Regulator replaced, Voltage appears more stable. Will need to see what happens once the temps drop again. Going to narrow the alarms up on my UltraGauge and see if the Voltage is as stable as it appears.

Tested the Battery/Charging indicator by running engine without the belt for a short period, NO WARNING. I wonder if this is a software bug or a major oversight?

I will try to put together a partial DIY, did not take many pictures, but can outline the steps, tools & hints/tricks.

Just keeping folks up to date on things as I slowly try to solve the charging system riddle and battery related issues.

So I decided to replace the battery, I found a small amount of corrosion on the IBS negative battery terminal, so I went ahead and pulled the negative terminal and then decided to pull the battery which was a BMW replacement make by Exide.

Found out the replacement battery was about 4 years old and it was unclear if it was really an AGM battery. So I decided to get a battery from Advance Auto due to price and availability. I was considering getting a battery from the dealer, but after a lot of thought, I felt the Advance Auto battery had a 3 year Warranty vs the dealer battery of only 2 years. Plus the Advance Auto battery was about $50 cheaper than the dealer with online coupons.

Well this is where the fun kind of starts. Ordered the battery online from Advance Auto with pick up at my local store, as they did have it in stock.

Online specs looked pretty similar to what was in the vehicle, however, when I picked up the replacement battery I noticed the specs were different! I also noticed that the handle on the battery was a single larger handle rather than the typical 2 smaller handles.

So this is where it gets interesting.

The BMW brand replacement battery was an Exide battery, unclear if it was an AGM battery.

Specs on the BMW battery were:
Manufacturer - Exide
900 CCA
160 Reserve Capacity
90 Amp Hour
2 small flip up handles

Advance Auto online battery info
Manufacturer - Johnson Controls, Inc ?
900 CCA
1000 Cranking Amps @ 32F
160 Reserve Capacity
?? Amp Hour - figure not on battery or in online specs
2 small flip up handles

Advance Auto battery that was in stock
Manufacturer - Johnson Controls, Inc
850 CCA
1000 Cranking Amps @32F
180 Reserve Capacity
99 Amp hour - figure was not on battery, was finally provided this value directly from Johnson Controls.

So here is the dilemma, in order to Register/Program a new battery to the vehicle, the Amp Hour rating is required. I assume you can somewhat calculate the Amp Hour rating of the battery, however, I would also hope that the battery manufacturer would also batch test a number of new batteries to see if the calculated Amp Hour rating was accurate. The Amp Hour calculation can be found on the Internet and you typically multiple the Reserve Capacity by 0.4167. Well this did not look promising because even at a 180 Reserve Capacity the Amp Hour rating would have been 75 Amp Hours!! Not so good compared to what was in the vehicle. I have to assume that maybe the AGM batteries may have a higher Amp Hour conversion rate than standard Lead Acid batteries?? As you can see the Amp Hour rating of the new Advance Auto AutoCraft Platinum-AGM battery is 99 Amp Hours per Johnson Controls! This clearly is not a direct conversion using the 0.4167 value seen on the Internet.

After a long conversation with the Advance Auto folks about how the battery on their website was not the unit being sold in my local store, they needed to address this as well as get the Amp Hour rating on the web site under the specs as well as start to add the Amp Hour rating to the battery labels. This is because all the software to Register/Program a battery requires an Amp Hour value. Advance Auto Passed my questions on to Johnson Controls and someone from Johnson Controls contacted me.

After speaking with Johnson Controls it also appears that they have started to change the battery packaging and now are moving to a single handle case design for the European type of batteries. Additionally due to changing electrical demands in newer vehicles they are now more focused on Reserve Capacity and therefore due to some of the design changes they are giving up a slight bit of Cold Cranking Amps for more Reserve Capacity. With the increase in Reserve Capacity the Amp Hour ratings are also increasing.

So I now need to properly Register/Program my replacement 99 Amp Hour battery in my E70 because the battery that was removed was only rated at 90 Amp Hours.

Overall very happy with the replacement battery from Advance Auto, just be careful in your local area of you are looking for a replacement H8 battery, you pay close attention to the Amp Hour rating, if it is listed and the handle configuration. The newer, single handle design battery has the slightly lower CCV, but the higher Reserve Capacity and Amp Hour rating.

The next task is to see if BMW has a SIB (Service Information Bulletin) for the V8 E70 where there is NO indication of a no charge situation!

Hopefully I will be back with some answers on the lack of a no charging indication.

I'm getting the Duralast Platinum battery from Autozone this weekend. It looks like the second battery you have listed. It's rated at 92 Ah.

