Not an X5 but help needed

[Themoog]

Hi all. My daughters boyfriend has an 07 E90 320d that keeps getting the trifecta on the dash but goes away after 5 min of running the engine.
I've scanned it with my c110 and most of the faults are low voltage to certain things.
The battery and alternator were replaced last October as if someone was chasing down a fault.
It's got one of those regulator things on top of the battery - could that be at fault? Any ideas? What are they even there for?
When the battery was replaced apparently the garage said that it didn't need coding to the car but I think it should.
I had a 2003 E53 and that battery had to be coded buy my 2001 E53 does not.
If anyone has any ideas please say.

[Salty B.]

Needs the battery registered otherwise you might be over/under-charging the battery.

[wpoll]

And the 2003 E53 did NOT require the battery to be registered (or coded as you put it...)

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by wpoll

And the 2003 E53 did NOT require the battery to be registered (or coded as you put it...)

This is correct. No IBS


–awr–

Using Tapatalk VIP on iPhone

[miloh]

Pretty sure the IBS is the reason you need to code batteries on newer cars.

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by Salty B.

Needs the battery registered otherwise you might be over/under-charging the battery.

This is also correct. That said you have to follow the symptoms. If you're getting repeating low voltage errors the usual cause is parasitic drain and 90% of the time is the hedgehog.

It's easy to get to on either e90 or e53 very similar. Test the vbat after the car sits and if it's lower than about 12.2v overnight there's parasitic draw or IBS is confused because battery wasn't registered.

I use bimmerlink and bimmercode to register batteries.


–awr–

Using Tapatalk VIP on iPhone

[andrewwynn]

You can trick the battery to fully charge by unplugging the control lead to the IBS module on top of the battery. This will technically over charge if it's AGM battery but worth a try to force a full charge at least once before register.


–awr–

Using Tapatalk VIP on iPhone

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by miloh

Pretty sure the IBS is the reason you need to code batteries on newer cars.

That is exactly why.


–awr–

Using Tapatalk VIP on iPhone

[Themoog]

Interesting.
Thanks for the replies.
Like I said, most of the fault codes I saw said low voltage or similar. I'll check if my C110 can register the battery.
The fact that it's had an alternator and battery would indicate that the garage were chasing a drainage fault but not diagnosed it correctly.
I put my ctek on it for 4 hours yesterday to see it I could boost the battery but I don't know what happened as I had a few beers and lost interest..