in for some buttock clenching warnings you wont be sure you can ignore.

[wjwren]

After reading all this il buy a USB dongle thing off ebay. Ive been having a few electrical problems such as when the car is hot and I turn it off and then try and restart it wont start again for 30 mins. Also runs lumpy sometimes, a fault code reading says something about electrical charge down or something like that.

[Mr Whippy]

Why BMW can't just put this inside a 'pro' mode in iDrive or something.

It's paying technicians for basically ticking a digital box.

[SebringMan]

Mr Whippy said:

Why BMW can't just put this inside a 'pro' mode in iDrive or something.

It's paying technicians for basically ticking a digital box.

You forget about a few things:

-Emissions. Yes the effect negligable but many crumbs make a cake.
-Incompetence ; Considering I've benefited from buying cars that mechanics/specialsts couldn't solve what chance does the average bloke on the street have?

IIRC with the IBS the CCA of the battery is put in as well as the Ah of it, including the date at which it was fitted. Helix can probably confirm this. EN ratings aren't the same as CCA etc. so that creates another minefield.

I'll admit that stuff like this does partially put me off getting a more modern BMW but TBH we all thought the same(well, the yesteryear generation did) when cambelts first came out.

[wjwren]

the current battery is 110ah 850. Looking on Halfords etc when I put my reg in they recommend 95ah 800 and 100ah 900 and 110ah 900.

Any advice which to go for. What do the numbers mean? As i've been having electrical gremlins before I want to get this right!

[helix402]

If you change the battery for one of identical spec it just needs registering as a new one. If you fit one with different specs the car needs recoding to match, I think it’s done as a retrofit in ISTA P. I’ve only done like for like registrations, DIS and Carly can do it as well as ISTA D (Rheingold).

I know Carly can do straight swop registration, not sure if it can do differing specs.

All this only applies to IBS batteries.

[wjwren]

So how would I know if the battery is IBS?

thanks

[helix402]

Here you go:

https://www.bimmerscan.com/bmw-intelligent-battery...

[wjwren]

edit - ignore this last post wrong thread!

Edited by wjwren on Saturday 2nd December 13:59