Battery replacement question

lacroupade said:
Battery swap is easy and shouldn't cause any problems other than, say, the odd window reset.

However, if your battery has gone flat over a period of time and been left, you might find the ECU goes into 'transport mode' which needs a dealer to reset (about £30-40). I forget the exact symptoms I had when it happened to me - heater fan only working on slow speed was one - but I listed them somewhere ages ago on a thread; just search 'transport mode'.

What was that about the window reset? seems mine isn't working properly, battery was totally dead
 
They say it needs to go to the BMW dealer to have it installed.

What a croc.I've done a few jobs where the battery needed to be disconnected then re-connected (eg MFSW fitment) and never had any trouble. May be an issue if the car sits for a prolonged period with no power but a battery swap would take a few minutes and should not cause any problems.
 
Just sharing my experience. My z4 m85 battery died and I recharged it with no problem except I noticed that the heater and rear window defroster stopped working. I did some research and found out that losing battery power caused the car to go into transport mode (used when shipped). I $125 to have the transport mode turned off and all worked well until... the battery died. A new battery and another $125 transport reset and all is well.
I was surprised that no one locally had ever heard of transport mode.
 
changed my recently again for a bosch 80ah.. no problem whipped the old one out straight in with the new on.. eurocarparts 15% off bargain
 
Well, I left a spare (boat battery) hooked up to the battery terminals while I removed my stock battery. Left the spare hooked up while I took the stock battery in with me to get my new Interstate battery. Compared the new battery to the old (size wise) and it was dead on. Came home and installed it. Started the car and checked to see if I had any problem issues. First off I noticed the clock was blank. I reset the clock no problem. I did lose any previous trip mileage (just read all zeros) but the actual mileage of the car is still there. It seems like everything is still working as it should. But, now there's the yellow "service engine soon" light on and it's staying on. It wasn't on before the change unless some problem just happened to pop up coincidently. I'm hoping it's just a reset of some kind and not a real problem.
Is there a sequence of things I can do to to reset this or will I need to go to the dealer afterall? :cry: Looking for wisdom!
 
So my battery has felt like it was giving up over the last few weeks. Getting a little harder to start but id managed to get it to fire ok. In the 2 years of ownership I have managed to run the battery down once or twice by leaving the lights on for too long when ive been trying to fix a faulty connection. Ive managed to jump the car with leads with no issues at all.

This morning the car almost fired but it didn't quite have enough in it, ive therefore ordered another battery direct from BMW. The price for a BMW replacement £94.15 +VAT which I thought was fairly good.

They did however tell me I would HAVE to have it recoded and ill 'need to bring it in'. The cost for the privilege a further £112.42! :thumbsdown:

I think ill chance my luck with doing it myself. I just don't know how they can justify it. £50 I could stomach but an additional £112.42 is disgusting. Incidentally I have a data lead at home with the BMW software. If it comes to it ill have to try and work out how to do it myself but I don't envisage any issues anyway
 
So every time someone replaces their battery they have to get it 'recoded'? Never heard that before, or is it because yours has run down and is flat dead? Still makes no sense - others on here have bought batteries online and simply swapped out old for new.
 
Didn't get mine 'recoded'. Just replaced the existing one with a Bosch S6 three years ago, and no problems.
 
I thought you only needed to register the battery if you change the Ah rating (so the car knows at what rate to charge the battery) and/or if you change to an AGM battery if you were previously running a 'standard' battery.
So, if you are pretty much changing like for like (Type and Amp), no registering of the battery required.
Unless anyone knows otherwise? :|

Edit - see scooba_steve's post below. Registration NOT needed for E85/86. (sorry for the bad info)
 
I have a 2004 E85 3.0 and recently changed the original battery for a much higher rated AGM. No problem whatsoever. Had to change it as I had the black dot appear in the indicator window and after 12 years I could not really complain. Probably the audio install was also drawing considerable juice!

Regards

Cavey
 
Cavey1638 said:
I have a 2004 E85 3.0 and recently changed the original battery for a much higher rated AGM. No problem whatsoever. Had to change it as I had the black dot appear in the indicator window and after 12 years I could not really complain. Probably the audio install was also drawing considerable juice!

Regards

Cavey

AGM don't suit non stop start cars.

You should of went with a top of the range normal battery and saved yourself £50-£100.

I think mines is a bosch s5 with much higher rating than stock. Car starts like a dream. No more alarm or transmission issues due to false readings from underpowered sensors.
 
I know what you mean, but I have a bespoke audio install and that's the only reason for it. I have had absolutely no problems at all. Starts like new. I am not an auto electrician (Although I am an engineer!). The guys that did the install actually tested it as I needed a battery with a higher AH rating.

Regards

Cavey
 
Cavey1638 said:
I know what you mean, but I have a bespoke audio install and that's the only reason for it. I have had absolutely no problems at all. Starts like new. I am not an auto electrician (Although I am an engineer!). The guys that did the install actually tested it as I needed a battery with a higher AH rating.

Regards

Cavey

The s3 is what is in the car. So a bosch s4 has a higher rating and the s5 an even higher rating.

I have the dsp carver system and i have upgraded the amp to an alpine which retails for £500 and the head unit to top of the range pioneer with dab.

The dsp carver system has 4 subs. 4 mids and 2 tweeters.

So my install is also power hungry. Most people with stock systems buy s4 as an upgrade so s3, i went with the s5 due to my audio install. Its a lot higher rating than stock
 
Similar to your self :)

Alpine IVA D511 RB head unit
Alpine DAB

Hertz High energy 3 way components
Audison Voce sub
Hertz HDP1 - Hertz HDP4 Power amps.
Audison Bit 1.
Audison Bit Play HD.

Sounds awesome!

Cavey
 
Yeah alpine and pioneer are the kings of car audio.

I'm going to test bluetooth streaming today. Just been using cd's and dab so far and amazed at the difference the new head unit and amp has made so far.

Bass was crazy loud then i went through the settings and installers had made a custom equaliser with it too high (+8). Set to flat and it sounds perfect now.

I prefer my sound to be reference rather than tweaked/distorted.
 
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