Battery Competely Dead

[magnum1]

Hello
Had a dead battery, it was 6 yrs old, replaced the battery and the new one when dead after not using the X5 for 3 days , charged the new battery and took it to a indy to check, replaced the alternator with a new 140 amp one, didn't drive the car again for 3 days and have a dead battery. Anyone have the same problem?

I am thinking some electronics unit is staying on after the car is shut off?
Thank you
Jim

[magnum1]

Guess no one has had a new battery go dead on them even after a new Alternator was installed?
Thank you

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by magnum1

Guess no one has had a new battery go dead on them even after a new Alternator was installed?
Thank you

actually, yes. Turned out to be the telematic (bluetooth) not going to sleep.

[wpoll]

While not exactly common, a good many folk have had an electrical drain issue on the E53. And it's not necessarily related to the alternator.

What was the diagnosis of the bad alternator based on - just the battery going flat or was the alternator output tested?

Many modules in the E53 can cause an electrical drain - often by keeping the car "awake" and not letting the car drop into "sleep" mode (which should happen 16 minutes after you shut the car down - assuming no further electrically activity occurs).

While it's not a definitive indication of a problem, the orange LED near the gear selector can indicate the sleep state of the car. Does your orange LED near the gear lever go out after a while or does it stay on always?

If it stays on, you *may" have an electrical drain issue and will need to perform electrical drain testing to determine if this is the case and if it is, what module is causing it. Radio, Nav, ULF etc. have all been known to cause battery drain issues.

You can also monitor the battery voltage while the car is running, to check if the alternator output is good. This is done by unlocking the diagnostic menu on the cluster (called the "board computer", BMW Computer or simply BC). There's plenty of instructions on here about how to do this.

[omodos]

Didn't have the exact same issue as you, but got digging a while back to see if i had a parasitic drain (battery was giving me issues after only 2 years), wired up a voltmeter to the battery let the car sleep and it was going to sleep, checked the amp drain that way, and kept on removing fuses to see which one could be causing a drain....turns out for me it was the rear dc socket in the boot...it's disabled now, but there are many posts here about the FSR behind the vents near the air con buttons....sit in the car switch of engine wait for the led on the gear controls to go out....during this time you can here a little fan whizzing...both my led and this humming noise stop after about 15mins....if you can hear that fan spinning for much longer could be the fsr..you will find heaps of posts here about parasitic drain....even aftermarket gps trackers that have gone wrong can cause this drain.....

[StephenVA]

Here is the method to discover what is going on.... Not mine just a reuse without acknowledgement to the author.

BMW Battery Drain Testing
When your car battery goes dead overnight, usually either the battery is at the end of its life span, or you left something on, such as a light. Occasionally something is drawing power that's not of your doing. This is a parasitic draw, and it can cause the same result as leaving the headlights on: a dead battery in the morning.

0. Recharge battery at 30 amps for 15 mins. Read battery voltage. Over 12.7? Proceed to step 1. Don't have a 30 amp tester? Charge at lesser rates over night. Ready battery at posts. Over 12.7V? Proceed to step 1.

1. Remove the negative side battery cable from the negative battery terminal.
2. Connect the black wire to the com input on the multimeter and the red wire to the 10A or 20A input on the multimeter. The meter needs to be able to read at least a 2 or 3 amps for this test to work. Connecting the red wire to the mA input on the multimeter won't work and could damage the meter.
3. Attach a multimeter (set the dial on the multimeter to measure Amps as per multimeter instructions) between the negative cable and the negative battery post. Wait a few seconds to several minutes for the car to go into sleep mode - i.e. when you make the contact with the ammeter, the cars computer systems "wake up". After a bit of time they will go back to "sleep".
4. If the ammeter is reading over 25-50 milliamps, something is using too much battery power.
5. Go to the fuse panel(s) and remove fuses, one at a time. Pull the main fuses (higher amp ratings) last. Perform the same steps for relays found in the fuse panel. Sometimes relay contacts can fail to release causing a drain. Be sure to observe the ammeter after pulling each fuse or relay.
6. Watch for the ammeter to drop to acceptable drain. The fuse that reduces the drain is the draw. Consult the owners' manual or service manual to find what circuits are on that fuse.
7. Check each device (circuit) on that fuse. Stop each lamp, heater, etc. to find the drain.
8. Repeat steps 1 & 2 to test your repair. The ammeter will tell you the exact numbers.

