Battery Draining overnight

digitron · #1 01-28-2007, 06:05 PM

I have this major situation with my BMW X5 2001. Almost getting sick & tired now!
I left my car parked overnight and through the next day. I tried to start the car in the evening and only got clicking noise. Obviously the battery seemed to be too weak to start the car.
Now I had it jumped with a lot of pain and at last started!
This is a brand new battery from Auto Zone, hardly a month old. I got the 850 CCA battery as per there manual.
Well another thing to note is the weather here in Chicago was very very cold last night. I am not sure if this caused the problem or some electrial system of mine draining the battery.
I only have a radar detector plugged in.
The alternator seems ok, after a few minutes of starting, I am able to start the car back on.
I am thinking of disabling the alarm system to see if this is draining the battery.
Any body have any other suggestion for this.

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xnsf · #2 01-28-2007, 08:43 PM

i had the same problem yesterday...it doesn't seem like anything is hogging all the energy...

i only have a dice, and a nav plugged in.

msammy · #3 01-28-2007, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digitron

I have this major situation with my BMW X5 2001. Almost getting sick & tired now!
I left my car parked overnight and through the next day. I tried to start the car in the evening and only got clicking noise. Obviously the battery seemed to be too weak to start the car.
Now I had it jumped with a lot of pain and at last started!
This is a brand new battery from Auto Zone, hardly a month old. I got the 850 CCA battery as per there manual.
Well another thing to note is the weather here in Chicago was very very cold last night. I am not sure if this caused the problem or some electrial system of mine draining the battery.
I only have a radar detector plugged in.
The alternator seems ok, after a few minutes of starting, I am able to start the car back on.
I am thinking of disabling the alarm system to see if this is draining the battery.
Any body have any other suggestion for this.

I'm having the same problem with my 2002 with 71K miles on it and I'm in the process of troubleshooting the problem. I just replaced the battery with an Autozone battery two weeks ago. Is the orange light on the shift lever base lit constantly? It should go out after 16 minutes when the car goes to "sleep". If it's staying on constantly, then your car is not going to sleep and there is a module or circuit that is pulling current and not letting the car go to sleep. That's the problem and it needs to be diagnosed/fixed or you'll be feeding new batteries into your Bimmer every couple of months.

xnsf · #4 01-28-2007, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msammy

Is the orange light on the shift lever base lit constantly? It should go out after 16 minutes when the car goes to "sleep". If it's staying on constantly, then your car is not going to sleep and there is a module or circuit that is pulling current and not letting the car go to sleep. That's the problem and it needs to be diagnosed/fixed or you'll be feeding new batteries into your Bimmer every couple of months.

Oh really? ...uh-oh...better go check...i thought those lights were always on

xnsf · #5 01-28-2007, 09:00 PM

it's on...but very very dim... the orange indictor dot is on too...but i thought that's always on. the e90 330i i had its light always on too...i think

MiCkEy · #6 01-28-2007, 09:33 PM

There was a recall on the X5 radio draining the battery. Check the archives. Old problem and had been identified. It is not the shift lever LED draining it. I have had the lever LED on since day one (2001 year) and have had the battery replaced last year.

xnsf · #7 01-28-2007, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiCkEy

There was a recall on the X5 radio draining the battery. Check the archives. Old problem and had been identified. It is not the shift lever LED draining it. I have had the lever LED on since day one (2001 year) and have had the battery replaced last year.

so the orange dot is never on?

msammy · #8 01-28-2007, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiCkEy

There was a recall on the X5 radio draining the battery. Check the archives. Old problem and had been identified. It is not the shift lever LED draining it. I have had the lever LED on since day one (2001 year) and have had the battery replaced last year.

I heard about that one, but the symptoms for that problem was the radio was coming on automatically and draining the battery. My radio never comes on by itself. Both my 2007 X3 and 2007 550i go to "sleep" after 16 minutes and the orange shift lever led goes out. Is it possible that on the early X5's the orange shift lever light will always stay on and there is no "sleep" function for them? I'm comparing my 2002 to brand new vechicles may be like apples to oranges (but I like both!).

msammy · #9 01-28-2007, 09:48 PM

xnsf, try unplugging the radar detector just to see if that changes anything...

msammy · #10 01-28-2007, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiCkEy

There was a recall on the X5 radio draining the battery. Check the archives. Old problem and had been identified. It is not the shift lever LED draining it. I have had the lever LED on since day one (2001 year) and have had the battery replaced last year.

Mikey, do you have a link to that recall info? I've searched this entire forum website to no avail as well at the http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov./ website. Only 2 recalls for 2002, brakes & seat belts...

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