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Battery choice.

Discuss the problems with your BMW X5 (E70).
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Andy Collings
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Battery choice.

Post by Andy Collings » Sun Oct 13, 2019 12:07 am

Had issue with flat battery when I bought car, charger I had was always in the red zone but didn't charge it for very long. Suspecting a duff battery I bought a new one recommended by Eurocarparts and independent battery dealer, Exide Premium EA 1000 100 AH Lead Acid. All fine for a while and then new battery showed signs of high discharge. Went on a few forums and found that due to short journeys and the car using a lot of power I needed to look after battery better and keep it charged up. Bought a NOCO Genius G3500, I first to try it out put the old battery on charge, realised that the old battery was a BMW sourced AGM type. It charged up fine. Charged up one fitted to car and also all ok. Dilemma now is whether to keep in car the Brand new battery or put back in the AGM battery that is only just over a year old ? Read reviews that AGM batteries are better but don't last as long. Be interested to read some learned thoughts from anyone who has experience of these different batteries. Thanks !

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X5Sport
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Re: Battery choice.

Post by X5Sport » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:57 am

The biggest ‘challenge’ with AGM type batteries is that they do not like being allowed to go flat. Each time it happens the life of the battery gets shortened. If looked after properly then they last for years. I changed my OEM X6 battery at nearly 8 years old even though the car only does 6,000 a year. It’s because I use a CTEK conditioner when the car is out of use, and that really makes a difference to AGM types. Both wet and AGM batteries have a similar life of around 6 years - anything more is a bonus. :)

If you do change the battery type then you will need to recode the car again. If coded for wet then the AGM battery won’t get charged properly and if coded for AGM then the wet battery will be overcharged.
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Andy Collings
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Re: Battery choice.

Post by Andy Collings » Sun Oct 13, 2019 11:35 am

Hi,
thanks for the very useful information. I think I will leave in the Exide battery for now and keep looking after it with the NOCO G3500, charging it on a regular basis. Now that I have a Carsoft diagnostic reader I can better see what is going on. I will however keep the AGM battery charged up too and see if it is good or not, don't know how it was treated previously. Hopefully the NOCO maintenance repair setting can tell me. Good that the Carsoft can recode the car if I do put the AGM back in. Thank you for your input, much appreciated. Andy

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