Battery registration

A little rant to hopefully understand the system. You've been warned.

So I've installed new battery, registered it with Carly app and I'm told that's no good. Ok so I tried to register it with my foxwell scanner and so far that hasn't worked either.

From what people say, battery registration is a must. But why? Because if you don't it will ruin electronics some say. Ok, what electronics can be ruined and why/how?

This doesn't make any sense to me. BMW designed a car that will self destruct components if you don't tell it what kind of battery is in the car? Shouldn't a computer tell the car the amperage/volts of the battery and the alternator will keep charging it to said amps or volts? Wouldn't all the components have, I don't know resistors or capacitors or micro computers that tell them to function only if the required power meets the pre determined requirements? Are there no fail safes? The car will limp if a tiny sliver is worn off a gear in the throttle actuator but if the battery is not registered I'm playing with fire?

Who has experienced any problems or has proof that bad things can happen if the battery is not registered and how can you trace it back to the battery.

I've had all kinds of electrical issues with my car and the last battery was registered through BMW which left me to think that electronics will fail because that's what they do.

You need a proper registration so that you can reset charging adaptations for the new battery. If you don't, you'll end up eventually getting increased battery discharge errors and later on, random electrical gremlins.

MBimmer2011 wrote

You need a proper registration so that you can reset charging adaptations for the new battery. If you don't, you'll end up eventually getting increased battery discharge errors and later on, random electrical gremlins.

This doesn't answer my question, pretty much the same story that everyone repeats. Not trying to be a dick but everyone says it's bad but no one can prove how/why.

A normal car alternator constantly charges the battery of said normal car. And you wouldn't be out of line to get 4-5 years out of the battery in the normal car.

From what I understand the BMW alternator runs intermittently in an attempt to not change a battery that is already charged. The claim is that it helps gas milage, um I have a V8 M3 and can't be bothered with fuel milage and the reduced alternator running also can help make you're battery last longer. Last longer than the average 4-5 years? Well my last OEM battery in the car was registered through the dealer and it lasted 4 years.

So regarding registering the battery we are told that the DME somehow knows the condition of your battery and therefore can cycle the alternator on and off, but the alternator will also keep attempting to charge a bad battery and if you get increased discharge then it's because your battery can't hold the charge that the alternator is giving it, right?

I see absolutely no way that any electronics would or even could be affected by an unregistered battery. And regarding the battery lasting longer, not sure I buy that either. But I'm open to debate and insight.

I think it's weird too but in the time you've spent ranting you could have had a shop register it.

End rant and move on. BMW's are weird.

LakeSurfer wrote

MBimmer2011 wrote

You need a proper registration so that you can reset charging adaptations for the new battery. If you don't, you'll end up eventually getting increased battery discharge errors and later on, random electrical gremlins.

This doesn't answer my question, pretty much the same story that everyone repeats. Not trying to be a dick but everyone says it's bad but no one can prove how/why.

A normal car alternator constantly charges the battery of said normal car. And you wouldn't be out of line to get 4-5 years out of the battery in the normal car.

From what I understand the BMW alternator runs intermittently in an attempt to not change a battery that is already charged. The claim is that it helps gas milage, um I have a V8 M3 and can't be bothered with fuel milage and the reduced alternator running also can help make you're battery last longer. Last longer than the average 4-5 years? Well my last OEM battery in the car was registered through the dealer and it lasted 4 years.

So regarding registering the battery we are told that the DME somehow knows the condition of your battery and therefore can cycle the alternator on and off, but the alternator will also keep attempting to charge a bad battery and if you get increased discharge then it's because your battery can't hold the charge that the alternator is giving it, right?

I see absolutely no way that any electronics would or even could be affected by an unregistered battery. And regarding the battery lasting longer, not sure I buy that either. But I'm open to debate and insight.

The electrical gremlins I speak of are the random CEL, maintenance, and other various dashboard lights that will start randomly occurring. How do I know? I had a Carly too and used it to register a new battery and it didn't work, despite the fact it stated that the operation succeeded.

