[JohnsonHS]

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I shipped my 2013 328i from the U.S. to Germany and want to replace the battery.
Can someone tell me what specs to care about on amazon.de or other German web sites when I order? It gets cold here so the CCA should be fairly high I think. Since we're dealing with 12V DC it probably doesn't matter where I'm at, but I thought I would include that anyway.
Apologies if this is in the wrong subsection. I'd be happy to repost if needed.

Harry

[Billfitz]

The batteries for the US and German versions are the same. Just match up the specs on the existing battery for Ah, which is probably 90.

[JohnsonHS]

While that sounds good, let me add some more back story. The current battery was installed about 13 months ago. The place that did the work is a gas station and it seems weird that the car had trouble starting when the temperature dropped, got to the point where the car needed to be started every 3 days, and now the car won't even start. I jumped the car with a portable battery jump starter (took several tries), but after letting the car run for 5 minutes, when I turned the car off it was dead again.
I really don't want to go back to the gas station, so my plan was to buy a new battery (maybe the battery that was put in 13 months ago is defective or old) and take it to a reputable place. I'm good spending more to get a really good battery, I just don't know what to look for over here. I've attached a pic I took of the 13 month old battery.

[freakystyly]

The new battery must be registered with the car. It is not as simple as putting in a new one. That would likely explain the short lifespan of the new battery.

These cars have an "intelligent" battery sensor (IBS) that charge the battery a certain way to try to extend their life. If you put a new one in, the car will think it's still on the old one so it overcharges and kills it basically. (it's more complicated than that)

[im_an_alien]

VARTA is an excellent battery...

[Billfitz]

Failure to register a new battery will shorten the battery life, but it won't kill it in 13 months. A more likely explanation for his issues is parasitic power drain. There are plenty of threads here and videos on youtube on that subject. Putting in a new battery won't fix parasitic power drain.

I'm good spending more to get a really good battery, I just don't know what to look for over here.

The same thing. Varta is an OEM supplier of BMW batteries, among many other parts. But you've got to be sure of what's broken before you can fix it. It's probably not the battery.

[JohnsonHS]

I really appreciate the replies. So I have a portable jump starter and was able to jump start the car.

I let it idle for awhile, then drove it around my parking lot. Total time running probably around 15 minutes. I turned off the car and it would not start back up.

When it was colder, about a week ago, when the car was running it was struggling to run and the display screen would keep rebooting.

Today it wasn't that difficult to jump start it, but like I said, it cannot start on its own without a jump.

I saw that when you register the battery you are able to see the specs for the last battery so I thought maybe the shop forgot to register it. I trioed to access the area and I've seen a couple videos that have you pushing the start button without your foot on the pedal (with the car off), then pressing the odometer button. This is not working for me for some reason, and I think its because it seems the battery is getting discharged immediwtely after turning the car off.

I don't know if these are symtoms of the parasitic power drain, or non-registration of the battery. Is it possible that the alternator isn't charging the battery properly? I can probably check that while the car is running with a voltmeter.

Thanks again for all help. A 13 month old battery should not behave like this, so maybe it's not the battery. I'm taking the car back to the shop tomorrow and I think they are going to do some tests.

[RAK92]

Bill recommended this voltmeter. I bought one as well and works great!

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Charg...344204&sr=8-16

[Billfitz]

It takes a lot longer than 15 minutes to charge a dead battery. The alternator is working, otherwise the car wouldn't continue to run after being started. It may or may not be charging the battery, for a number of reasons, including a bad wire or connector.

[pshovest]

^^^^ This is not a battery registration issue.
Put an external charger on the battery for 24 hours or until charging current drops to ~2amp.
The fact that the car runs after you jump says that the alternator is capable of providing enough power to meet the electrical demand. It also supports the suspicion that you've got a parasitic load discharging the battery. You can unlock the hidden menu and monitor system voltage in the instrument cluster. Should be ~14v with a deeply discharge battery.