Yesterday I had a dashboard warning for 'Replace battery in remote key'. Today I tried with Mrs S's key and got the same message. Is this a time related message - the car is now 6 years old? - Or is it generated by low voltage in the key itself? Seems strange that they both give the warning seeing as Mrs S's key is used much less than mine. New batteries are available on eBay for around £3.99 for a pair - or should I just let the local dealership replace them at the next service? I'm going to be booking it in for a service (oil-change, oil-filter, fuel-filter, air-filter, cabin filter) in the next few weeks anyway. Is a battery change included in the BMW 'Vehicle Check' ? I suspect they would charge me a lot more that changing the batteries myself.
when l sold the 6GT the second remote was flat and would not work at all so l popped the cover off and the battery was a Panasonic CR-2032 l had a pack of 12 that l had bought off amazon for £5.00 delivered because that is what the kitchen scales use popped one of those in and it worked fine personally l would just change the two of them now
I would just replace both. We have two BMWs neither of which are 6 years old and have both have needed new batteries even on the unused spare keys ? We did have an issue with the XI that flashed up it could not detect the key fob, so i changed the battery, despite trying various makes the problem persisted. Called at the dealer who suggested BMW recommended Varta batteries, and to try those, i was sceptical but with Varta batteries the warning disappeared ? I now have a supply of Varta batteries at home for the car keys and various other makes for the house alarm which uses the same size battery
Agree, dead easy and cheap to do. Just make sure you take the old out and replace straight away with new.
Just check what type of battery is in your key fob some use a CR2450 Lithium, easy to buy even screwfix sell them... BMW ones will just be rebranded vartas or panasonic and cost 5 times as much
I changed the batteries in both my Porsche keys and Porsche Tracker fobs myself and no issues with coding or any kind of errors. Cost a couple of quid for each, so wouldn’t be inclined to go down the dealer route.
Thanks for all the comments / advice. After checking on the 'BMW Driver's App' it seems that I need CR 2450 batteries - that's the bigger 25mm diameter 5mm thick coin style - not the more common CR 2032. Halfords have them in a 2-pack for the princely sum of £5.00 Might even be cheaper with my Halfords TradeCard. Changing them seems pretty easy too if the youtube videos are correct.
l did mine in seconds so yes very easy and two for £5.00 is not bad. not as good as 12 for £5.00 but still not to bad
After reading this post, it spurred me on to replacing the battery in my F30 key fob. My fob was still working perfectly on the original battery - now 6 years old. I already had some new CR 2450's in the glove box. I just hope that it will last as long as the original Varta.
I would have expected there to be a Varta battery in mine - built late 2015. Especially as Varta was for many years owned by the same family - the Quandts - as have the major shareholding in BMW - so there was a 'special relationship'. But I was surprised to find that they are both Sony.
Just replaced both of mine as one showed battery low on the dash yesterday, replaced with Panasonic, and incidentally that is what I took out
