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When you install a new main battery in these cars, you need to tell the car it has a new battery. It has something to do with voltage memory or something along those lines, and the car won’t fully charge the battery. I read about this recently when I asked about batteries on this forum a couple months ago. Went and bought a Diehard to replace my OEM from 2014. I didn’t pair it with the car (didn’t know how). Then I took it in for new plugs and an oil leak repair about a month ago, and their scan equipment picked up on low voltage readings that didn’t make sense given the obvious new battery. They programmed the car to recognize a new battery was present, and the low voltage errors all went away. I also noticed the car seemed to crank better. Mine sits for several weeks at a time, untouched in the garage. Never a problem until recently when I knew it was time to replace the original battery via the radio not stating on for more than 2 seconds while the car was off.
call an indi to program the car for the new battery, or maybe YouTube has something that can show you via comand system mode? It is Exhibit A for German over-engineering...
If this programming is necessary, then one of the MB techs here can (maybe) teach us how, please?
What happens when you call the 800 number at MB to have them bring a battery to you? What does the tech do to pair it to the car? Has anyone watched?
I have heard this about the facelift W212s for a while but nothing ever concrete. However, it is a known thing with the Porsche Macan we have. We recently replaced the battery in it and it was a few days before we registered the new battery with the scanner. It did seem to make a difference in how hard the car charged the battery, but it didn't make any difference on how it behaved otherwise. Even the auto stop/start began working with the new battery before it was registered. It's my understanding from the Porsche forums that the only thing that will happen if you fail to register it at all is that it may shorten the battery life but should do no harm to the car.
I would like to know if it is really necessary in the W212.
i didn’t think much of it. Did a search and went down a rabbit hole or two before giving up. But I can tell you without doubt, my mechanic picked it up very quickly with their scan tools last month, and whatever they did to reset the car for the new battery, made a difference. I could hear it instantly in how the starter sounded when hitting the button. Before the reset, it sounded just like it did before the new battery. After the reset, it sounds much stronger and the car fires up instantly instead of one or two revolutions it seems.
Interesting. When we purchased our 2016, the eco stop/start would not work and the dealer diagnosed that as the main battery and replaced it. I assume if it needed to be registered, they did that then. ItalianJoe is certainly someone on this forum that I would consider an expert.
Lil - that reminds me as well, on mine I notice the start/stop was not really to green status very quickly with the old battery. When I put in the new battery, it still didn’t go green very fast. Then when they reset the car for the new battery, it started turning green very quickly and has remained doing that ever since. So there is certainly something there about telling the car it has a new battery....
The 2016 models don't have that indicator anymore to tell you when the system is ready or not. I know what you're talking about because the C350 I had worked that where, where "ECO" would be yellow if it was not ready and turn green when it was.
On the 2016s, the car shuts off and the green eco appears. Or it doesn't shut off and nothing appears. There's no way to tell "readiness" anymore.
i didn’t think much of it. Did a search and went down a rabbit hole or two before giving up. But I can tell you without doubt, my mechanic picked it up very quickly with their scan tools last month, and whatever they did to reset the car for the new battery, made a difference. I could hear it instantly in how the starter sounded when hitting the button. Before the reset, it sounded just like it did before the new battery. After the reset, it sounds much stronger and the car fires up instantly instead of one or two revolutions it seems.
The attachment from the other post is now attached here.
i didn’t think much of it. Did a search and went down a rabbit hole or two before giving up. But I can tell you without doubt, my mechanic picked it up very quickly with their scan tools last month, and whatever they did to reset the car for the new battery, made a difference. I could hear it instantly in how the starter sounded when hitting the button. Before the reset, it sounded just like it did before the new battery. After the reset, it sounds much stronger and the car fires up instantly instead of one or two revolutions it seems.
The attachment from the other post is now attached here.
Sunnyslope48, thank you very much for that PDF. Based on speed reading that, here is what I plan to do: Turn the lights off of Auto as I pull into the garage (because they will turn on), NOT turn the car off - instead I will leave the driver's door open and let it idle for a bit = Mechanic mode = Max Alt output to battery...
And here I always wondered why my AGM battery maintainer would start at 25% the next morning after the car had been driven just the day before... They make money selling us batteries, well and a lot more... But if we love the cars? We should do our best for them...
