MikeyE430

My car was built in November, 2009. It has 31K miles on it. Today, my battery went dead, had to replace. I know all the technology and electronic gimmickery sucks the life out of batteries, but this seems extreme. Would like to hear of any other E63 owners and their battery tales.

lunarx

I changed my 2010 battery to a much better Odyssey PC1350.
My original battery was still good, according to the dealer who suposedly load tested it.

I mostly changed it because;

AGM sealed batteries are far better (than lead acid), outlast the cars I put them in and are completly corrosion free. (The ultimate are lithium but they are $$$$.)

I wanted the biggest battery I could fit. Our original batteries are one size smaller [Group 48], than what our battery tray was designed to hold [Group 49] .

I needed to disprove my dealers diagnosis that my airmatic problem was caused by low voltage conditions (compressor got changed later).

I am surprized your battery died early considering your car obviously gets driven regularly.
The dealer should have warrantied it or at least pro-rated it for you.

otakki

I remember your post from a few months back. It's a good post to keep in mind for my future reference.

Battery shouldn't die that early. Indeed, it should still be under warranty or at least pro-rated for reimbursement. This car really is an electrical hog. So much that when it put it on my BatteryMinder whenever I'm not heading out for the weekend, it will not even start condition the battery until the following morning (BatteryMinder will default to first charging it completely before conditioning). For my other back-up car's (nearly 20 years old) battery, the BatteryMinder shifts into conditioning mode within a few hours at the most.

I recommend everyone to get a BatteryMinder or BatteryTender to help prolong the battery life. I leave my back-up car's battery on it in my garage, and I'm confident that even after not driving it for over a year, the car will start immediately once I turn the key.

By the way, does anyone know how to turn off the trunk and those footwell lights besides unscrewing the bulbs? Those sucks out mega power as well because when they are on for a short while, the BatteryTender moves from conditioning back to charging.

How much does those Varta oem batteries cost?

lunarx

You might try switching the foot well and trunk to LED lamps to reduce that draw.

OEM Varta cost?
Free, for my still good 2010 one, to anybody local ; )

otakki

LED lamps--now that's a good idea.

I mean what's the oem battery's retail price? Did they put in another Varta, or something else? Heck, I look on Varta's website (looks like they are under Johnson Control, which is probably the largest battery maker) and there is no retail location in the USA.