Duralast Platinum/Battery H8-AGM - Read 6 Reviews on Duralast Platinum #H8-AGM

This looks like the Exide version of the battery, but could be an earlier Johnson Control battery?? Do not be surprised when you show up and the battery only has the single handle!

It is unclear what happened to Exide, they were in bankruptcy a few times and Johnson Controls stepped in somehow. I have not done the research, but it would not surprise me if Johnson absorbed or somehow owns Exide??

Anyway, seems battery AH specs are creeping up. 3 pro level scan tools and only 1 supports BMW battery Registration/Programming and the one that does ONLY supports batteries from the BMW dealer!!

I looked at Carly for BMW and I have questions into them now as they only offer 4 Amp Hour values for AGM batteries with 90 AH being the highest.

I also have another Prosumer scan tool that is more specific to BMW, but it claims that the battery registration is not supported for my vehicle. So I have questions into these guys as well. Not sure what the ISTA or other tools offer, probably standard BMW Amp Hour values.

So at the end of the day, I am not 100% sure if the Amp Hour value is off by 2 or 9 Amp Hour hours it will make much of a difference. But I cannot believe nobody has got this right, the first BMW's that came out that required battery Registration/Programming this are 11 years old. Yes you can figure these car were under the 48 Month/50k mile Bumper to Bumper Warranty, but then this puts the tool/software vendors at 7 years to figure this out!! Ok, assume a new battery last to year 6, then you are taking about 4 years. Anyway, what gives??

I would just put the battery in the car until I can get at least answers from Carly. They do not have a 92, 95 or 99 Amp Hour option or a "Custom" option if the replacement battery does not match one of the current hard coded Amp Hour options!

I mean, come on, it is a battery replacement, how hard do they need to make it!

I would replace the regulator in your alternator by 8 years/80k miles if you have not done so, TRUST me, the brushes will be worn and the regulator may be getting flaky.

Forgot to mention that the Advance manager I deal with a lot told me in his 5 years at many stores, I was the first person to ever ask for an Amp Hour rating of the battery!

Granted the stores probably have a note in the application guide that says they do not have a battery for this model and you need to go to the dealer due to the battery Registration/Programming!

Check the video out linked below. He seems to be having issues similar to yours. BTW, he mentions at one point that 130 Reserve Capacity is 80 AH, so not sure why you say 180 RC is more like 75AH. Anyways, he successfully codes the car using DIS + NCSExpert so as to make it work with 80 AH lead-acid battery.

Here's the video: http://youtu.be/id98UpYCrD4

The reason I mentioned that the 180 RC came to around 75 AH was due to the multiplier that is all over the Internet of 0.4167 which is stated as the value to determine Amp Hours from the Reserve Capacity. What I then said is I do not believe this value is accurate for all battery types and technologies and at the end of the day the Amp Hour value really needs to be a measured value IMHO.

I do not have a working copy of DIS/NCS Expert on hand at this moment and it is pretty sad if NCSExpert needs to be used for battery Registration/Programming.

My comments are also going to all the 3rd party software and tool vendors that only have fixed Amp Hour values in their programs. As with anything, technology advances and improves so this needs to be considered by the software and tool vendors. There needs to be a free field for the Amp Hour rating to be entered, not some hard values that may or may not meet the requirement of the current battery.

I appreciate the video and I will update this thread when I hear back from a few of the tool/App vendors about what they plan on doing regarding battery Registration/Programming.

Also FWIW, seems that the AGM batteries are the preferred battery technology for these newer vehicle platforms that have high loads while the vehicle is not running.

Hi
Sorry reviving old topic but would like to know if the regulator fixed your intermittent charging issue?

I'm starting to have the same issue. Although my location never goes to sub zero in winter.

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Yes, the replacement Voltage regulator resolved the intermittent no charging problem in colder temps, not sub 0F, but usually colder temps close to freezing as I recall. My guess is there was a bad internal solder joint that warmed up slightly after driving for 1/4-1/2 mile and shutting the engine off and restarting would get the charging system working for the rest of the trip/day. Solder joint problem could occur anytime the ambient temp is lower than normal??



Replacement Voltage regulator was not cheap, however, much cheaper than a replacement 200+ Amp alternator.


Have never bothered to sort out Battery Warning light not working properly, guess the DME may need to be updated??

I mean sub zero C not F[emoji2960]
But noted your point.
I've replaced the brushes recently and was hoping that solved the issue. But looks like from your note, the problem most likely lies on the regulator circuit board.
I'll order new regulator soon.
Yeah it's better than buying a new alternator. Hopefully I have the same case as you.

Thanks,

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