Battery Log Form Procedures

A battery log form and binder have been developed to assist in tracking the battery maintenance of the vehicles at dealerships. The form is 2-sided which allows the use of a 4-week charging cycle or a 3-month cycle for those vehicles that have the main switch installed and "turned off".

The form will be put in the glove box of each vehicle and the charging cycle windshield label will be installed at the VPC. When the vehicle arrives at the dealership, the form should be completed in the first section (A) which lists basic vehicle information; and the dealer stock # entered on top.

The form has 3 charging cycles that can be used depending on the location of the car at the dealer (showroom display or storage), and the use of the main disconnect switch.

For storage vehicles that do not have the main disconnect switch installed and in the "off' position, Section B should be used. These vehicles follow a 4-week charging cycle, indicated by the windshield label color (white, red, green or yellow). This section of the form has 4 columns with the 4 individual colors and dates of the weeks when the vehicle must be recharged. The windshield label color indicates the column to be used for the charging cycle. The voltage should be checked and noted before charging and the form initialed after charging has been completed.

Section C has been designed for the showroom vehicles and all the vehicles in a "display area. Any of these vehicles with a high rate of activity (i.e., customer demonstrations, etc.) should have the battery voltage monitored daily and if battery voltage drops below 12.5V, must be recharged and entered on the log form. As a minimum, each vehicle must be monitored once per week.

Note:
For those dealers who have established their own working battery maintenance procedure which falls within the BMW guidelines, Section C can be used to track the charging of those vehicles.

Any storage vehicle moved to a display area then follows the daily/weekly monitoring cycle and should be tracked using Section C of the form.

Section D should be used by those dealers who use the main disconnect switch (installed and turned OFF) to extend their battery maintenance requirements. These vehicles will follow the previous 3- month charging calendar. The columns on the form are identified by the colors white, red and green of the 3-month charging calendar designating the months the vehicles are to be charged. The windshield labels can also be used to track these vehicles with the exception of the 4th color, yellow. Therefore, the colored windshield labels will be available to reassign a vehicle (with a yellow charging cycle) to another cycle of the 3-month calendar, if necessary.

To facilitate the use of the forms and vehicle monitoring, a BATTERY CHARGE LOG binder was developed with 5 separators to file the maintenance forms by charging cycle. Four of the separators come in the colors of the charging cycles and the 5th separator will be marked SHOWROOM. As each form is received along with a new vehicle, it should then be filed in the binder in the appropriate section for easier tracking.

Each form should remain in the binder until the vehicle is sold, at which point it should be moved to the vehicle history file.

* On the 8 Series, the batteries must be load tested individually by isolating each battery; i.e., by disconnecting the negative battery terminal.

^ Before performing load test make sure temperature of electrolyte is at least 65° F.

^ New batteries should not be load tested after initial filling of electrolyte. Check state of charge with a voltmeter.

To ensure the battery remains fully charged, start the engine before demonstrating the operations of components to the customer at the time of delivery.

Please note that the procedures outlined above are meant to be guidelines to assist dealerships in assuring a sufficient state of charge of vehicle batteries at all times. Following these procedures, however, will not guarantee a sufficient state of charge on all batteries since there may be exceptional cases of excessive current draw through very frequent movement of back lot vehicles, for example, which may call for more frequent recharging than otherwise necessary.

WARNING:
Under no circumstances should a vehicle equipped with a battery disconnect switch be sold or delivered to a customer.

It a vehicle is used as a demonstrator, the battery disconnect switch must be removed.

Under those circumstances where the battery disconnect switch is not removed, extreme caution must be taken not to turn off the battery disconnect switch while driving (for example, when moving the car on the lot).