Faulty Battery :( Purchase from dealership?
 

Hi Everyone!

Just to recap, I wasnt sure if I previously had a battery issue or alternator issue. Well, I finally bought my car into my shop and they told me I had a faulty battery..

Problem is, that they want to charge 600$ for a new battery and installation. Plus $120 to look at the car, so a total of almost $720CAD!:tsk:

Is that worth it?

Or am I better off sourcing my own battery and putting it in myself? (My boyfriend is able to put the battery in for me if I need him to)

Thanks in advance for the help :)

Also, if I were to source my own battery... any recommendations on a good location in vancouver bc?

i saw in a previous post that I would need

110AH regular Bmw battery
or
90AH AGM Bmw Battery

Does it matter which one I get?

battery
 

My battery is charging but it is old and weak. I plan on purchasing the battery from Autozone or Advanced auto parts here in the USA aproxiamtely $200 USD. My car is a2005 645ci, it requires the new battery to be coded in. An independent shop will code the battery at an hours fee $60-$80 USD here in my area.

Battery Replacement
 

Pep Boys has a battery for BMWs and it only cost about $108 and they work just fine. Purchased two one for my 2004 645 and my 2007 X5. I know this is a old post but, it will help the next person looking.

There were 5 battery types fitted to the 6 Series:
- Regular lead acid 80Ah, 90Ah & 110Ah
- AGM 90Ah & 110Ah

The charging system in the car is designed to use these ratings only so fitting a 100Ah for example might cause problems because the car's power management system does not have a charging profile to match it.

Important points to note:

1. When you change a battery you must "register" it to the car. Over time that power module changes its charging profile to counteract the deterioration in the battery. Registering the new battery means the power module gets reset to provide the appropriate charging that a new battery needs rather than the higher demand that an older battery would need. Failure to register a new battery will shorten the life of your new battery. If you do not register the battery you won't notice anything in the short term but within a few months to a year the battery may be damaged due to overcharging.
A battery can be registered using DIS software or Autologic, possibly others too. A good independent mechanic should have the right equipment to do this. Check out your local specialists to see who can do it. Any specialist who says that it is not needed does not know what they are talking about, go somewhere else.

2. If you change the battery to one with a different rating or change from regular lead acid to AGM then you also have to tell the car that this change has been made, again, it's all to do with the charging profile. Again this is done with software.
If your car has the OEM battery still then you can tell what battery is correct for your car by reading the 11 digit part number on the top. If it is the OEM battery & it is white it has a regular lead acid battery, if it is black it has an AGM battery. Most guys would recommend switching to the (more expensive) AGM battery because of the demands placed on a battery in the e63. Especially if you do lots of short journeys, the AGM battery is a deep cycle battery which means it can cope better with frequent high discharge & charging cycles.

Finally these cars do not like short journeys, they use a lot of power when starting up & therefore need a suitably long period of running to replenish the discharge. With short journeys this can't happen. BMW refer to this as an "unfavourable driving profile", for cases like this they recommend keeping the car on a trickle charger for the battery.
Good luck.

I am fully aware of why BMW registers the batteries and I understand what your saying about registering the battery, but the $1200 I saved on the two batteries, I can buy 11 more batteries if they fail in a year or two but, I wont have to because the batteries have 3 year free replacement warranties. If not registering the battery will make it last 2 yrs vs 4 yrs that is the chance I will take anyway. I am just saying. There are many other folks on the forum who have used other than BMW batteries without registering them without a problem.

I'm know BMW service is a lot cheaper in Europe, since I was in Germany for 3 yrs, but here in the states $1400 for two batteries is ridiculous.

Faulty Battery :( Purchase from dealership?
 

I bought the non-AGM Bosch battery from pep boys and had them install it for under $140 and had an Indy register it for $45 - happy with the result and would never go the dealer route.


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I'm saying use an non-OEM battery & get it registered at an independent garage, not BMW. Oh, BMW dealers are a rip off here too! The software & cable needed to register the battery (& do lots of other things ) can be got to the US for $80 (BM Technic) so that's another route you could go, become self sufficient for diagnostics & other jobs.