E70 Battery Replacement - DIY

[brian5]

Originally Posted by rh71

I just asked my local garage here who's familiar with BMWs about registering my battery and they can do it for $45, but they said the battery must be bought through a dealer. I can't recall exactly the reason he mentioned but it had to do with MY2008s and onward - their batteries use 4.8(something) and not 4.0(something). He said we can't and shouldn't go to Interstate directly for those.

Aside from the possibility that he's in bed with dealers (doubt it), could there be any truth to this? He has an E46 M3 and mentioned that he dealt with 4 battery replacements before realizing he couldn't get batteries from outside.

I did a LOT of research. I am confident that my Interstate MTP-49/H8A battery is a perfect fit for my X5....

[danlauz]

Anybody close to montreal could reprogram it for me ?

Ps... AGM is a battery with a vent ?

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by danlauz

Ps... AGM is a battery with a vent ?

AGM batteries do not use vents and do not have vent hoses. Traditional batteries use active vents and vent hoses.

[Zoich]

1. My OE battery that came with the car says its sealed - I assume it's AGM. The white sticker covered all the traditional caps on the top. YET on the side of the positive half, it is attached to a vent hose and tubing venting out through the bottom of the car? I shook the battery a bit, no slushing liquid sound like when I shake a wet battery. I suppose they install they attached the tubing in case you buy a non-AGM battery? (Without reading the forum, I did purchase a wet one from Batteries Plus for 139.00, I am returning that now) I didn't realize how complicated and that I needed to consult this forum until I couldn't find the battery. Different than my previous e39. The batteries plus one wet one slushes, and the top caps are not sticker sealed. Their AGM had to be special ordered and it was 189. So am I right that ours is an AGM battery?
2. What if I don't register? I still don't get it about registering... Register meaning to tell my car there is a brand new battery? So charge at a different rate as oppose to an older battery? I would go buy that tool32 and some kind of OBD tool - but really? It was 200 bucks after 5 years plus with the original one, should I really care? Am I looking at potentially costing more than 200 dollars for another battery replacement or you think my car will have some expensive electronic issues if I don't register the darn thing?? Thanks guys.

When did cars get so complicated?

[rh71]

Today after I shut off the engine and left the radio on while waiting for my wife to pick something up in the store, the idrive shut itself off after only 2-3 minutes. Usually it's closer to 15-20 mins. The car is 5 years old now and I knew the battery is on its last legs. I hit start/stop to turn the radio on again and immediately it shut idrive off. Then a minute later the dash showed a battery icon. This is actually good, I know for certain what the issue is. I was afraid I would have random errors and I'd have to guess when my battery is going, but this is good, though I've never seen someone here ever say the battery icon shows up on the dash like that.

Anyway, I started the car up just fine, and had to get gas (shut off and back on again just fine). So it appears this is a nice early-warning for me.

I gotta risk driving to Brooklyn tonight with it, but at least the highway miles will give it a nice charge for a change.

Originally Posted by Zoich

2. What if I don't register? I still don't get it about registering... Register meaning to tell my car there is a brand new battery? So charge at a different rate as oppose to an older battery? I would go buy that tool32 and some kind of OBD tool - but really? It was 200 bucks after 5 years plus with the original one, should I really care? Am I looking at potentially costing more than 200 dollars for another battery replacement or you think my car will have some expensive electronic issues if I don't register the darn thing?? Thanks guys.

When did cars get so complicated?

^ Yes. I just read up on another forum with the same question about registering and it has to do with rate of charge, and people were contemplating not doing it because their new battery is cheap enough anyway). But I'd suggest you find an independent shop BMW Repair Shops - Find a BMW Mechanic | BimmerShops.com to do it for you for < $60 and avoid the headache.

