Battery Replacement

[pj.rodriguez]

Jesus... This is more complicated than a kidney transplant and then being on immunosupressive medication so that the organ can successfully "attach" to the rest of the body! ...

Organ transplant seems easier than a battery replacement....

[JimD]

My son has a truck that is older than he is that he loves. It has no computers and he likes that aspect. It also gets lousy gas mileage and has about the same hp than my 128i despite a 300 cubic inch engine.

Registering a battery is about like changing brake pads. It's frustrating and annoying the first time you do it but once you get the hang of it, it isn't a big deal. I will be mildly surprised if I register a replacement battery without getting frustrated. But it will be a lot easier the second time. And I might be surprised and do it smoothly and easily.

Driving a car controlled by a computer has it's benefits and it's drawbacks. It's what we have chosen to do.

[rking117]

Originally Posted by Stupenal

Buy the correct battery

buy the correct cable

use the free software (and donate some $ to the guy who made it)

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=727091

I believe the e82 also has the MSD80 dme so it should work fine

ok tried this method jsut to see if i could get my vehicle to comunicate with my PC. I see that I have a good link and everything as the ODBII cable lights up green but the software fails to communicate with the DME. This is a fail and I am back to the drawing board. (Again)

[JimD]

Originally Posted by rking117

ok tried this method jsut to see if i could get my vehicle to comunicate with my PC. I see that I have a good link and everything as the ODBII cable lights up green but the software fails to communicate with the DME. This is a fail and I am back to the drawing board. (Again)

Are you trying to run INPA or NCSExpert? I never did get INPA to work other than showing I was connected but had no problems running NCSExpert. You might also want to try Sys80 which is the program to register a battery. I think it is in a EBDIAS folder (or something like that).

If none of this works, I would suspect the software. You might try another source.

I got pretty frustrated at first too. Even getting the car "on" but not running can go wrong. But once you get it to work it is worth the aggrivation.

[rking117]

Originally Posted by JimD

Are you trying to run INPA or NCSExpert? I never did get INPA to work other than showing I was connected but had no problems running NCSExpert. You might also want to try Sys80 which is the program to register a battery. I think it is in a EBDIAS folder (or something like that).

If none of this works, I would suspect the software. You might try another source.

I got pretty frustrated at first too. Even getting the car "on" but not running can go wrong. But once you get it to work it is worth the aggrivation.

would you be willing to show me where you got your download from? I have tried may different versions and fail after fail after fail. I am beyond frustrated at this point. I know it has to be the software because talking to the car seems good.

[Iron Man]

Originally Posted by rking117

would you be willing to show me where you got your download from? I have tried may different versions and fail after fail after fail. I am beyond frustrated at this point. I know it has to be the software because talking to the car seems good.

Did you contact "smooth1" in the link to the battery thread? It appears that he is the one who developed the software and is helping people who have problems.

[JimD]

I got my software, which I have not used in a year or more now, from a guy on another website b m w c o d i n g . c o m. I think his handle might have been Chris. He posted a link. It is possibly not still active, but it might be. The best place to get it is probably the websites they reference but I was a bit leery about linking to them - they are big commercial sites or seemed to be. My INPA didn't seem to work but NCSExpert did.

The other thing you might might want to check out is the coding area on bimmerfest. Both places have links and tutorials.

[rking117]

Originally Posted by JimD

I got my software, which I have not used in a year or more now, from a guy on another website b m w c o d i n g . c o m. I think his handle might have been Chris. He posted a link. It is possibly not still active, but it might be. The best place to get it is probably the websites they reference but I was a bit leery about linking to them - they are big commercial sites or seemed to be. My INPA didn't seem to work but NCSExpert did.

The other thing you might might want to check out is the coding area on bimmerfest. Both places have links and tutorials.

ok great thanks, i will check it out. I have been to ************** that is where i got my start but i will look up this Chris guy.

thanks,

[128Convertibleguy]

Questions (maybe foolish) - Suppose you replace the battery with a virtually identical one. Same (maybe approximate) capacity. Same AGM chemistry.

How could it require coding to be functional? If the charging system adjusted on the basis of deterioration due to age (doubtful), why wouldn't it sense the new batteries youthfulness? What does the intelligent battery connector do, anyway?

[JimD]

The battery will work regardless of whether you tell the car it is new. I don't know why the car cannot sense that the battery is new. I believe lead acid batteries are harder to charge as they get older because the chemical reaction that they use becomes more difficult to reverse but I don't fully understand this process. If you charge a new battery like an old one, I guess you essentially overcharge it.

The battery connector is cited in this thread as an advancement made by BMW. I don't think it has anything directly to do with the need to tell the car about the new battery. It essentially has large fuses for the various connections to the battery. There is a safety advantage to doing this, I see no other advantage. It is also far more expensive then the typical clamp/cable arrangement.

It's easy to think BMW had some evil motive in mind with the battery arrangement but I don't think that is the case. The car relies on electricity a lot and I think BMW tried to make the battery last at least through the warranty period by improving the charging technology. The changes resulted in the need to program the car once very ~6 years. They could have made it possible through the same mechanism as we can program 3 flashes of the lights when we bump the turn signal lever. But for a once very 6 year thing, they left it in a place the average owner will never access. Doesn't seem either terribly unreasonable or something I am a fan of. I think I'd rather have a traditional charging circuit and easier battery replacement. But I still like my bimmer.

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by JimD

I think I'd rather have a traditional charging circuit and easier battery replacement. But I still like my bimmer.

+1.