09 R56S - Battery committed suicide today, no warning, won’t start car, fully charged to 13.2 the dome lights pulse & attempt to crank brings it to it’s 9v knees. No negative terminal doodad that would necessitate programming.

The Confusion- Car has 61 21 7 571 896 OE battery in it from 8/13. This battery measures 8.1” x 5.5” x 7.5” with the width (5.5”) being the critical dimension as the flange fits into cradle/hook behind battey & the clamp screws down on the front of case with very little tolerance fore/aft.

Everything I read says a Group 47 (H5) fits car BUT those batteries are listed between 6.75” - 7” wide, the length & height are fine to fit in car but I don’t see any way that width can fit.

I am a fan of Odyssey Batteries & would like to put a PC1200 (6.7” width) in the car but don’t want to order one if it won’t fit. My second choice was to be an Interstate MT-47/H5 (7”width) which I can get locally but again don’t want to order one & have a no fit. Bringing up third place is to just order OE from dealer which isn’t really that traumatic.

Can anyone shed light on this or maybe have overcome it or am I just over thinking/overmatched by a simple battery replacement?!?

 

I was able to install a group 48 (H6) with no issue.

 

Thx Ed. So my confusion came from measuring the top of the battery with the cowl cover on & not realizing there was a step in the battery case. I pulled the cowl cover & was connecting power to the leads so I wouldn’t worry about any memory loss, saw the step in the upper case & just chuckled out loud. Base is indeed appx 7” as I borrowed a 47 & a 48 battery to check fit - no problem. A new Interstate MTP-48/H6 resides comfortably in it’s place despite being close to twice the size of the BMW/Mini battery it replaced.

Again thanks for the reply as it really helped.