Replacing the battery ..... Easy ?

[J8NWK]

Afternoon chaps.

So the car has started telling me there is an increased battery drain (I think that was the wording) and losing its clock setting ? The dealer has said to charge it overnight but the car has been driven and starts perfectly so I can't see that helping to be honest.

I suspect the battery could be on its way out as it's the original on a 57 plate 3.0D.

The physical replacement of it I'm fine with but I've seen things about it needing coding afterwards ? Can anyone shed any light for me ?

Thanks

Jon

[X5Sport]

If you are not doing long journeys then you really do need to charge the battery up overnight.  These cars use serious electrical power doing nothing and it takes a long time for the alternator to out the starting charge back.  I have to do mine once a month.

What kind of volts are you seeing on the battery after a full charge?  If it's above 12.6 then there's nothing wrong with it.

The battery coding is needed as the car needs to know what type and capacity the replacement is so it then knows the correct charge profile.  You need the BMW DIS to do the coding yourself, or at least know someone with access to it.  If it's not done then the car does not 'know' whether the battery is fully charged and how much charge to put in, or even that the car has a new battery.  The iDrive apparently monitors battery health.

Richard

[J8NWK]

Thanks for the reply. I've left it on a trickle charge tonight so I'll see what the situation is in the morning. The car has been standing for about a fortnight and has just been into sytner for a repair so I imagine it probably had the doors left open there.

Is the dis software available to buy and is it easy to use ?

Thanks

[X5Sport]

The electrics draw up to 60A with the doors open and the car awake!  That kills batteries in a couple of hours or less.

Have a look on line for DIS.  It comes as part of a software suite.  You can find copies in various places and the final answer is that if you get it wrong you can 'brick' a module doing the wrong thing.

Richard

[Sanj]

Mines an E53 and after 10 mins the lights go out automatically, don't they go out in the E70?

[X5Sport]

They do, but the electrical load before that is the issue and more so if the vehicle is not in regular use.  If the key is in then that can keep the car fully awake as I found when updating the Nav database. 

My battery was almost completely killed so I now know to have the car on charge before doing it as it takes two hours to get all three DVDs transferred - 24GB or thereabouts.

Richard

[J8NWK]

Thanks for the information so far guys. As said the car is on charge tonight so I'll see what the crack is in the morning.

It seems totally ridiculous to need coding for a battery, if the new one to be fitted is of the same spec then how can it be necessary ?

Thanks

[Denis O]

[quote="J8NWK"]
It seems totally ridiculous to need coding for a battery, if the new one to be fitted is of the same spec then how can it be necessary ?

Thanks
[/quote]

As I understand it, you don't need to code a battery if it's the same type that came out. Richard may know better so take what he says as more likely than me as my info came from reading 'tinternet.

[J8NWK]

Just done some reading on it now and from what I can gather if the battery is of the same spec then it only needs to be registered in order to reset the timer on how long it's been fitted. If it's a different battery then it needs coding too.

I shall see what the car decides to do in the morning.

[UrbanFlow]

[quote="J8NWK"]
Afternoon chaps.

So the car has started telling me there is an increased battery drain (I think that was the wording) and losing its clock setting ? The dealer has said to charge it overnight but the car has been driven and starts perfectly so I can't see that helping to be honest.

I suspect the battery could be on its way out as it's the original on a 57 plate 3.0D.

The physical replacement of it I'm fine with but I've seen things about it needing coding afterwards ? Can anyone shed any light for me ?

Thanks

Jon
[/quote]
Hi Jon,
I just bought a 57 plate E70 3.0D that had been on the dealer forecourt for 2 weeks.
On the test drive it gave the battery drain warning and told me the keys needed charging.
Dealer said it had been stood and done a lot of door open viewings and just needed running.
We ran it for a week but the clock reset itself every other day.

They just fitted a new battery for free and everything is perfect now.
I suspect the battery life in these things with such high drain is not going to be much more than 7 years before they need a new one.

Took them a good half hour to change it and faff around but they didn't mention anything about coding.

[X5Sport]

Presumably if it was a 'like for like' swap it was just to reset the battery timer? 

You can just swap out the battery.  The 'challenge' comes if any stray errors are thrown up and the car also goes on charging the new battery in the same way as the old one - which may not be enough.  Then you need INPA & DIS.  I can't find anything on 'how' to change it all on BMW Coders though.  Just pointers as to 'where' and which module.

Richard

[J8NWK]

The car has been back to the dealers again for more diagnosis and no faults were found, the batter is under a year old but the car had been in to have a new gear control unit fitted and they said it was left open with the ignition on when that was done, it went on a battery tender overnight and seems spot on now.

Doing some miles in it this weekend so hopefully that will help again and be the end of it.

Thanks for the help chaps !

[X5Sport]

No prob.  Glad it was a Dealer issue rather than yours.