Replacement battery

ATS advised me a couple of weeks ago that they cannot change batteries on some modern cars as they cannot reset certain error codes and lights that come on after the switch (thankfully mine was a 2000 E38 so no issues). It would be worth checking with a fitting company or a BMW independent to make sure it can be done without dealer intervention.

If you want 'Progress' then it will cost you!  It is, of course, in your best interests . . . according to the manufacturer.

Modern BMWs are fitted with a battery monitor system, which looks at the amounts of charging and discharging (ampere-hours in and out of it) and voltage in all conditions) so it can warn you of impending electrical doom.

This means that when a new fully-charged battery is fitted, the battery monitoring system must be reset, which is another excuse to drain your wallet, unless you are a member of  the perceived customer base - a business user who simply sets any expenditure against his tax, or has a  leasing company to pay for everything.

I think that as manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes, VW and Audi cannot get a European law passed to restrict all servicing to their dealers they are simply making it impossible for non-dealers to do anything - did you read the article about the current type of water pumps in this month's Straight Six?

We only have an international open standard for automotive electronics by virtue of the Americans, who threatened Anti-Trust proceedings  against the large manufacturers unless they co-operated, so giving us the OBD standard interface, rather than a different interface protocol by each manufacturer.  Since then they have been trying to get around it in various ways, and this is a very lucrative way to sell over-priced batteries.

I'm glad that my fourteen-year old Z3 will last for the rest of my driving life!


Edited by Mike Fishwick - 12 Mar 2013 at 3:33pm

You need to keep away from main dealers when ever poss, they only want to empty your bank account. Try to find a good independent, around my area most are ex BMW trained anyway.

davebrindlee36m3 wrote: You need to keep away from main dealers when ever poss, they only want to empty your bank account. Try to find a good independent, around my area most are ex BMW trained anyway.