battery or alternator issue?

[powers1]

Originally Posted by omodos

Powers 1 thanks for the feedback,.appreciate it
Amp draw tests on fuses at rear eh? I have a digital voltmeter , so excuse my ignorance do I need to poke the voltmeter terminals….into the actual ‘holes’ the fuse connector sits in to test if there is a reading between then 2?
Could I do it this way? for example keep car in sleep mode and have voltmeter connected to the jump start terminals up front, and then start removing and replacing fuses like that? Will the Volts being displayed go up for example if I hit the fuse responsible for the draining? So anything over 1 is bad, but I thought that all batteries even if the car is in sleep mode drain naturally so I will see a reading over 0v?
Got no nav but will check the pone, as for cd changer I couldn’t find one it just said cd player, pulled the fuse and alas it disabled the radio too…no good, so wil lpull the power out of the 6cd chager if possible...dont use it



WEBASTO yes could be even though I can’t hear it whirring could I have a drain?, tell ya what the cable that was connected to this was severed when I go the car so I repaired it.. can’t say why this was cut, the webasto does work,I heard it fire up a few times when temps were real cold….but very very rare for temps to hit the lows they did… I will pull the plugs off it, and reconnect only when temps get cold…webasto only kicks in when temps are pretty low…got the manual somewhere will check.

PS Also read below online dunno if it applies ? either way I hear no whirring in the cabin when i trun off the vehicle whereas when i first bought car i could hear from the dash the whirring....

My advice to all E53 owners this winter - check your FSR for signs of failure..........

1. Start car move it in gear then to park/neutral.
2. Switch off engine and remove key.
3. Press key fob lock button twice in rapid succession to to initiate system shut down & to deactivate alarm.
3. Wait, (16 mins or so), until amber lamp on auto shift &/or green light on child locks extinquish.
4. Then listen for fan noise presence - if present pull fuse 48 to see if fan noise stops.
5. If interior fan still running prior to fuse pull then chances are you have a bad FSR.

Hi Omodos,
In all fault finding ,always do a step at a time and the guys here are giving you good advice
Back to your question and I will explain.Yes, you put both voltmeter terminals on the actual open holes on top of fuse the and check for a reading.If theres any reading ,then its drawing amps !Just make sure that your voltmeter has an amp function,where you will need to remove the red terminal from Volts to Amps and also select Amps on dial.
This is what we do here!Open upper boot door,engage the lock latch (you will the boot lights go out),wait for car to go into sleep mode,(led goes out on gear lever) and now you are ready to check the fuses in the boot.For the fuses in the glove box and to see if fan is fauty ,just leave right door open slightly and wait for car to into sleep mode.
Some photos to help you and keep us posted..Now going to help Smokey via Pm with his "knock " problem ,which we hope is injector!

[omodos]

GREAT pic,thanks for the reply, got the amp setting on my multimeter...good man will give em all a try tomorrow and report back....only setting on my meter is for 10a but I guess should register anything below that

[omodos]

Powers1 hi, I let the X5 sleep and I used the multimeter on every fuse i could see after having it set at 10a (which is the only setting),all showed 0, question though, when waking the car up and also after its started should i not have got some sort of reading using the amp setting? I got zero...could i have 'blown' it after putting in whilst the car was started against the fuse show in your pic rate 30amp?

jeez its driving me nuts, other thing is I can see 3 cables for the webasto will post soon...and one was damaged....so will fix reconnect and see how things go.....

Las thing my voltage reading is not a steady 14.3 anymore when the car is started it fluctuates between 14.35 and 14.36v so hope i have not caused any damage now after fiddling with fuses....