Light remain on, battery drain over night

sunnyharrar · #1 03-29-2009, 06:42 AM

I have a 2003 X5 3.0D, and recently I have noticed that if I use the flash beam, main beam , whilst the keys are not in the ignition the light on the car remail on, even after releasing the indicator stick.

All the driving lights on the vehicle come on and stay on including the rear light. As soon as the key is inseeted and turned to position 1 the lights go off and the flasher works normal, I suspect that this is also draining the battery.

Have tried looking for the relay that controls the the lights but cannot seem to find it anywhere, anyone got any ideas where they are or what the issue could be.

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killcrap · #2 03-29-2009, 10:05 AM

thats normal. its call follow me home lighting, consult owners manual

sunnyharrar · #3 03-30-2009, 04:08 AM

Thanks for that, you were right the light go off after about 1 minute, just didin't give it enough time.

Still doesn't explain the flat battery, have changed the heater resistor and still same problem, that seems to be a common issue.

killcrap · #4 03-30-2009, 06:30 AM

2 common draws, final stage unit, which you say you just replaced, and the aux fan in front of the engine. if the battery is original and is more than 4 years old, it could be just a bad battery.

sunnyharrar · #5 03-30-2009, 06:36 AM

Thanks again for you help.. however I have had a new battery on about 6 months ago.

and haven't noticed the auxulary fan going either, I have disconnected the ThermoZ heater connector thinking that that could be the cause of the issue but still the same... doing my head in now and don't really want to take it to a dealer as they are a rip off..

Do you know how I can get the light see me home light to come on when I disarm the alarm, quite a handy feature, if I can get it to work on this.

killcrap · #6 03-30-2009, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnyharrar

Thanks again for you help.. however I have had a new battery on about 6 months ago.

and haven't noticed the auxulary fan going either, I have disconnected the ThermoZ heater connector thinking that that could be the cause of the issue but still the same... doing my head in now and don't really want to take it to a dealer as they are a rip off..

Do you know how I can get the light see me home light to come on when I disarm the alarm, quite a handy feature, if I can get it to work on this.

no dealer can set that feature, it is a feature that maybe set with BMW engineering tool. I will look further into this.

Weasel · #7 03-30-2009, 08:14 AM

The headlights on for 40 seconds when you hit the high beams are the home lights as killcrap said, great for lighting up your driveway for the walk to the house. But the turn signal lights staying on steady is a different kind of safety feature. If you are stopped on the side of the road, you can leave the lights on so other drivers see you on the side of the road and don't hit a dark vehicle. So those stay on and can drain the battery. And there are soo many control modules on BMWs that can stay on or cause frequent wake ups that sometimes a parasitic draw needs to be tracked down by the pros trained on the vehicle with good graphing occiloscopes with low amp clamps. (ie: dealer) The normal draw is 40 miliamps or less after sitting for 16 minutes with the key off. If the battery keeps going flat from sitting short periods of time, you may need to just pay a couple hours labor charge to figure it out.

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