Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Shiftright
My BMW parts department told me that there are 3 batteries listed for my E91 priced $179-$269 before the CCA discount and they are all in stock. The one currently in the car is a BMW branded Exide battery PN 61217586962 (I just checked). It looks like a squeeze back there, so I'm not surprised if some non-BMW branded batteries will not fit.
If your battery is 7 years old, congratulations! But I'd probably go ahead and replace it, because when a battery fails completely it's usually at exactly the wrong time in exactly the wrong place.
I don't think the Euro car engineers have come to terms with the possibility that a typical household in their US buyer demographic may have 5 cars and they may not be driven every day. As others have said, if I wanted to plug my cars into a wall outlet every day, I would have bought a Nissan Leaf.
Interesting that on the Japanese cars the batteries are no big deal. They fail like clockwork every 4 years, there are four 10mm nuts to undo (no 7-page DIYs on changing the battery on the Toyota board!), the dealers keep them in stock and the whole escapade takes about an hour of time, total, and costs about $100. It's not rocket science except on a German car.
Why make anything simple when you can make it complicated?
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Wow, I really hope I can get another 7 to 8 years out of this next battery then.
Yeah it seems like most German companies choose "the road less travelled" which happens to be the "more difficult for no reason" way when it comes to electronics. I'm curious what kind of cycle loads the BMW would put on a controlled battery vs. any Honda on the same battery.
All these damn sensors, resistance checking, adjusting electrical extra must tax these batteries well. That and the fact they're designed to work inside the passenger cabin sort of make sense why they're so damn expensive.
I'm going to run a few battery tests through autozone or something before replacing, and then again after. Curious for some measurable signs of wear / when to replace.