Parasitic Battery Drain e53

[X5chemist]

Nice. I have a Fuse Buddy I keep in my electronics bag. Wow, the GMIII module eliminates a lot body control functions. Do a voltage drop across the spare tire trunk fuses. I don't know how many rear fuses would be eliminated with the GM module disconnected. I think the DME is the biggest wired module left after the GM.

[g300d]

I'm in the same boat with my 04 3.0i.

I thought I'd licked my drain issue when I removed the fuse powering the audio amp (had a speaker humming with radio off).

But this morning after 4 days the X wouldnt start.

Read through the entire thread and learned a lot from everyone's posts. I hope to have enough time to begin troubleshooting soon.

I did peek inside if the window lock and shifter lights shut off and they did, so it looks like the X is going to sleep.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

My advice is to first get the battery tested. Batteries that had a drain problem could be damaged, as was in my case. I thought my battery was new, less than 5000km on it. Well it was dead and didn't hold a charge.
Then just measure what's your amp draw once the vehicle goes to sleep.
Once you now the draw, you can start either pulling fuses or doing voltage drop test to identify where the drain is.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

I got the fuse buddy tester and I found it completely useless.
All the fuses that have the draw, F12, F25, F86, they all show 0


And this is also why I don't like the voltage drop test. Voltage drop on the multimeter shows 0 as well...this could make for a super frustrating experience, if I had not previously connected the DMM in line with battery cable, so I know 100% which fuses dropped the draw when I pulled them.

[g300d]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

My advice is to first get the battery tested. Batteries that had a drain problem could be damaged, as was in my case. I thought my battery was new, less than 5000km on it. Well it was dead and didn't hold a charge.
Then just measure what's your amp draw once the vehicle goes to sleep.
Once you now the draw, you can start either pulling fuses or doing voltage drop test to identify where the drain is.

Thanks for the advice! I actually had just replaced the battery to start off with a clean slate, then found it dead the other day. So it should be good to go? Will still get it checked to be sure though.

After jumping the X and using it for the day, I checked battery voltage on the OBC 6 hours after shutoff and it was at 12.2v. 10 hours after that voltage was at 11.8v.

I took a short drive with it and voltage was 12.5v at shutoff. Will check again after 24 hours.

[g300d]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

I got the fuse buddy tester and I found it completely useless.
All the fuses that have the draw, F12, F25, F86, they all show 0


And this is also why I don't like the voltage drop test. Voltage drop on the multimeter shows 0 as well...this could make for a super frustrating experience, if I had not previously connected the DMM in line with battery cable, so I know 100% which fuses dropped the draw when I pulled them.

Appreciate your sharing in detail your procedures and what worked and didnt for you. That and the other posts in this thread really helped me understand what to look for and how to find it!

I dont have the time to tear into it yet so I am just going to be using the X a bit more to keep the battery charged. Just observing voltages running and over various periods of time for now while I find time for a thorough check up.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Originally Posted by g300d

Thanks for the advice! I actually had just replaced the battery to start off with a clean slate, then found it dead the other day. So it should be good to go? Will still get it checked to be sure though.

After jumping the X and using it for the day, I checked battery voltage on the OBC 6 hours after shutoff and it was at 12.2v. 10 hours after that voltage was at 11.8v.

I took a short drive with it and voltage was 12.5v at shutoff. Will check again after 24 hours.

My dude you're gonna kill your battery real fast this way.
Is it acid or agm? Agm can take a bit more abuse, but don't let them drop below 12v for sure.
Your battery drains waaaay too fast based on your timelines. Pop the spare tire and connect the multimeter and pull some fuses, the sooner the better
You have a decent draw somewhere, that's for sure.

jeep trailhawk 0 60

[g300d]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

My dude you're gonna kill your battery real fast this way.
Is it acid or agm? Agm can take a bit more abuse, but don't let them drop below 12v for sure.
Your battery drains waaaay too fast based on your timelines. Pop the spare tire and connect the multimeter and pull some fuses, the sooner the better
You have a decent draw somewhere, that's for sure.

jeep trailhawk 0 60

Well, crap. That chart does frame how bad it is. Those readings were from a new lead acid battery btw.

I will be popping the hatch and get on to testing this weekend.

One thing I remember from this morning, both times I started the car the AC came on when I get to ignition position 2. The thing is, before switching the car off I always turn off the climate control by powering down the blower till the ac panel display switches off.

Now I am ashamed to admit I never noticed if this is a feature or a bug of the X despite having them for a few years. I switch off the AC in all my cars before turning them off and usually they stay off when I start them again.

Just got to thinking about this when I saw in this thread that the AC blower FSR is a possible (and common) cause for parasitic draw.

[andrewwynn]

FSU aka far aka hedgehog is the leading cause of parasitic drain I've replaced a few of them. It'll probably be warm overnight you could just put your hand on to confirm.

[FocusArmy]

It was my instrument cluster creating to much of a drain to allow sleep mode so I've been pulling 5A fuse 43 to preserve my battery for now. Haven't traced fault yet but starting to suspect it might be related to the right kick panel LCM. Reason being I'm getting side light warning (even though they're fine) and tail light issue. Rear OS tail light has no voltage (black/blue wire) while other side is fine!!