Pre-emptive strike

[Smartbear]

I’ve known for a while now that my car battery hasn’t been holding its charge as well as it used to, so instead of waiting until it causes me some grief i decided to change it for a new one
I used Tayna who get good reviews on here


Disconnect the terminals the top clamp and the bracket which secures the battery to the boot floor - don’t forget to unplug the breather pipe



I changed my battery for a like for like replacement so only had to register it to the car (a different battery spec would’ve needed coding)



Job done, hopefully avoiding all the pesky electronic gremlins that seem to affect these cars when the battery goes past its sell by date. The only thing that needed doing afterwards was setting the clock.
Rob

 

[Z4paul]

Given the unending number of posts that seem to stem from slightly dodgy batteries this looks like a smart move by the 'smart bear'

 

[mr.tourette]

What brand did you plump for Bear

 

[Smartbear]

What brand did you plump for Bear

I went with an Exide battery, same specs (096) as the oem version and cost just under £100

Rob

 

[Stevo1987]

I have used Tayna twice for car batteries. (not Zed) . All good and a keen price. Wot be that there on Ipad then young Rob? That be smoke and mirrors to me. Just chucked in the new one on my ol' Mazda.

 

[Smartbear]

I have used Tayna twice for car batteries. (not Zed) . All good and a keen price. Wot be that there on Ipad then young Rob? That be smoke and mirrors to me. Just chucked in the new one on my ol' Mazda.

That be Carly

Rob

 

[Smartbear]

I have used Tayna twice for car batteries. (not Zed) . All good and a keen price. Wot be that there on Ipad then young Rob? That be smoke and mirrors to me. Just chucked in the new one on my ol' Mazda.

That be Carly

Rob

 

[Stevo1987]

Aha, I thought it might be. So the old battery was from new I guess? The Mazda one was was from new and done 140,000 miles. Nae bad, as we say in Scotland.

 

[Smartbear]

Aha, I thought it might be. So the old battery was from new I guess? The Mazda one was was from new and done 140,000 miles. Nae bad, as we say in Scotland.

Yes, original battery from 2013. I think my car hung around for several months at the dealers before i purchased it which didn’t do it any favours, probably not helped by being advertised as an 18i :roll:
Rob

 

[Chippie]

I also changed mine before having any problems, although with the lack of use this year it still drained enough to cause the electric handbrake fault, just make sure you keep it topped up with charge.

 

[Boltz]

I also have a 2013 LCI and will get a new battery in the next few weeks and fit it but I don’t have the kit to register it, anyone in the West Mids who could do this for me?

 

[ProfCJJ]

This sounds like a good idea. I think I have only just used a tank of fuel since March last year! The car starts fine and lately I’ve been putting the Ctek charger on the battery, however I am getting the “excessive power consumption” message quite regularly.

My battery appears to be from new (2011) - might it be a good idea for me to change at this point? I just worry with the inactivity the new battery won’t fare too well either??

One other question: does the car switch off power to even the “always on” connections (like power sockets) in low battery conditions? I have a device wired into an “always on” fuse, but this device gets switched off after a time that the car is switched off (an hour or so perhaps)

Is this the case?

 

[Smartbear]

This sounds like a good idea. I think I have only just used a tank of fuel since March last year! The car starts fine and lately I’ve been putting the Ctek charger on the battery, however I am getting the “excessive power consumption” message quite regularly.

My battery appears to be from new (2011) - might it be a good idea for me to change at this point? I just worry with the inactivity the new battery won’t fare too well either??

One other question: does the car switch off power to even the “always on” connections (like power sockets) in low battery conditions? I have a device wired into an “always on” fuse, but this device gets switched off after a time that the car is switched off (an hour or so perhaps)

Is this the case?

Hi Prof, if your battery is ten years old & has been giving you warnings I’d be inclined to change it sooner rather than later before it causes you grief.
Keep the replacement hooked up to the charger if the cars not used often and it should be ok.
I’m afraid i don’t know about different systems being turned off with an ailing battery but i wouldn’t be surprised.
Rob

 

[ProfCJJ]

This sounds like a good idea. I think I have only just used a tank of fuel since March last year! The car starts fine and lately I’ve been putting the Ctek charger on the battery, however I am getting the “excessive power consumption” message quite regularly.

My battery appears to be from new (2011) - might it be a good idea for me to change at this point? I just worry with the inactivity the new battery won’t fare too well either??

One other question: does the car switch off power to even the “always on” connections (like power sockets) in low battery conditions? I have a device wired into an “always on” fuse, but this device gets switched off after a time that the car is switched off (an hour or so perhaps)

Is this the case?

