E61 - Battery replaced, Active steering and clock issue

[Gad-Westy]

I replaced the ageing battery on our E61 last night. The new battery is much larger. I left a 12v supply connected under the bonnet while I did the battery swap in the hope that I might get away without an array of warnings. In the event I had a 'reset time and date' and active steering error. I set the clock. For the steering, I turned the wheel lock to lock and drove it up the road and it cleared. Then needed to use the car an hour later and same errors. Did the same. Drove about 30 miles over the course of an hour. This morning, same warnings.

I understand best practice for these cars is to register the new battery. I'll have to go to a dealer or specialist for that but is that going to sort this for me or is something else going on here?

[RUSSELLM]

I can’t help with your faults, but I wouldn’t recommend leaving a supply on the vehicle, whilst changing the battery.

If that wire to the positive battery terminal had touched the body, you’d certainly have known about it

Edit…. What external 12v supply was you using ? If it was a charger, check it’s voltage output whilst it’s not being regulated (Battery not connected)

Edited by RUSSELLM on Saturday 18th December 11:06

[Emily's dad]

Is the new battery fully charged?
A couple of my cars throw up all sorts of warnings and errors when the batteries are low.
The new one may be better than it’s replacement, but if not fully charged may be causing errors and faults.
I always put a newly purchased battery on charge over night before fitting to a car.

Never had a BMW so can’t assist further than that.

[Collectingbrass]

I've had similar in an F32 after it was parked up for a while (depsite having a solar panel trickle charger). I used Carly to clear the fault codes and havent had a problem since, so that might be worth a try.

[Gad-Westy]

Cheers all. Erm, well it seems to have repaired itself. Hard to say why. But I used it this afternoon and no issues.

RUSSELLM said:

I can’t help with your faults, but I wouldn’t recommend leaving a supply on the vehicle, whilst changing the battery.

If that wire to the positive battery terminal had touched the body, you’d certainly have known about it

Edit…. What external 12v supply was you using ? If it was a charger, check it’s voltage output whilst it’s not being regulated (Battery not connected)

Edited by RUSSELLM on Saturday 18th December 11:06

Cheers. I used another car battery. I'm pretty careful with stuff like this. I put insulated bags over the terminals as I remove them and tape them in place.

[bigdom]

Gad-Westy said:

I understand best practice for these cars is to register the new battery. I'll have to go to a dealer or specialist for that but is that going to sort this for me or is something else going on here?

You do need to have it registered. The car will not charge the new battery correctly, it's <5 minute job at either.

[d_a_n1979]

^^^

This; it MUST be registered (or coded to the car if a different battery/spec is used etc)

So see if you can find a local indy to do that for you or buy something like the Autophix 7910 and it'll be something that'll save you time & £££ in the future

Yes it's £100, but they can come in REALLY handy!

Or see if someone local has Carly or Bimmercode etc