[Zoich]

Alright- thought I share. My X5 is now 5 years old, love the power, hate the poor gas milage and hate the 20" RFT tire going loud after 10K. The point is I still take good care of it, but don't want to put any more money in it if I don't have to - most likely trade it for something else in the next 18 mo. So after I returned the non-AGM battery back to Batteries Plus, their AGM battery which was not in stock, was $189, but the CCA was only in the 800 Range. So I decided to drive down to Firestone to buy an Interstate AGM battery as everyone had suggusted. The manager mentioned they only stock the standard Wet Cell/Non AGM in all Firestone shops as normal stock ($199). He can order me the AGM one tomorrow (Monday).
I agreed and since I had more time in the afternoon, I looked up the price, it's around $290 listed on Interstate. I was fine with that, just a little annoyed that I was ready to install a new one today since I had remove the old one earlier in the day. So I started browing since I had time and found the below battery from Advanced Auto Parts which had all the matching criteria as the OE one. It was only $162 with 3 year full warranty (yes not 6 years) and prorate after 3 til 7 years. I thought I'd give it a shot and search on various other forums. The only complaint I saw was "plastic casing damaged during shipping." (well of course, these things are heavy!) Long story short, even got a tip to use an online $40 off coupon. (PC4U123)
Final total out of pocket: Final price was 132.70 with tax (122+10.70). I don't think you can find a better price. I thought I'd share (rh71 - hopefully this helps with your dying battery)

I don't see the the value of the $290 battery... Now that I spent even less than I expected on this battery, I don't know if I should bother to go to a indie shop to get this battery registered...

(BTW, the garage door spring snapped after all said and done and looks like the money I saved will be going to the Garage Door man tomorrow)

Good luck everyone.

AutoCraft Gold AGM Battery, Group Size H8, 900 CCA

Originally Posted by rh71

Today after I shut off the engine and left the radio on while waiting for my wife to pick something up in the store, the idrive shut itself off after only 2-3 minutes. Usually it's closer to 15-20 mins. The car is 5 years old now and I knew the battery is on its last legs. I hit start/stop to turn the radio on again and immediately it shut idrive off. Then a minute later the dash showed a battery icon. This is actually good, I know for certain what the issue is. I was afraid I would have random errors and I'd have to guess when my battery is going, but this is good, though I've never seen someone here ever say the battery icon shows up on the dash like that.

Anyway, I started the car up just fine, and had to get gas (shut off and back on again just fine). So it appears this is a nice early-warning for me.

I gotta risk driving to Brooklyn tonight with it, but at least the highway miles will give it a nice charge for a change.



^ Yes. I just read up on another forum with the same question about registering and it has to do with rate of charge, and people were contemplating not doing it because their new battery is cheap enough anyway). But I'd suggest you find an independent shop BMW Repair Shops - Find a BMW Mechanic | BimmerShops.com to do it for you for < $60 and avoid the headache.

[rh71]

^ thanks. I just called 2 Firestones (before reading your post Zoich) and neither of them were able to register the battery (one didn't even know what that meant). The battery was not available either and it would take 2 days. But since they can't register, I'm not going with them. I called a local place I usually use who still recommends a dealer original battery for $320 out the door. I may also go the Advanced Auto Parts route but then I'd feel more comfortable if I could get it registered.

[brian5]

rh71,

The Firestone shop that I dealt with had no knowledge of battery registration either. Didn't bother me though as I was going to register it myself anyway.

[ard]

Originally Posted by Zoich

(BTW, the garage door spring snapped after all said and done and looks like the money I saved will be going to the Garage Door man tomorrow)

Buy a new spring and pop it in! 30 minutes. Waiting for the garage door man to show up and be there while he does the work is more time than the fix should take.

But people do get freaked out by the red warning label on it!

[rh71]

so I wound up doing the Autocraft battery (manufactured by Johnson Controls like a lot of other batteries - I seem to have bought the very last one on all of Long Island says their website) and got it put in. Battery $148 + install & registration by a local indy $125 = $273. They also mentioned they had to reset the sunroof module as part of the process. Anyway, this was more a stay-away-from-the-dealer more than a DIY, but hey, still cheaper. Thanks for advice in this thread.