I don't know about you, but I am not talking about BMWs in general, or all E53s, or even how my particular E53 is supposed to be working. I am talking about how my 2001 3.0i E53 is actually working.

I know that for my car, after 16 minutes, some circuit voltages are killed abruptly and total current draw drops to near zero. I'll consider this sleep. And I know that my orange light never goes out unless the battery is disconnected.

From what I've read (and am therefore less certain about), I am not the only one with an E53 acting like this. I do not doubt at all that on many cars the orange light goes out.

I have enough test equipment and knowledge to know not to worry about this, so I'm posting my experience just in case someone else who does not have the capability to double check things sees these absolute declarations here and believe they must be true.

I generally try to report with certainty about my own car, and with less certain expectations about anything else, based on owners manual, service manual, stories I've heard, etc., usually waiting until I see that nobody else jumps in with good info. And when I do so, I generally try to make clear whether I am reporting on something I have actually done or measured on my own car, or that I read it in the Bentley, or that I have read intertube reports about it. Trying to keep fact from fiction.

__________________
2001 X5 3.0i, 203k miles, AT, owned since 2014