Just to wrap this up and to thank each of you.
The starter battery change went smoothly and I didn't even need to reset the radio using the code as it worked perfectly when switched back on. I only needed to reset the date and time on the fiat system.
So to conclude, my 2016 Fiat Ducato Campervan DIDN'T need the new starter battery to be registered/coded to my van, it was a straight swap.
Thank you all!!!!
Sorry to be coming in a bit late to this one, but for everyone's general interest:-
If a new battery needs to be fitted, most late model cars with Stop/Start technology need to have the new battery "coded" to the car. Stop/Start puts a very different demand on the battery with repeated stop/start cycles and the need to replace the charge being used up. So on late model vehicles the alternator is controlled by a "smart" electronic control unit (computer) which can vary the charge being delivered to the battery to optimize it's charging and performance. This wee control module (computer) needs some quite precise information on the condition of the battery both in terms of state of charge and it's internal condition in general so that it can command the alternator to deliver the appropriate charge rate - some can boost voltage to around 18 volts and well over 100 amps in the right circumstances. They can also vary charging load depending on whether the engine is idling, on overrun or being asked to produce maximum acceleration (regenerative charging is a typical descripor you'll see) They don't simply charge the battery when it needs charging any more. - they're pretty serious bits of kit compared to older cars.
It's the "Battery Condition Monitor" which monitors what the battery is doing and sends this to the wee ECU controlling the alternator. A typical one will be fitted to the negative terminal of the battery and look something like this one, which is the one on my new Skoda:
It's the black thing with the white lettering on it. They differ a bit from make to make, but all look very similar (at least the ones I've seen do).
One of the things it allows the controlling module to do is alter the charge being delivered to the battery as it ages to get the most out of it. The problem is that when you then remove the old battery and fit a new one the system doesn't know it's got a new battery so goes on charging it as if it's the old one. The system will probably have been having to push a higher rate of charge into the old battery as it's plates sulphate with age so it'll just keep on doing this to the new battery to it's detriment if you don't tell it to reset. I've been told, by several professionals I'm friendly with, that if you don't do the reset when fitting the new battery then the new battery will almost certainly fail prematurely. You won't know anything is going on for some time because the stop/start will work fine (stop/start malfunctioning is a "classic" sign of a battery failing) but the battery is in fact being consistently over charged and will fail early due to this abuse. I was told that if the old battery was in pretty poor condition then they've known the new battery to fail in as little as a year or slightly longer - it all depends on how hard the ecu was "driving" the charge to the old battery. Doing the reset takes all the charge rates back to the factory setting so avoids all these problems.
If you don't have Stop/Start and/or the monitor on the negative battery terminal then you can probably say with some certainty, that you don't need to do the reset. Also worth thinking about is that you'll get away with fitting a stop start battery to a car without Stop/Start in fact you may find it beneficial as they are generally higher output units. However don't expect a standard battery to work well on a car fitted with Stop/Start as it's not designed for such rapid charge/discharge duty cycles and will probably fail early if used in circumstances where Stop/Start operates often. So a standard "wet" lead acid battery is Ok in a vehicle without Stop/Start but you'll need an EFB (Enhanced Flooded Battery) or AGM (Advanced Glass Matt) battery for stop start. AGMs are expensive so most "afordable" Stop/Start cars come fitted with EFB. In fact if the battery in your car has EFB - or AGM - on the top of it it's a good indicator that the car has a battery condition monitor and will require a reset if a new battery is fitted,
Don't confuse the monitor with a simple wire junction block like this on our Panda:
The negative terminal is the one on the right and you'll see all those wires? the block they are connected to is just to make it easier to connect all the wires, no battery condition monitor here!
By the way I'm not surprised to hear JandB say that he didn't loose his
radio code. Neither our Panda nor my boy's Punto lost their codes when their batteries were disconnected and I believe this is because Fiats of this sort of age store the code in the body control module. As long as you keep the original radio/entertainment system, then it all reconnects when the battery is reconnected. I'm not quite so sure about very late model vehicles though.
Hope that helped and wasn't too complicated? There's some good stuff on Battery condition monitors if you want to search for it.
