07 4.8 alternator died and possible battery replacement

[neliconcept]

Hey guys,

I did some research on this and searched the forums but not sure I know what to gather from what I read. So last night my car decided to go full armageddon on me and showed all of the problems that happen when your battery gets on low charge. Long story short, the dealer is replacing my alt with the 3rd party warranty that I have but is "recommending" me to get a new battery at about 460 bucks. I think the battery should be ok, it's a year old and I have asked for a battery test report but have yet to hear back from my SA.

Do places like pepboys and autozone have the skills to change out batteries on our cars or should I stick with the dealer? It's more about an issue for me because I work a long ways away and they don't have a loaner for me to use tonight and I had to borrow a friends car. Just trying to figure out my options as I have not owned a newer model BMW before (past is an 88 535i)

Thanks in advance!!

[Poppyboy]

Pepboys and Autozone may carry a compatable battery, but it needs to be "registered" to your car, which they don't/can't do. Some people have argued on this forum that you don't need to register a new battery, but not doing so may negatively impact the battery life. OBD II coders like Carly (recently discussed in this forum) have battery registration capabilities. If your battery is only a year old, was it installed at the dealership? If so, I would inquire about a warranty replacement. If they balk at that, see if a technician can provide justification for the battery replacement (other than the fact that a weakened alternator didn't keep it fully charged). I would recommend locating a capable independent BMW mechanic, since the dealership, IMO, is only good for factory/CPO warranty work and a massive ripoff otherwise. With a 3rd party warranty company, you will be fighting tooth and nail over 1. agreed hourly rate and 2. any large repairs, which will likely require them to come out to "inspect" aka find a reason to deny or reduce coverage. That's why it's a good idea to have a capable Indy shop-for the out of pocket expenses. My Indy shop, former dealership mechanics, charges exactly half the amount of dealerships.

[neliconcept]

Well I just got the car back and the battery registered fine (as far as being good or bad) So I just drove it home, the alternator was bad as well as the tensioner and belt so all good from my end. Thanks for the heads up on those two guys as far as registration is concerned. I'll look into getting an OBDII scanner and look into Carly (I saw the thread but have not read it entirely)

As far as my warranty, they agreed to everything and I have a 100 dollar deductible. So I was a bit afraid about them denying something but wasn't too bad! Problem with the indy shops here are they are not even open on the weekends and it creates an issue for me as far as getting to them after work.

Thank you though!

[Poppyboy]

No problem at all. FWIW, I purchased the Carly Gen II adapter and app a few weeks ago. With it, I enabled the mirror folding when fob lock/unlock, disabled the "I Agree" warning at startup, enabled the close tailgate with both the console button and fob, and enabled the digital speedo. Cool stuff.