Car Battery replacement information that could be of use

[Gus]

Monday my battery failed in my car. It lasted about 7.5years.

I do a web search for any work I do on my car and found out that starting 2011 ford installs a battery monitor system (BMS).

The following is what Ithink is happening from reading car forums and doing web searches.

There is what I guess is a HALL effect circuit mounted on the negative terminal clamp to measure DC current.

It does a number of things

one is it tracks the days of service and changes the charging over the life of the battery

SO
When you replace it it needs to  reset to days of use to the beginning.
Problem is you need to go to a dealer or have a more expensive scan tool to reset it yourself

I know the 2007 BMW X3 has a battery system that you reset with a replacement.

I guess it works I have not had a flooded cell battery last 7.5 years before

Posting this because maybe this is not something that is common knowledge and maybe other cars have some type of battery monitor system that needs to be reset

I did not expect to need reset settings when changing a battery on a 2012 ford.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I suspect I've shared this before, but my neighbor's, son's, daughter's BMW, had one of those too smart for its own good battery systems. A should be  simple battery replacement turned into a dead car that had to be trucked to a dealer and returned probably a thousand dollars later, without a straight answer of what they fixed (I suspect they just swapped out expensive modules until it worked).

My low tech 20YO car started to be sluggish starting on cold mornings before the 3 year battery warranty but battery tested good, just incompletely charged. My weekly driving pattern is all of about 16 miles, once a week (8 miles each way mostly modest RPM interstate miles).

I opined that I just wasn't driving far enough or often enough and bought a smart battery charger to keep it fresh. 

Another tidbit about batteries there are only a handful of companies in the US making batteries so don't over pay for marketing claims from premium brands. At best they can offer a better warranty for same basic product (which can add some value).

JR