Sunnyslope48, thank you very much for that PDF. Based on speed reading that, here is what I plan to do: Turn the lights off of Auto as I pull into the garage (because they will turn on), NOT turn the car off - instead I will leave the driver's door open and let it idle for a bit = Mechanic mode = Max Alt output to battery...
And here I always wondered why my AGM battery maintainer would start at 25% the next morning after the car had been driven just the day before... They make money selling us batteries, well and a lot more... But if we love the cars? We should do our best for them...
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Do you not drive the car regularly? A regularly driven W212 shouldn't have any issue.
I’ve seen similar behavior on our 2011 E350. Whenever I randomly check the battery voltage... it’s lower than one on a non-“smart charging” system.
Looking at the install/removal procedure in WiS for our 2011, it does not make any mention of coding required. This may be applicable to latter years. I know on “newer” BMWs it must be done otherwise the system will not charge the new battery correctly. The system accounts for loss of capacity as the battery is used and alters the charging profile.
Based on the Energy Management Function posted by nc211, this "smart charging" scheme is at at least applicable back to June 2010, with a slight change to charge profile based on temp at June 2012, and up to Feb 2013. MY 14 vehicles function based on: GF54.10-P-1060FLM attached.
Last edited by bmwpowere36m3; Dec 26, 2020 at 09:53 AM.
Do you not drive the car regularly? A regularly driven W212 shouldn't have any issue.
No we don't drive it regularly, as in weekly even... We replaced the battery when the dealer said to - never had a starting issue or any sign of a weakened battery - I will verify the current battery is actually weak before I do that again (battery was exactly 5 years old, so my bet is MB said to replace it based on time)...
No we don't drive it regularly, as in weekly even... We replaced the battery when the dealer said to - never had a starting issue or any sign of a weakened battery - I will verify the current battery is actually weak before I do that again (battery was exactly 5 years old, so my bet is MB said to replace it based on time)...
I'm 3 years into my third battery on a 2010 built in Oct. 2009. The first two died on me at about four years. This one wouldn't start the car this time last year, but I don't drive it that much. About 2,500 miles in a normal year, but only 1,000 this year. I do drive it for 20-30 minutes continuously once per week to "charge" the battery.
Don't know if mine has "smart charging" or not.
I have a 2015 with the original battery (stamped 04/15) and I think it's on it's way out as I've had a couple of short term electrical gremlins that were solved with charging and/or disconnecting the battery for several minutes. That and the ECO start/stop function hasn't worked in at least a year. I just checked the voltage was at 12.05. 6 years for a battery seems OK to me and fairly typical in my experience in northern New England (having previously owned VWs, Hondas, and Toyotas).
I connected my freshly updated iCarsoft MB V2.0 and cannot find any battery reset function, even though it is listed as a feature (BMS-Battery Management System). I found a video on how to reset the BMS on a Porsche using an iCarsoft scanner but no such feature seems to exist on my unit. I'd be interested to hear if anyone finds this feature with their scanner.
I have a 2015 with the original battery (stamped 04/15) and I think it's on it's way out as I've had a couple of short term electrical gremlins that were solved with charging and/or disconnecting the battery for several minutes. That and the ECO start/stop function hasn't worked in at least a year. I just checked the voltage was at 12.05. 6 years for a battery seems OK to me and fairly typical in my experience in northern New England (having previously owned VWs, Hondas, and Toyotas).
I connected my freshly updated iCarsoft MB V2.0 and cannot find any battery reset function, even though it is listed as a feature (BMS-Battery Management System). I found a video on how to reset the BMS on a Porsche using an iCarsoft scanner but no such feature seems to exist on my unit. I'd be interested to hear if anyone finds this feature with their scanner.
We purchased an Autel MD808Pro scanner to register the battery replacement in our Macan. The iCarsoft will not do this on a Macan (in case you were wondering.. lol).
BMS was also listed on this under the Mercedes program on the Autel, but no dice. It just says not supported.
Lil - that reminds me as well, on mine I notice the start/stop was not really to green status very quickly with the old battery. When I put in the new battery, it still didn’t go green very fast. Then when they reset the car for the new battery, it started turning green very quickly and has remained doing that ever since. So there is certainly something there about telling the car it has a new battery....
My battery is almost 4 years old. The "ECO" stays yellow for about 1 minute after starting the car.
Today l received a charger from Taobao, is charging the battery now, will see if the "ECO" can go green immediately when l drive my car tomorrow.
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