UK E39 529i battery size?

Fitted a new battery a couple of days ago, as typically the cold weather showed the battery to be failing. The listed battery which I bought from my favourite motor factor, was a 95Ah

850 CCA one. Huge thing, and vey heavy. Being so heavy it was quite a struggle to get it in to the boot battery compartment.

The old one seemed a bit feeble for the car. 60Ah 590 CCA, whereas the new seems a bit OTT. Not that I mind. Given the choice I usually go for a heavy duty battery anyway, so no problem there, but it did make me wonder what capacity BMW fit or recommend. The Drivers Handbook doesn't mention the size. Anyone know? Mike.

Reply to
Mike G
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Spot the deliberate mistake. :-) Should be 528i Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

autodata list it as: a 12/85 (55)

so the one you have is a little more powerful than original

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Cheers. I assume the first figures mean 12 volt, 85Ah, but what does the (55) mean? Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

The Lucas battery book shows their 4-year guarantee type 010 as the first choice, or their 3-yr 010 as second. They list them as 650 CCA (SAE), 130 RC, 68Ah and 595, 120, 65 respectively. Note that you can only compare CCA if they're to the same test method - e.g. SAE, DIN, IEC and a couple of ENs.

Reply to
Autolycus

It's an odd physical size and I had trouble finding a replacement. The fixings seem to allow for two sizes - the larger I'd guess for the diesel.

I can't remember the actual capacity I got from a Bosch agent but it was the same as the original and not as large as a 95 A/hr which is pretty massive.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I remembered you saying that when you bought it, but as far as I can see, almost any maintenance free flat top battery with the term posts in the right place will fit. Halfords gave me a choice of 2. A 70Ah and an 85Ah at around £90 and £100 respectively. Halfords own brand are made by Yuasa BTW.

Then I rang the motor factor, who also offered me 2. A 75Ah battery at around £65, or the 95Ah one listed in their book as the correct one at £78. Unknown makes to me, but both with 3 year guarantees. He reckoned he'd sold loads of them, with very few returns, which at that price inc VAT was good enough for me.

The

I don't understand. Two sizes? The battery compartment is about 16" long, so any battery less than the width wide, and not too high for the clamp will just drop in, wont it?

Tell me about it. The battery is only about 2" shorter than the compartment. The longest battery I've ever seen fitted in a car, and is seriously heavy. It was a real struggle to hold it square under the rim of the boot, so it could drop in without jamming. As you know, you can't do a straight lift. In effect you have to lift and lower it under the side of the boot opening. The compartment lid doesn't help either when getting it into a position to lower it into place. I found a piece of wood that just fitted under the first 'step' of the lid, which allowed me to rest the battery without crushing it, but it was still a struggle. Then I had to tie the battery leads up out of the way. The terminals were catching the battery as I was lowering it into position. Then because the battery was so much longer, I had to bend the earth lead back on itself to connect it to the battery. I'm no weakling, but it took all my strength to fit it. I'm sure the car sits lower on that corner now. :-) I just hope the guarantee can be relied on. I wouldn't like to do that job again.:-) Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

You want one with lots of reserve so it can power all the alarm stuff etc while it's sitting. My 740 currently has a cheap 20 quid battery in it and does ok.

Reply to
adder1969

It was the long narrow shape that was the problem. And I tried Halfords as well as my large local motor factor. But it was about 7 years ago when the range was only just coming up to battery replacement time. Mine is an early model ('97) and it was the first replacement - just out of BMW secondhand warranty time. By a couple of days...

Interesting. They are a well respected maker. Halfords used to offer more than one quality. All made by Yuasa? They used to be Lucas for at least one range.

I paid around 70 quid for a Bosch identical in every way to the original BMW labelled one - apart from the label. Even the same grey colour. It's lasted very well. Bet it doesn't start later today. ;-)

The difference - by the fixings - appeared to be in the length.

Right. I'm not exactly Charles Atlas but had no trouble changing mine by the roadside. It had started normally and I stopped at the postbox about a mile from home on a side road on my route to the shops. And was completely dead when I tried to re-start. So much so I suspected a different fault. I've never before known a battery to die so suddenly. Wondered if they had a time bomb set to warranty expiry time. ;-)

Luckily I wasn't working that day so walked home and got the other car and a DVM which showed it to be very dead. Halfords were the closest so went there first, then Cannons in Clapham. No joy so went to Eurocarparts in Merton. They didn't have one but pointed me at the Bosch agent next door.

It was ages ago as there was no resident's parking in that street. None left in the borough like that now.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

My 7 has a clamp on a long stem that can be mounted in different positions depending on the length of the battery and my 3 has a clamp that mounts on top of the battery so both can use pretty much any battery that will fit in the space. My cars tend to sit for a while withough being used so I'm quite familiar with changing them! The long ones do take some grunt to get in and out.

Reply to
adder1969

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