Dead X5

[Patrick-Irish]

I left the car parked up at the airport for a week, came back to it today and it was absolutely dead. Nothing.

Called the recovery guy and it took a set of jump leads plus two battery packs to start it up.

No idea what caused the drained battery. It's only a few months old, Bosch heavy duty. I thought I made sure all interior and exterior lights were off but something must have done it.

When the guy hooked up the cables, this emergency deactivation thing came up. I had to wait 10 minutes for it to count back to zero before it would start.

[Helmuth]

Did you add somthing to it? Asking because I have mounted a GPS tracker which did the same in about a week.

[Naz24]

have you ever replaced your final stage resistor?

[Patrick-Irish]

I recently changed the front suspension bushings, that's it. The last time I did anything electrical was the new battery and a new ignition switch at the same time, and that was some months ago.

I've never changed the FSR.

Once I get over some jet lag I'll take a look to see if something is drawing power with the ignition off. I seem to remember a thread on here giving a suggested course of action in this regard ... must go find it.

[Naz24]

Originally Posted by Patrick-Irish

I recently changed the front suspension bushings, that's it. The last time I did anything electrical was the new battery and a new ignition switch at the same time, and that was some months ago.

I've never changed the FSR.

Once I get over some jet lag I'll take a look to see if something is drawing power with the ignition off. I seem to remember a thread on here giving a suggested course of action in this regard ... must go find it.

if the FSR has never been changed, i'd bank on that...

[CTSportX5]

Wouldn't you be able to hear the blower going after the car was turned off? I thought that was the indicator of a bad FSR.

[Piston]

You ever have alarm system problems? Your alarm could of went of a 100 times and drained the battery. This just happened to my car.

[JCL]

Patrick-Irish:

You don't need to change the final stage resistor. You don't need to disconnect the alarm or sensors. At least not yet.

What you need to do, as you intimated, is a residual current test, to determine how much load the various accessories in the vehicle are drawing.

The vehicle goes into sleep mode after 20 minutes or so, and the power consumption is greatly reduced at that point. It should be under 50 mA. If any small load is still present that load can prevent the vehicle going into sleep mode. In that case, the total draw can be much higher than just the faulty item, whether it be an FSR, alarm, telephone module, or what have you. Be aware that when you check for the residual current draw, you can't disconnect the battery, as that can reset things and invalidate the test you are doing. You need to keep the battery connected, and a door open to access the battery (with the sensor tripped so that the vehicle doesn't know the door is open).

Some instructions here:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...dies-fast.html

Good luck.

Jeff

[Patrick-Irish]

My car isn't fitted with an alarm so that's easily ruled out

JCL - many thanks for your direction. I couldn't remember the term used but a residual current test will be my first course of action. I'll post back here with the results.

[tonytsai0429]

Originally Posted by JCL

Patrick-Irish:

You don't need to change the final stage resistor. You don't need to disconnect the alarm or sensors. At least not yet.

What you need to do, as you intimated, is a residual current test, to determine how much load the various accessories in the vehicle are drawing.

The vehicle goes into sleep mode after 20 minutes or so, and the power consumption is greatly reduced at that point. It should be under 50 mA. If any small load is still present that load can prevent the vehicle going into sleep mode. In that case, the total draw can be much higher than just the faulty item, whether it be an FSR, alarm, telephone module, or what have you. Be aware that when you check for the residual current draw, you can't disconnect the battery, as that can reset things and invalidate the test you are doing. You need to keep the battery connected, and a door open to access the battery (with the sensor tripped so that the vehicle doesn't know the door is open).

Some instructions here:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...dies-fast.html

Good luck.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

this is very helpful, thanks!

i think my shop was referring to FSR then, will keep reading.

thanks again!