Helpful?

[Overboost]

2 of the errors causing parasitic drains on my X5 were first the final stage resistor and then the telematics module causing the X5 to not stay in sleep mode. If your X5 is an post 2002 automatic transmission just look in the window and make sure the light next to park is out. If it is on the system is awake. If your interior AC fan is not acting strangly them try pulling fuse 74 in the rear hatch area and see if it is your telematics module. When mine went bad I had a small light on my business radio indicating "no service". There are a few threads here dealing with this.

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...elematics+fuse

[omodos]

Originally Posted by StephenVA

Here is the method to discover what is going on.... Not mine just a reuse without acknowledgement to the author.

BMW Battery Drain Testing
When your car battery goes dead overnight, usually either the battery is at the end of its life span, or you left something on, such as a light. Occasionally something is drawing power that's not of your doing. This is a parasitic draw, and it can cause the same result as leaving the headlights on: a dead battery in the morning.

0. Recharge battery at 30 amps for 15 mins. Read battery voltage. Over 12.7? Proceed to step 1. Don't have a 30 amp tester? Charge at lesser rates over night. Ready battery at posts. Over 12.7V? Proceed to step 1.

1. Remove the negative side battery cable from the negative battery terminal.
2. Connect the black wire to the com input on the multimeter and the red wire to the 10A or 20A input on the multimeter. The meter needs to be able to read at least a 2 or 3 amps for this test to work. Connecting the red wire to the mA input on the multimeter won't work and could damage the meter.
3. Attach a multimeter (set the dial on the multimeter to measure Amps as per multimeter instructions) between the negative cable and the negative battery post. Wait a few seconds to several minutes for the car to go into sleep mode - i.e. when you make the contact with the ammeter, the cars computer systems "wake up". After a bit of time they will go back to "sleep".
4. If the ammeter is reading over 25-50 milliamps, something is using too much battery power.
5. Go to the fuse panel(s) and remove fuses, one at a time. Pull the main fuses (higher amp ratings) last. Perform the same steps for relays found in the fuse panel. Sometimes relay contacts can fail to release causing a drain. Be sure to observe the ammeter after pulling each fuse or relay.
6. Watch for the ammeter to drop to acceptable drain. The fuse that reduces the drain is the draw. Consult the owners' manual or service manual to find what circuits are on that fuse.
7. Check each device (circuit) on that fuse. Stop each lamp, heater, etc. to find the drain.
8. Repeat steps 1 & 2 to test your repair. The ammeter will tell you the exact numbers.

Helpful?

one point , point 3 After a bit of time they will go back to "sleep".

In my case and think in the case of most is 15mins or so

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by Overboost

2 of the errors causing parasitic drains on my X5 were first the final stage resistor and then the telematics module causing the X5 to not stay in sleep mode. If your X5 is an post 2002 automatic transmission just look in the window and make sure the light next to park is out. If it is on the system is awake. If your interior AC fan is not acting strangly them try pulling fuse 74 in the rear hatch area and see if it is your telematics module. When mine went bad I had a small light on my business radio indicating "no service". There are a few threads here dealing with this.

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...elematics+fuse

It was the telematic in my case.

[magnum1]

Originally Posted by wpoll

While not exactly common, a good many folk have had an electrical drain issue on the E53. And it's not necessarily related to the alternator.

What was the diagnosis of the bad alternator based on - just the battery going flat or was the alternator output tested?

Many modules in the E53 can cause an electrical drain - often by keeping the car "awake" and not letting the car drop into "sleep" mode (which should happen 16 minutes after you shut the car down - assuming no further electrically activity occurs).

While it's not a definitive indication of a problem, the orange LED near the gear selector can indicate the sleep state of the car. Does your orange LED near the gear lever go out after a while or does it stay on always?

If it stays on, you *may" have an electrical drain issue and will need to perform electrical drain testing to determine if this is the case and if it is, what module is causing it. Radio, Nav, ULF etc. have all been known to cause battery drain issues.

You can also monitor the battery voltage while the car is running, to check if the alternator output is good. This is done by unlocking the diagnostic menu on the cluster (called the "board computer", BMW Computer or simply BC). There's plenty of instructions on here about how to do this.

Wpoll,

The Indy said the old alternator was putting out 13 volts and should be around 13.8