I am surprised how many complain about paying so much at the dealer to have a proper battery installed in there car i understand its not cheap but then again buying a BMW new or used was not cheap and i know plenty of people that go out and spend hundreds of dollars on upgrades to get 10 to 20 more horsepower out of there car. so why take chances and cut corners. just my opion. I will need a new battery by the end of this year i had slow cranks when i start it on cold days or if it sits 2 days i have a 2006 325i and its the original battery and i will have it done either at the dealer or a independent shop that works on BMW's
Well, Jim, you obviously have deeper pockets than most of us. But since you seem to arriving somewhat late in the conversation, I've updated you on the full picture with the quotes above. My 750iL doesn't require either battery registration or dealer installation. Rather than pay a 300 percent markup by purchasing a $225 dealer battery, PLUS about an hour and half for dealer labor, I can purchase a $75 compatible Group 49 battery that meets every BMW specification, and best of all, proper installation involves connecting a positive and negative battery cable to the new battery. "Having a job done right" doesn't necessarily require spending 350 dollars more than I have to. Speaking for myself, I would rather spend that 350 dollars elsewhere.
Yes you are right I did put my .02 in late in the thread and I did not intend the comment to you really it was in general I am on a few forum and this is a very active topic on all of them and really seems to be for people with 2006 or newer cars or any that require to have there batteries registered. There was a person that had there battery explode in there trunk just because they wanted to save money. I did not intend my comments towards any one person on here it was just my thoughts. Sorry for any type of offense towards anybody
Agreed No need to have the dealer involved at all, you buy the appropriate battery in install it yourself.
http://sandiegobmw.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/bmw-with-a-dead-battery-stop-tow-save-tons-of-dough/ And other stories of unkept Bimmers: http://sandiegobmw.wordpress.com/category/funny-bmw-stories/
I had the battery on my 328xi E90 just a few weeks ago and looked a lot into this topic as well. In the end I simply got my battery changed at a local BMW-only indy shop. They only charged $42.50 for the installation and registration, and you get the convenience of a free new battery and install within the warranty period. You are supposed to do the registration to tell the car's ECU a new battery is installed and it will alter it's charging behavior appropriately. If you install a different capacity battery things supposedly get more complicated, as the BMW has different charging profiles for say 70/80/90Ah batteries. In my case the stock was a 90Ah and I ended up getting an Interstate MTP-H8. If you want to do it yourself, I bought a $20 cable off of eBay which can be used with BMWLogger2 or INPA in order to do the registration and more. http://www.ebay.com/itm/321177621188