I ended up buying an Autel diagnostic tool and checking the battery status only to see that it the last time a battery was registered was years ago.

I get that you are skeptical, so I'll save you time for your next rant on this: go do a forum search for battery registration issues, and you'll find plenty of threads about it. From there, make an educated decision. If you do nothing, then you might just be fine. If you register the battery, you'll also be fine. If you don't register the battery and start getting random dashboard lights, then you'll have a place to start troubleshooting from.

I "registered" with Carly and turns out it didn't work. Although I didn't have gremlins my battery died in 1.5yrs.

I tried doing it with INPA this time around. The process says successful but when I check the registration date, the old one shows up..

Bimmer Barney wrote

I think it's weird too but in the time you've spent ranting you could have had a shop register it.

End rant and move on. BMW's are weird.

Good idea, just accept everything and if you can't figure it out just pay someone to do it for you.

StogyBear wrote

I "registered" with Carly and turns out it didn't work. Although I didn't have gremlins my battery died in 1.5yrs.

I tried doing it with INPA this time around. The process says successful but when I check the registration date, the old one shows up..

I'm with you and what I'm curious about is why would the battery die sooner? If the car thinks it's an older battery then the alternator would charge it more frequently but again on normal cars the alternator is charging the battery nonstop.

Either way they call it the "IBS". Intelligent battery system. It seems pretty stupid to me.

MBimmer2011 wrote

LakeSurfer wrote

MBimmer2011 wrote

You need a proper registration so that you can reset charging adaptations for the new battery. If you don't, you'll end up eventually getting increased battery discharge errors and later on, random electrical gremlins.

This doesn't answer my question, pretty much the same story that everyone repeats. Not trying to be a dick but everyone says it's bad but no one can prove how/why.

A normal car alternator constantly charges the battery of said normal car. And you wouldn't be out of line to get 4-5 years out of the battery in the normal car.

From what I understand the BMW alternator runs intermittently in an attempt to not change a battery that is already charged. The claim is that it helps gas milage, um I have a V8 M3 and can't be bothered with fuel milage and the reduced alternator running also can help make you're battery last longer. Last longer than the average 4-5 years? Well my last OEM battery in the car was registered through the dealer and it lasted 4 years.

So regarding registering the battery we are told that the DME somehow knows the condition of your battery and therefore can cycle the alternator on and off, but the alternator will also keep attempting to charge a bad battery and if you get increased discharge then it's because your battery can't hold the charge that the alternator is giving it, right?

I see absolutely no way that any electronics would or even could be affected by an unregistered battery. And regarding the battery lasting longer, not sure I buy that either. But I'm open to debate and insight.

The electrical gremlins I speak of are the random CEL, maintenance, and other various dashboard lights that will start randomly occurring. How do I know? I had a Carly too and used it to register a new battery and it didn't work, despite the fact it stated that the operation succeeded.

I ended up buying an Autel diagnostic tool and checking the battery status only to see that it the last time a battery was registered was years ago.

I get that you are skeptical, so I'll save you time for your next rant on this: go do a forum search for battery registration issues, and you'll find plenty of threads about it. From there, make an educated decision. If you do nothing, then you might just be fine. If you register the battery, you'll also be fine. If you don't register the battery and start getting random dashboard lights, then you'll have a place to start troubleshooting from.

Yes I did and no one can positively link any issues with the car relative to battery registration. A guess or assumption doesn't count as proof to me.

The battery dying earlier with registration makes no electrical sense, unless BMW somehow intentionally sabotaged the system if you fail to register. This would be my guess otherwise why couldn't you reset it from the vehicle like the other maintenance items?

StogyBear wrote

I "registered" with Carly and turns out it didn't work. Although I didn't have gremlins my battery died in 1.5yrs.

I tried doing it with INPA this time around. The process says successful but when I check the registration date, the old one shows up..

I recently went through this as well and had the same experience (INPA reports success but doesn't log the mileage/history of the registration), check out my post here:

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpost.php?p=27930151&postcount=12

I ended up registering it with ISTA and now the proper registration date/mileage show up in INPA.