babyduke

Is there anything I should do or know before replacing my old battery on my '09 ES350?

I'm just being cautious because when I did it for my '05 BMW X5, I could not lock the car with the remote and the interior lights didn't work after I installed a new battery. It's one of those tricks BMW does in order to make the owners to bring the car into the dealer instead of doing it on his own. Luckily my mechanic knew how to reset the car so I didn't have to take it to the dealer.

oldgrump

It is important to read the info in your Owner's Manual in relation to disconnecting/connecting/replacing the battery. I remember something about setting off the car alarm if you are not in the correct "mode".

Tetguy

You will lose all your presets like radio, seat positions, etc. You can prevent this from happening if you buy a dongle which you can get from most auto supply stores which plugs in to the cig lighter., or you can hook up a live 12 volt battery with booster cables to maintain a circuit as you change the battery.

xanderES

iTrader: (8)

You'll lose all your presets on radio, seats, previous destinations, etc. I dont remember anything odd happening when I disconnected the battery multiple times. Just remember to not put the new battery in backwards... I see it all the time in the IS forums

mlacomb

You'll have to reset the pinch protectors on the windows and sunroof too

GCL

iTrader: (1)

Before disconnecting the old battery, press your power seat buttons to establish your settings. Then after installing your new battery, reset your seats to save the original setting

Of course write down your saved radio stations, just in case.

When I changed out my battery, all windows worked. No real drama.

mlacomb

I have an 08 and when I installed a sub + amplifier, I had the battery disconnected for a while to install the positive lead + circuit breaker for the circuit. Upon kicking the battery on and confirming everything was good, the window lights were all blinking (LEDs in the window switches.) If so, do this:

From Driver's seat only, do for each window and sunroof:
1. Press down to open window/sunroof (again, one at a time) and HOLD down for about 10 seconds.
2. Press up to close window/sunroof and HOLD for 10 seconds

If the little LEDs aren't blinking, you're fine and the pinch protectors don't need this "recalibration".

CQRT

That's what I thought would happen too - - but I didn't lose anything - -seat settings, radio stations, etc were all still there and I assumed that there must be some type of short term storage within the car.

Battery was only disconnected about a minute . . . it was odd . . .maybe I was just lucky . . .

mlacomb

Might have been the short amount of time you had it disconnected; nice work! Mine was out for >30 minutes when installing an amplifier and sub, so everything got wiped.

JoeyBall

12 volt battery boost....Great ideasmart.