Battery Replacement Screw-Up and Recovery

[rcasey]

A major screw-up today.

My 2008 3.0Si battery needed replacement. After reviewing several Internet articles and a few YouTube videos, I purchased a replacement battery from AutoZone. Model H8-AGM, a 95 amp/hour, battery was out the door in Tacoma for $175 USD with my Military discount.

If I was smarter, I’d not tell you what bone head stunt I pulled, but If I was smarter, I’d not done it. To save time, I removed the battery to swap out at the store. My hands were moving faster than my head, and as I lowered the tailgate top, I heard a soft ‘Klick’ and realized my error. No battery … no ability to unlatch the tailgate.

Fortunately, the vehicle was unlocked and I could access all the doors and the engine compartment. Additionally to my favor, I’d left the luggage compartment lid in the upright and open position, however, I'd wedged it in the upright position with the battery box cover and some tools.

Back with the new battery, I searched the Internet, no solutions were apparent. Search in the Owner’s Manual offered no help I could not find any reference to an Emergency Inside Release, for automobile trunks.

Four Attempts.

1. Raise hood, apply external 12V power to the ‘jumper point’ and vehicle frame. Nope, as the battery + (positive cable connection) was NOT connected to the distribution panel atop the battery, there was no physical path to the vehicle electrical system.
2 Apply 12V to the vehicle’s cigarette lighter sockets. This failed as well.
3. After reviewing my Vehicle Repair CD, I tried to remove the Luggage Compartment Cover. BMW states “Forcibly pull the cover rearward and remove from the hinges.” I was not able to remove the cover from the hinges, as I could not apply sufficient force to shift the cover from the spring-retained hinges.
4. I found that I was barely able to reach the Power Distribution Panel, and attach a small electrical alligator clip to the panel and apply + 12Volts. Bingo! The external tailgate switch worked and I completed the task.

Follow-Up: My vehicle has Active Steering. Upon starting the vehicle, several error messages promptly occurred, and Active Steering had failed, with steering force very high. Resetting the steering requires turning the steering from ‘Lock to Lock’ and the system immediately resets.

Battery was registered subsequently.

NOTE: In the two following images, the replacement battery had been installed, and several green shop cloths have been used to obscure the battery. This was done to provide better contrast in the photos.

First photo: view is from the left passenger door. Second view is for illustration purposes only.

Ciao,
Dick Casey

[bawareca]

I have had has some similar encounters in the past. On the newer cars the easiest way to power up the car is to remove the passenger side lower dash cover to get access to the the Junction box(fuse box) and locate the thick red wire on the back which is the main power supply and comes directly from the battery.

[wsmeyer]

Or you just could have pulled the emergency release cable with the black plastic pull handle, inside center of hatch.