Comfort Access (CA) comments and battery voltage question

[JCtx]

Hi gang. My car is getting close to 2 years (and 3K miles) old, and decided to replace the batteries since I don't know if dash alerts us CA owners of low battery or not (does it?).

First comment: both remote batteries had the same voltage (3.00 and 3.01), when I always use just remote 1. That means no matter which remote you use, apparently batteries go down at the same rate. Interesting.

Second comment: left remote 2 without battery for hours, wanting to see if settings were erased, and they were not . So no need to hurry when replacing batteries folks.

Now the battery question. The new ones had exactly 3.20 volts (old ones 3.00 and 3.01, as previously stated). Does anybody know until what voltage do remotes keep working properly??? Maybe they still had a few months of life left. Just curious. Thanks.

[kenwelch]

Using a voltmeter without a load will not give you reliable test results. This is from the Energizer website:

"5. How can I test batteries to see if they’re still good? ↑
A battery tester (loaded voltmeter) is a simple and effective way to determine if a battery is “good” or “bad”. Most testers place an appropriate load on the batteries and then read the voltage. A voltmeter without a load can give very misleading information and is not recommended for this purpose. Note that testers are typically not capable of providing
reliable run time estimates."

For more information:

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/non-rechargeable_FAQ.pdf

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Hi gang. My car is getting close to 2 years (and 3K miles) old, and decided to replace the batteries since I don't know if dash alerts us CA owners of low battery or not (does it?).

Yes it does. My 335i key has been low for months, and almost every time I get in the car it gives me the key+battery icon on the dash. Still works fine though, and I've been too lazy to replace it.

[dhoggm3]

Just got my CA battery replaced free by the dealer under the 3-year fix-it-for-free warranty. Easy.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Yes it does. My 335i key has been low for months, and almost every time I get in the car it gives me the key+battery icon on the dash. Still works fine though, and I've been too lazy to replace it.

Good to know; thanks . Don't remember the manual mentioning anything, but I guess it's safe to assume if 135s have the feature, so do M3s. Won't change the batteries again until I get the warning then.

And yes, I know load-testing is best, but there's an equivalent static voltage we can measure when we get the low battery indication. Just curious what it is. Probably from 2.5 to 2.75??? I'll know in a few years when I get the warning . Thanks for all the replies .

[pmeloche]

You have 3K miles on your car after two years.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by pmeloche

You have 3K miles on your car after two years.

Car is almost 2 years old, but I bought it new in June of last year, so 7+ months. It's been sitting in my garage for 1-1/2 months waiting to be fixed after my accident (thankfully in my garage), so it'd have 4K+ by now if I hadn't crashed. I plan to put about 3 to 4K a year on it (more if I ever find ultra-high-performance all-season tires in stock sizes). Take care.

[Trier Germany]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Car is almost 2 years old, but I bought it new in June of last year, so 7+ months. It's been sitting in my garage for 1-1/2 months waiting to be fixed after my accident (thankfully in my garage), so it'd have 4K+ by now if I hadn't crashed. I plan to put about 3 to 4K a year on it (more if I ever find ultra-high-performance all-season tires in stock sizes). Take care.

That seems like extremely low milage? Mine was delivered Apr 15th 2009 and I put 22,000 Km's on it from Apr-October. I don't drive it in the winter.