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      01-06-2015, 02:27 PM   #1
ejw2011
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battery registration - no need

I just spoke to my indy bmw shop (east coast) owner about registering for a new car battery and he told me the following:

It was not required and it was BMW created for quality assurance. He told me BMW uses the registration for data collection on 3rd party batteries for reliability and warranty tracking, since BMW does not make batteries. He even has a service bulletin from BMW stating battery registration is for quality assurance only. He also states registration does nothing but read and registers the battery specs for their info. He said he has been replacing customer's battery for several years without registering and never had any issues or complaints from customers. He did however mention, it was important to get the same battery specs or very close to the oem specs if you purchase a 3rd party battery and not BMW stamped battery (This is to avoid BMW not warranting electronic issues caused by the 3rd party battery if not within allowed specs). He did say if you're not comfortable about this, he can register it for a fee but I would be wasting my money. I've been using him for several years for non-warranted work and I trust him.

What are your thoughts?
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      01-06-2015, 05:05 PM   #2
madxkilla
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I didnt register my battery on my e92 and the trip meter would keep reseting. The angel eyes also didnt always turn on when i unlocked my car doors with the remote. Some people have had many problems not registering their battery, others have had none. Your call but better safe than sorry!
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      01-07-2015, 05:39 AM   #3
Kermit
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I had a weird and frustrating experience with this. My ~3 year old E87 battery died and I replaced it with a 3rd party battery with the exact same specs (at half the price BMW were charging for a replacement). I too had read that it needs to be registered with the car for the car to re-learn how to manage the start/stop system etc and took it to BMW to be registered.

After about 45 minutes at the dealership I was told that because it was a third party battery and not one supplied by BMW, the *car* wouldn't accept the battery, but I that I should be OK to carry on without registering it. Oh yes, and that'll be £45 please for the labour charge. A laughable situation to be told that the *car* doesn't like the battery; the dealership - with their laptops and diagnostic workstations - should really be able to *convince* the car that a third party battery OK really and that its electricity doesn't taste in any way different to the electricity from the original battery. This whole episode convinced me that this 'registering' business is nothing more than a money printing exercise to coerce the average person into buying a BMW battery at a 100% mark up.

And guess what. The car and the new battery have got along just fine ever since. In fact the new one has now outlasted the original battery.
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      01-07-2015, 08:44 AM   #4
Peter_R
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There are several ifs and buts when having a new battery fitted and whether you need to, or can even register it.

On later cars (F25) the alternator charges the battery up to 80%, this gives head room for the regeneration process to charge the battery up to full charge. In this case it makes absolute sense to fit a new BMW sourced battery because BMW are using the latest Absorbent Glass Mat lead acid batteries which are capable of delivering high currents on demand. See link below.

In my view before anyone asks a franchised BMW dealer to "register" the battery, they should have frank discussions with them and say no register then no fee. They [BMW] will soon think about going through the process and saying this is the cost. Remember it is a contract to do something.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a..._glass_mat_agm

It is worth noting that the F25 (at least in the UK I know) there are 3 capacities of batteries fitted. Normally you would see a 80ah or 90ah one fitted, but we found on mine (after low useage) that it has a 110ah battery fitted because it is high specification car.

I am unsure at what stage they fit the 110ah battery, but I have a heated steering wheel and heated front and rear seats plus other things.
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      01-07-2015, 11:23 AM   #5
Kermit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_R View Post
There are several ifs and buts when having a new battery fitted and whether you need to, or can even register it.

On later cars (F25) the alternator charges the battery up to 80%, this gives head room for the regeneration process to charge the battery up to full charge. In this case it makes absolute sense to fit a new BMW sourced battery because BMW are using the latest Absorbent Glass Mat lead acid batteries which are capable of delivering high currents on demand. See link below.

In my view before anyone asks a franchised BMW dealer to "register" the battery, they should have frank discussions with them and say no register then no fee. They [BMW] will soon think about going through the process and saying this is the cost. Remember it is a contract to do something.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a..._glass_mat_agm

It is worth noting that the F25 (at least in the UK I know) there are 3 capacities of batteries fitted. Normally you would see a 80ah or 90ah one fitted, but we found on mine (after low useage) that it has a 110ah battery fitted because it is high specification car.

I am unsure at what stage they fit the 110ah battery, but I have a heated steering wheel and heated front and rear seats plus other things.
Some good points there. I especially like the no-win-no-fee approach!

There's nothing special about BWM Advanced Glass Mat batteries. I believe they're actually made by VARTA, and are quite easy to find online (my replacement was an EXIDE AGM battery but is otherwise exactly the same as the original).
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      01-08-2015, 03:56 AM   #6
plymjack
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It would be interesting to know what "registration" involves - is it programming the battery capacity/size?
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      01-10-2015, 03:45 PM   #7
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http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=468750
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