Hi Prof, if your battery is ten years old & has been giving you warnings I’d be inclined to change it sooner rather than later before it causes you grief.
Keep the replacement hooked up to the charger if the cars not used often and it should be ok.
I’m afraid i don’t know about different systems being turned off with an ailing battery but i wouldn’t be surprised.
Rob

Thanks. I’ll probably do what you did - even though the battery doesn’t seem to have failed (yet). To keep the new battery from failing I’ll make sure I’ll keep it on the trickle charger almost always when not being driven.

For the rest, it would be good to know if BMW cut the power to “always on” items in low power situations???

Thanks

 

[ronk]

My car (sept 2016) sits in the garage in hibernation and is on a maintenance charge - it shows 13.6volts
Hopefully that will keep it fresh for a good while yet.

A previous Z4 (2004) I had was maintained this way and I sold it to a pal, he replaced the battery at 12 years old

 

[Smartbear]

This sounds like a good idea. I think I have only just used a tank of fuel since March last year! The car starts fine and lately I’ve been putting the Ctek charger on the battery, however I am getting the “excessive power consumption” message quite regularly.

My battery appears to be from new (2011) - might it be a good idea for me to change at this point? I just worry with the inactivity the new battery won’t fare too well either??

One other question: does the car switch off power to even the “always on” connections (like power sockets) in low battery conditions? I have a device wired into an “always on” fuse, but this device gets switched off after a time that the car is switched off (an hour or so perhaps)

Is this the case?

Hi Prof, if your battery is ten years old & has been giving you warnings I’d be inclined to change it sooner rather than later before it causes you grief.
Keep the replacement hooked up to the charger if the cars not used often and it should be ok.
I’m afraid i don’t know about different systems being turned off with an ailing battery but i wouldn’t be surprised.
Rob

Thanks. I’ll probably do what you did - even though the battery doesn’t seem to have failed (yet). To keep the new battery from failing I’ll make sure I’ll keep it on the trickle charger almost always when not being driven.

For the rest, it would be good to know if BMW cut the power to “always on” items in low power situations???

Thanks

You should be able to tell us about the low power cuts after you’ve fitted the new battery
Rob

 

[ProfCJJ]

Looks like I’ll be ordering one of these then!

 

[MACK]

I’ve known for a while now that my car battery hasn’t been holding its charge as well as it used to, so instead of waiting until it causes me some grief i decided to change it for a new one
I used Tayna who get good reviews on here
E3DB7890-3BFF-46DE-89B7-ED3D8BEE1C99.jpeg

Disconnect the terminals the top clamp and the bracket which secures the battery to the boot floor - don’t forget to unplug the breather pipe

A1C816C9-99C7-4E0D-9C4B-3B2009F5C52A.jpegB0115A40-FAC2-491B-A076-F35C514709DE.jpeg

I changed my battery for a like for like replacement so only had to register it to the car (a different battery spec would’ve needed coding)

A5D3AE9C-3EBD-471A-A389-2D454B2FA77F.jpegC6DF8CB4-61F2-4BB7-8E97-7509F6B1DB00.jpeg

Job done, hopefully avoiding all the pesky electronic gremlins that seem to affect these cars when the battery goes past its sell by date. The only thing that needed doing afterwards was setting the clock.
Rob

Really need to do this on mine. Looked at the battery yesterday (pic attached) and it seems to be original BMW but an Exide one. so it looks like they were an oem supplier back then at least. Cant seem to see a date code on it though. Did you spot a date code on your old one Rob?

 

[Smartbear]

I’ve known for a while now that my car battery hasn’t been holding its charge as well as it used to, so instead of waiting until it causes me some grief i decided to change it for a new one
I used Tayna who get good reviews on here
E3DB7890-3BFF-46DE-89B7-ED3D8BEE1C99.jpeg

Disconnect the terminals the top clamp and the bracket which secures the battery to the boot floor - don’t forget to unplug the breather pipe

A1C816C9-99C7-4E0D-9C4B-3B2009F5C52A.jpegB0115A40-FAC2-491B-A076-F35C514709DE.jpeg

I changed my battery for a like for like replacement so only had to register it to the car (a different battery spec would’ve needed coding)

A5D3AE9C-3EBD-471A-A389-2D454B2FA77F.jpegC6DF8CB4-61F2-4BB7-8E97-7509F6B1DB00.jpeg

Job done, hopefully avoiding all the pesky electronic gremlins that seem to affect these cars when the battery goes past its sell by date. The only thing that needed doing afterwards was setting the clock.
Rob

Really need to do this on mine. Looked at the battery yesterday (pic attached) and it seems to be original BMW but an Exide one. so it looks like they were an oem supplier back then at least. Cant seem to see a date code on it though. Did you spot a date code on your old one Rob?

The old battery is still in my garage, I’ll check on it later-I did post a pic of the new battery alongside the old one & it looks like 35/12 stamped on the post? :?

Rob

 

[Smartbear]

It’s actually dated 35/13 which makes sense as it’s a sept13 registered car.

Rob