Is Carly Battery Registration a Scam - Does it really work?

revengeismine wrote

Scharbag wrote

How does one check with Carly if the registration was a success?

What made me question the registration was the new battery charge history status was not refreshing when reading the current battery info after registration.

My battery registration is also not working. Which sucks because I just moved and all of my car buddies with real coding computers are in another city...

EDIT: Got ISTA-D running and registered the battery properly. Now it shows as being registered at the proper mileage. Carly really needs to sort this out.

Boo.

Shazz wrote

I wonder if anyone has done a study on whether registering the battery really lengthens the life or its just a BMW scam to make you pay more when it's just swapping a battery out?

My '09 E92 M3 has about 33k miles and the battery is failing. I've had the car 3.5 years and don't drive in winters. Casual inspection suggests it's the original battery (haven't pulled it yet but is correct brand & specs). If that's the case, I'm quite impressed if a battery can last ten years, including ten idle winters & numerous jump starts.

The dealer wants $445 to replace a battery I can buy for $160 (independent shop wants $325). If the only downside to not (or not properly) registering the battery is a shortened battery life (three years instead of expected six), then I ain't paying an extra $285 (or $175) to have someone else do it. If the downside is the potential of my car being a flaming heap by the side of the road, well then I'm game. If that is truly a potential outcome for self-service I'd be surprised that any company would expose themselves to such malicious engineering in this legal environment.

TheUnscented wrote

My '09 E92 M3 has about 33k miles and the battery is failing. I've had the car 3.5 years and don't drive in winters. Casual inspection suggests it's the original battery (haven't pulled it yet but is correct brand & specs). If that's the case, I'm quite impressed if a battery can last ten years, including ten idle winters & numerous jump starts.

The dealer wants $445 to replace a battery I can buy for $160 (independent shop wants $325). If the only downside to not (or not properly) registering the battery is a shortened battery life (three years instead of expected six), then I ain't paying an extra $285 (or $175) to have someone else do it. If the downside is the potential of my car being a flaming heap by the side of the road, well then I'm game. If that is truly a potential outcome for self-service I'd be surprised that any company would expose themselves to such malicious engineering in this legal environment.

This is why I decided to splurge and spend $250 on an Odyssey from FCPEuro...just in case something happened with the registration or the battery fails within 3 or so years, I can replace it for free.

The battery I just replaced was most likely the 2nd battery. It had a 52/13 engraving on it so 12/2013. So it seems the original battery lasted 4-6 years (11/2009 build date) depending on how old it was when it was replaced and the 2nd battery lasted possibly for another 4-6 years (would have probably lasted me another year if I didn't change it).

It's been almost 2 years now since I replaced my battery myself and used Carly which said it was successful but shows no registration history. You can find my original post back on page 3. Anyway, the battery is still running strong and I've had 0 issues.

TheUnscented wrote

My '09 E92 M3 has about 33k miles and the battery is failing. I've had the car 3.5 years and don't drive in winters. Casual inspection suggests it's the original battery (haven't pulled it yet but is correct brand & specs). If that's the case, I'm quite impressed if a battery can last ten years, including ten idle winters & numerous jump starts.

The dealer wants $445 to replace a battery I can buy for $160 (independent shop wants $325). If the only downside to not (or not properly) registering the battery is a shortened battery life (three years instead of expected six), then I ain't paying an extra $285 (or $175) to have someone else do it. If the downside is the potential of my car being a flaming heap by the side of the road, well then I'm game. If that is truly a potential outcome for self-service I'd be surprised that any company would expose themselves to such malicious engineering in this legal environment.

This was exactly my thought.

The big question is; What does registering actually do?!?!

If I had to guess, as an electrical engineer (only say this cause I'm not completely stupid about this lol) it is only resetting the calibration of the measured capacity of the battery. How do you extend the life of a battery.. simple. Don't over charge it, don't over discharge it, don't charge it to quickly, and don't discharge it to quickly. It's obvious the car knows (in %) where the charge is at and trying to keep it happy in all those aspects.

Ten years on a battery is amazing! Could you ever get that without some sort of smart charging system? On the other hand, $160 for a battery every 3-6 years isn't that bad either.

