The X5 is still at the dealer being checked out. I have no idea what caused the power failure. I had the car washed at the dealer on Saturday, drove it home (about a 5 minutes drive) and parked it in my driveway. I did not touch it or move it the rest of the day until I went to retrieve something about 12 hours later and found it in that state.

The dealer made me aware of an issue with something called a "PEDAL MODULE" that controls all power and accessories and just about everything else. If this module fails, it causes a power failure such as the one I experienced. I understand that there is a replacement part for it and my X5 was tested and everything looks ok in that area. Apparently, they have replaced this module on a few X5's already.

Initial review of the error codes by service however indicate that the ignition was suppossedly left on for over 95 minutes and effectively drained the battery. But I am at a loss how this could be, because I powered everything down and locked the vehicle. It has comfort access. I made sure the ignition was off before exiting the car! I was not playing the CD as I was listening to Satelite Radio on my way home.

The dealer wanted to trickle charge the battery over night to full power and let it sit over nite and then see what happens. When I get it back hopefully by the end of the day or early tomorrow I will find out more about the cause.

Because this Pedal Module can cause this kind of failure, it makes sense to have a game plan.

But frankly I

Thanks for the info on the rear hatch, I will have to read it in the manual just to be aware of it. I may just have to relocate the manual out of the glove box to where I can reach it in an emergency for just such nuggets of information!