2001 bmw x5 battery light coming on and off

[Townsend]

Replaced battery last week. The battery light has come on and off almost daily before battery replacement and currently. Normally goes off when accelerating but tends to flicker.

Just looking for any ideas before I take it to a shop. If it's the alternator, it's a project I'm not ready to handel. Any chance it could be a loose belt? Any suggestions where to look under the hood in order to gain some perspective.

Thanks

[Zulu95]

Put a voltmeter across the battery terminals and check, with the engine running, for around 13.85 volts. If it drops below 13V you most likely need an alternator.
If you are not comfortable with doing this any Autozone, Advanced Auto, O'Reillys or the like will do a free battery/charging system test.

[ECS Tuning]

Sounds like the alternator. Like ^.

Which Model do you have?


Thanks

Joe

[spacegreyx]

Sounds like altenator, but check the leads on the bettery terminal, make sure they are nice and snug.

[Townsend]

Thanks!

I'm driving a 2000 BMW X5 3.0.

Just tested the battery and it's running right between 14 V and 13.83 V. This was while the battery light was on and the car was running.

Going to go over the leads on the battery terminal right now.

[Townsend]

Checked out both the connections and battery. Both seem to be properly working and installed. Right now my only guess could be that a few days ago I had my drivers side front door taken apart to repair the window regulator. After replacing the broken park ($10.00 worth of parts from BMW that were in stock compared to the quoted $450.00 for a full window regulator replacement) My point is that when I put the door back together there was one small plug with two holes in it. It was connected to a thin wire wrapped in a black (almost bandage) like tape.

I really have no idea what else it could be and would love to figure it out. The battery light burns strong with my key in postion 2. Yah. Just an on and off flicker. Sometimes it comes on for 30 to 40 minutes plus other times it flickers and even at times it simply won't come on at all.

Thanks everyone for the help and if anyone has any ideas i would love to hear them!

[X5Flyboy]

deja vu! Just had mine seize up 2 weeks ago. melted the belt. drained the battery. AAA to tow it to my indy. Enterprise van to get me home. Picked it up the next day. New WATERCOOLED Bosch alternator, belt, and battery $1368.00. Lifetime warranty, but at 62yrs old, I should live so long! The only really good news was that it it broke within 100 miles from home.

indications were a blinking alternator light and the engine "surging" (as the battery drained)

my luck continued as 3 days later I picked up a 1/4"hex bolt (with flat washer!?!) in the one tire that already had a previous encounter with a wood screw. That makes this 15month old tire SOL and needing replacement. Well I was planning to put the snow tires on next month for a trip to Vegas & Idaho. I'm now driving (again) the only car in South Carolina with 4 snow tires.

How's that song go...??? "if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all..."

[Pipes]

My battery light flickers for a few seconds when I first start, then goes away. New battery and voltage is 13.8 while running. Around 11 volts under hood while not running. Any ideas? Thanks.