Will you spontaneously combust.. nope. There's a lot of people out there who think Carly actually registered their battery..

jdamore wrote

. . . Ten years on a battery is amazing . . .

My car was produced on 07/2010. Still original battery. I'm lucky.

crypticc wrote

....

Used BMWLogger (the free version) - register battery. Done. This is using the ISTA/INPA USB cable. (the "better-known" cable)

Go back into Carly and it now tells me the last registered mileage = current mileage and all the mileage-per-charge-states reset to zero.

Based on that I am inclined to think that Carly isn't properly registering batteries. Also based on that and given that BMWLogger is able to register the battery tells me that it's a software issue, or an issue with the dongle.

Recently changed my battery to a Sears AGM. I wasn't going to bother with registering (I'm too old to be messing with these things - such a pain to go through hundreds of posts to learn something new. :-)) but your success makes me curious. A couple of questions please:

Do you or anyone have a link to "the better known cable" either on eBay or Amazon?

I know... search function is there, but to save time: BMWLogger isfree, easy to use, and above all, I won't crash the car or cause damage? Any alternative software? TIA

PS The original battery in my M3 lasts 8 years, which is quite remarkable. Maybe there is something to registering?

Found following from site for BMWLogger - seems simple, or is it an illusion?
The site actually offers a "pre-tested" K+DCAN cable for $35.
Is it really that easy? Download free software + buy $35 cable from site. Very tempting.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
************** - battery-and-adaptations

Battery And Adaptations
Where To Start:
Grab our BMWLogger program from the BMWLogger product page.
Make sure you have an FTDI based K+DCAN cable.
Launch the software and plug in the cable.
Choose the cable in preferences.
Proceed to follow the steps below for the action you’re seeking.

Battery Registration:
It is not required to clear adaptations when registering your battery. To register your battery using BMWLogger do the following.
Make sure you have IBS on your battery.

Plug the cable into the OBD port.
Make sure the vehicle is off.
Put the key in.
Press start with the foot off the brake, so the engine does not start.
Choose to register your battery in the BMWLogger software menu.
>>>>>>>

Youtube

cannga wrote

Found this site for BMWLogger - seems simple, or is it an illusion?
The site actually offers a "pre-tested" K+DCAN cable for $35.
Is it really that easy? Download free software + buy $35 cable from site. Very tempting.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
************** - battery-and-adaptations


Battery And Adaptations
Where To Start:
Grab our BMWLogger program from the BMWLogger product page.
Make sure you have an FTDI based K+DCAN cable.
Launch the software and plug in the cable.
Choose the cable in preferences.
Proceed to follow the steps below for the action you're seeking.

Battery Registration:
It is not required to clear adaptations when registering your battery. To register your battery using BMWLogger do the following.
Make sure you have IBS on your battery.

Plug the cable into the OBD port.
Make sure the vehicle is off.
Put the key in.
Press start with the foot off the brake, so the engine does not start.
Choose to register your battery in the BMWLogger software menu.

their cable does work. and the free tool works tool.

I ended up also use their cable with inpa for more functionalities

For the record BMWLogger app registered my battery, including resetting the history / mileage and now recording the correct % per charge state.
Previously to that Carly, and even ISTA registration would not do that.
Before trying BMW Logger I also did the NCS Expert method - that also didn't do it.

To test after using BMW Logger and running a few miles I went back and re-registered using the other methods. None stuck. I then went into BMW Logger again and re-registered and it successfully updated the "mileage since last registration" (or whatever it says) +5 miles from when I last did it.


Chris


p.s.

The quote below from Carly is rubbish (Sorry Carly) but after using BMWLogger to register the battery, AND then I could still use Carly to read the statistics - both before and after and you can see the registration from the other tool work where it doesn't with Carly.
So my conclusion is that BMWLogger running a step missing from the other methods, carly included.

Kamen wrote

This is what I got as a reply to my ticket:



Robert (Carly) (Carly)

Dec 19, 13:20 CET


Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to read the battery registration history on all vehicle models. We work on it.
However, this never interferes with the function itself.
If you make the battery registration and get no error, then you can be sure that it worked.
Your new battery is successfully registered.



