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What is the thinking of BMW engineers?!

BMW has been putting the battery in the trunk since at least the E30 :dunno
 
Miata has battery in trunk
 
lefty said:
My coworker told me this story;
His Wife drives a newer Mercedes Benz (he drives a Honda Civic). Her battery died. He went and bought a new battery for around $250, and he was annoyed by THAT price!!! Well, he installed the battery and still no start. He ended up having the car towed to the Mercedes dealership where they replaced the Primary Battery (that's located in the trunk) for $1,300!!! The battery in the front is only for the Accessories!!!
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Something doesn't seem right with that, as most of the newer mercedes I've seen the primary is in the front, will AUX is in the back. AUX is for the eco-start system when the car powers down at lights. The SUV primary battery is under the passenger seat IIRC. Something else might have been wrong, as $1300 is out of whack, even for Mercedes.

Mercedes usually use an AGM battery which is a lot more expensive, but can be purchased for around $150-175 at Pep Boys or costco; $250 at the stealership. If the AUX battery was dead, it would say AUX battery dead on the dash screen. AUX batteries are usually around $40-75, they are typically just motorcycles sized batteries.

But yeah, my Volvo battery is in the rear cargo with terminals in the engine bay.
 
mikev said:
thank god there's a thread for this.
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I've had a Volvo wagon with the battery in the rear for around a year now. I've had to jump it once, which resulted in me taking the battery cover off to get to it.

Thanks to this thread I know about the jump contacts under the hood. I appreciate this thread for that.
 
RTFM is the best answer in this thread. manual lost? To the Googles!
 
I think the thinking of German engineers (not just BMW ones) is calculative!

TheRobSJ said:
Batteries in the trunk is nothing new. Been seeing that for many years now. Some of the logic is weight balancing, but it’s mostly packaging. The weight angle is sort of not worth it when you factor in running a long battery cable(s) the length of the car.
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I know at least one example where they simply didn't have space in the engine bay any longer

but for the E series BMW I always thought it was for weight distribution. if one recalls E series were all a bit smaller BUT with a six-engine (if optioned) so maybe they did run out of space a bit

Glad for the miata, too actually..
 
Bay Arean said:
I think those Chrysler 500s, the ones that sort of look like some kind of weird mob-car-taxi-hybrid had them in the back. A lady at work had one and needed a jump or was offering one, I don't remember. I just remember being surprised about it. But how would being in the trunk be any hotter than near an engine (referring to earlier post).
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They put the battery in the trunk because it's cooler than the engine bay. :thumbup
 
mean dad said:
They put the battery in the trunk because it's cooler than the engine bay. :thumbup
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There are some battery chemistries that really suffer in cold weather, like LiPoly. But Lead acid isn't one of them, AFAIK. I know of some arctic photographers that pack their spare batteries with handwarmers so they aren't discharged when they need them.
 
DesiDucati said:
I went to give my friend a jumpstart for his BMW SUV. We spent over 30 minutes looking for the battery. Then his little 10 year old brother used google and showed us on his iPhone a diagram of the battery located IN THE BACK OF THE SUV. Wow! Big wow! I guess the German engineers have a weird sense of humor.

Yes, we are both engineers and we both feel really stupid not looking it up online earlier.
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My Dodge has the battery in the Trunk. :dunno
 
mean dad said:
They put the battery in the trunk because it's cooler than the engine bay. :thumbup
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This is supposed to particulary helpful for AGM batteries. Though our Mercedes AGM battery is still in the front, it's in a separate compartment, covered with a fan blower.
 
R3DS!X said:
Miata has battery in trunk
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Oddly, the new one does not it seems.

I bought my 1994 Miata new and it has the battery back there.

I still own it and have replaced the battery exactly twice in 26 years.
 
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Why do that when you can just start a thread on BARF about it?
 
I like that an engineer posted publicly that it took two of them half an hour to locate a car battery. :laughing
 
We would have taken longer if it wasn’t for Rushil, a 10 year old using google. We feel so stupid laughing about this and thanking him! Little kids are very smart these days!
 
Pushrod said:
Moto-dude card now on probation. And begs the question; which engineering discipline are you admitting to?
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2legs2wheels said:
Lol...obviously not the type of engineers who has to read a manual :twofinger
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DucatiHoney said:
I like that an engineer posted publicly that it took two of them half an hour to locate a car battery. :laughing
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I'm betting software engineer. That's why he's not used to reading a manual - there's never any friggin documentation (with rare exceptions like at Google where it's rarer to NOT have extensive, thorough documentation for everything).
 
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