New Battery today

[bigwave2255]

after 8 years the original BMW battery has begun to show signs of old age.

havent had any indications of trouble till this morning, started it up to go to work and the starter turned over a little slower than usual , and then on the dash up came the trans failsafe message.

i let it idle for a minute or two and then turned it off and back on, started fine and no displayed message. went to work all good as usual

called up a mobile battery company and they just changed it out, so now starting it sounds a lot snappier, seems it had been getting a little tired and i hadn't noticed

i wonder if this one will last eight years.

2005 3.0d sport 190,000 km

[JCL]

Batteries used to last 36 or 48 months, then they made it to 60 month warranties. They always failed very close to those dates, by design.

It is really hard to complain about any battery that goes eight years, particularly with all the ancillary draws that an X puts on a battery. You did well.

Ours is at 7 years in the X3, and it has just started exhibiting a very slight hesitation before turning over. It will probably go for months yet, but we will be in -30 C over the Christmas holidays, so I plan to pick one up next week.

[Cadesto]

What battery did you get?

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by bigwave2255

...called up a mobile battery company and they just changed it out...

Make sure they hooked the battery up to the vent tube. It's VERY important since the battery is enclosed...and not surprisingly...when non BMW people install a new/replacement battery...may not even think about what that little gray tube is for and just slap on the battery cables and never hook the vent tube back up.

Just lift the cargo floor and look to see if the vent tube is hooked up to the battery (should be on the left side near the positive battery cable). You can see the small gray vent tube (w/black elbow) that attaches to the side of the battery in the pic below:

(pic by Scott ZHP)

[tmv]

^2nd this. I have to fab some connection when replacing it on my 4.8iS as the tube is no where to be found. The old battery is an aftermarket one so I guess they just tossed the vent tube.

[bigwave2255]

thanks for the comments, and yes i watched the guy do the swap, i am quite capable of doing the job myself, just getting lazier as i get older, but i kept a close eye on the guy doing the job.

interestingly he didnt hook up a back-up battery and all i lost was my clock time and OBC data

radio stations stayed.

other interesting thing is, and it may well be imagination, but the car seems to be running ever so slightly better, im starting to think that the occasional battery disconnect and subsequent memory reset may be good for the car.

[Clockwork]

Hey Big Wave. Seems we've got exact opposite temps in this world, but very similar cluster error displays.

I had my e53 parked for a day or so and its been -26°C to -34°C for a few days and when I went to go start my vehicle up, outside, it showed the following on my dash as it took forever to crank over.

Note the temp.

guess BMW's do NOT really like the cold. It warmed up for a few mins and then this error went away.

Guess I should look at a new batt too since this one is approx. 8 years old.

[xRide]

Is there a way to tell by looking at the battery if its the original in the car? The battery in mine is a BMW battery and my vehicle is a 2005.

[bigwave2255]

yep you read about all these fault codes and you feel for the people experiencing them and them wham one day its you and your heart beats faster and you start imagining the worst.

mate in my case here in Australia it was a $280.00 fix, i can live with that.

[bigwave2255]

in my case there were obvious indicators that the battery had never been removed, when we looked at the terminals and there connectors, and the cage above the battery there was no indication that it had ever been disturbed, it also had BMW on it ( although that doesn't necessarily mean anything)

my driving style probably helps, the bulk of my driving is to and from work, 100 km round trip plus living in Queensland Australia means its not subjected to extremes of heat and cold ( much like living in Florida)