-
Robert - Carly Expert Team

Just wanted to update this, as it has been some time. About a week ago, 4/2021, After replacing my battery, I registered it with carly. I checked a week later with ISTA, and there is no history of any battery registration.

At this point- I don't think there is any evidence that Carly is actually registering the battery, and if they are- they are not doing it correctly.

Carly claims that they are registering the battery, but the fact of the matter is there is no evidence to support these claims. If Carly can do it successfully, the procedure is malformed as it doesn't register the history.

At this point I would not recommend Carly for battery registration until they are capable of supplying evidence that the battery has in fact been registered in ISTA.

Statements without data are speculation, and carly unfortunately has no data to validate their claims.

drwankel wrote

Just wanted to update this, as it has been some time. About a week ago, 4/2021, After replacing my battery, I registered it with carly. I checked a week later with ISTA, and there is no history of any battery registration.

At this point- I don't think there is any evidence that Carly is actually registering the battery, and if they are- they are not doing it correctly.

Carly claims that they are registering the battery, but the fact of the matter is there is no evidence to support these claims. If Carly can do it successfully, the procedure is malformed as it doesn't register the history.

At this point I would not recommend Carly for battery registration until they are capable of supplying evidence that the battery has in fact been registered in ISTA.

Statements without data are speculation, and carly unfortunately has no data to validate their claims.

Carly is straight trash. The owner won't update and he uses language barriers as excuses. I dealt with this 2 years ago when registering a lighter battery. Poor customer service and poor product, especially now that it's a yearly subscription. I ended up canceling and buying an Autel Pro auto scanner and haven't looked back.

drwankel wrote

Just wanted to update this, as it has been some time. About a week ago, 4/2021, After replacing my battery, I registered it with carly. I checked a week later with ISTA, and there is no history of any battery registration.

At this point- I don't think there is any evidence that Carly is actually registering the battery, and if they are- they are not doing it correctly.

Carly claims that they are registering the battery, but the fact of the matter is there is no evidence to support these claims. If Carly can do it successfully, the procedure is malformed as it doesn't register the history.

At this point I would not recommend Carly for battery registration until they are capable of supplying evidence that the battery has in fact been registered in ISTA.

Statements without data are speculation, and carly unfortunately has no data to validate their claims.

I think bimmercode claims to be able to register battery. Have not used it for that though.

It seems pretty obvious from all these posts and several in other threads that Carly is a scam, at least for this "feature". It's fortunate that the implications of it not working are not more serious.

Agreed. The purpose of my most was to make sure folks were aware that this is still an active issue as of 4/2021, and despite Carly's comments, they haven't fixed it.

Carly isn't all bad. Great for pulling codes, limited coding, and resetting maintenance intervals. Just battery registration is obviously flawed/not working. However considering the timespan of this thread, it seems pretty obvious they are not capable of correctly fixing this, because if they were, they would have done it by now.

bump thread

Carly still no go?

Have new lightweight needs to be registered. Can be done with INPA? ISTA?

TIA!

Use ISTA if you have it available. No evidence Carly does anything.

Carly also now charges a monthly subscription fee to use it… Most ridiculous.

I use an OBDLink MX+ (Bluetooth scanner), that works well.

2021: Carly still trash.

A

I’m getting ready to install a new battery in my car and am trying to decide between the various options for registration that don’t have too steep of a learning curve.

Have any more folks tried BMWlogger and verified it works? Seems too good (and easy) to truly work.

I’m assuming Carly still doesn’t work. Would be nice since I already have the OBD adapter.

Also considering ordering a Foxwell NT510 if it’s a better option.

Any guidance from folks who have successfully registered their own battery?

Idfkman wrote

I’m getting ready to install a new battery in my car and am trying to decide between the various options for registration that don’t have too steep of a learning curve.

Have any more folks tried BMWlogger and verified it works? Seems too good (and easy) to truly work.

I’m assuming Carly still doesn’t work. Would be nice since I already have the OBD adapter.

Also considering ordering a Foxwell NT510 if it’s a better option.

Any guidance from folks who have successfully registered their own battery?

ISTA-d and Carly for me. Probably some way to use INPA but I am not smart enough for that.