Sirius presets and iDrive issues

[slowlanemcvane]

Well, to be perfectly fair, the rain sensing wipers failed a long time ago, and I had forgotten to post about it.

So, what's the best way for me to troubleshoot the charging system on this car?

Thanks for taking the time to work me through this, if I came across as somewhat snarky before, that was not my intent. I just reread my post, and realized that it may have come across with more "tone" than I had intended.

[jfoj]

You can use the Hidden OBC Menu, http://www.scoopz.com/m5board/E60_Hi...structions.pdf

Proper charging Voltage is typically between 13.5-14.5 Volts.

Also you can use a Voltmeter as well, but best to leave this on the vehicle for a long time.

Something like this may also be helpful - http://www.amazon.com/Temperature-Mu...arette+lighter

[slowlanemcvane]

Thanks for the Scoopz link. I used the OBC menu to learn the following:

1) Pre-ignition voltage of my battery was 12.1 VDC
2) At idle, immediately upon starting, voltage fluctuated between 13.8-14.1 VDC
3) Off-idle, running at 30-35 MPH with accessories off (headlights, radio, climate control), voltage was fairly stable around 14.2 VDC, with some transients to 14.1 to as high as 14.4 VDC.
4) With climate control and headlights on, I saw an average voltage of 13.8 VDC. Climate control only, 13.9-14.0 VDC.
5) With all electronics running as well as they can, discounting the lack of draw from my malfunctioning iDrive, the average during my 5-mile roundtrip was right around 13.8 VDC.
6) Upon parking the car and turning the engine off, VDC started at 12.8, then trickled to 12.2 before seemingly stabilizing there.

As an unschooled mechanic, to me this sounds normal, and that my charging system is functioning well enough to run my electronics and simultaneously charge my battery. What surprised me was the draw required to run my climate control system, and this explains why the high output alternator is required to run the 4-zone CC system.

[jfoj]

Charging seems to be OK, but battery may be low.

Using the Hidden OBC Menu is sometimes hard to judge due the the load on the battery while the ignition is on.

Fully charged battery should have surface Voltage of 12.6 Volts.

12.1 Volts is very low, BUT you have internal Voltage drop within the vehicle that can color results a bit AND to have the OBC running, you have a big load on the battery.

I have no checked mine via the OBC, but anything below 12.3 Volts has me a bit worried.

If the vehicle is used for a lot of short drives with a lot of stops and starts, this can be hard on the battery and low cranking Voltage can cause havoc on the modules in the car.

Best to get the battery fully charged and tested.

Buy a battery charger, EVERYONE needs at least one good one.

Do not just get a battery maintainer, these do not have enough current to really charge a battery.

These are nice chargers -

http://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2310-P...W2T0VR46GRDG1A

http://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2320-P...W2T0VR46GRDG1A

http://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2520-P...s=SOLAR+PL2520

[slowlanemcvane]

I have a charger that I bought a few years ago, it's a dual voltage, dual amperage model that allows for 2A and 6A charging.

My wife is the primary driver of the car, and she routinely makes 5-mile jaunts in the car with the lights on, climate control blasting, and the radio bumping. So, basically, I should probably keep the battery on a charge at all times? I'm okay with that, if needed.

It just seems strange to me that these issues haven't been a problem since I bought the car, and only manifested after I came back from a vacation where the car sat for almost two weeks. She makes the same sort of short-duration trips now that she did months ago, and I've never had electrical problems (other than replacing the OE alternator and battery last summer) that caused systems to fail until just now.

It sounds like I should be looking into picking up a decent multimeter so I can measure voltage at the battery, rather than looking at OBC indications for surface voltage. And maybe tomorrow, I will take the battery to Autozone and have them run a test on it for me.

Thanks again for helping me to work through this.

[jfoj]

Put your charger on the battery overnight.

Sounds like a 2-6 Amp charger is fine. Put it on 6 Amps, if it is an older school charger with the Amp meter, most start out around 3-4 Amps and as the battery comes up to fully charged it drops down around 1 Amp or less.

Sounds like the type of driving is probably not great on the battery charge status. I usually put the charger on a lot of my vehicles about once a month as a maintenance process. Not sure you need to keep the battery on charge all the time, but monthly overnight is not a bad idea.

The problem with the parts stores testing the battery, they use capacitive/resistive testers which are pretty good, but the people using the testers often do not bother to tell you the battery is "good", but needs a good charge. They just tell you the battery is "good".

Since the vehicle sat for a few weeks, if the battery was low to begin with, the starter draw may drop the cranking Voltage to the point that the iDrive drops out and has a hard time recovering.

You do not need a very complex multi meter, however, this is a decent meter at a good price at the moment with free shipping. It has Max & Min hold which is very helpful can can be used for the car or around the house - Power Probe (PPRPPDMM)

[slowlanemcvane]

So I'm still having problems. I disconnected the battery from the car, put it on the charger overnight last night, and took a voltage reading on it this morning from a multimeter. It read 13.3 volts at the posts. I took it to Autozone this morning, as well, and they confirmed 13.28 volts, indicated a good battery.

So I came home, put the battery back in the car, started it, and got the obligatory 4WD/AWD/DSC fault from the loss of power to the steering angle sensor. I cleared that with the lock to lock wheel sweep.

IDrive is still acting funky, it continuously freezes on me. It seems to still have the Sirius presets that I set up a couple of days ago still stored in memory, but the darn thing froze three times while I was attempting to set the date and time. I rebooted it with the eject-eject-mute combo a bunch of times, but it never stays unfrozen, and sometimes blacks out and returns to the BMW screen 2-3 times before finally playing music.

Seems that I've pretty much ruled out the car's battery and charging system. Am I looking at a failed CCC or something at this point?

[jfoj]

You cannot tell the battery condition directly by the surface or terminal Voltage. 13.2-13.3 Volts is actually too high. Either there was a big surface charge or the battery may be bad with a bad cell.

Did anyone put a tester on the battery?

Did you put a Volt meter on the battery and turn the headlights on for 2 minutes and see where the terminal Voltage ended up.

The battery may be fine, but nothing posted has convinced me that it has been properly tested and passed.

Also put a Voltmeter on the battery with a Min Hold while the engine is started and see what the minimum Voltage ends up being during cranking.

You may well also have an iDrive problem. Cannot recall if the CCC has a hard drive like the CIC systems. Might be the drive is going if there is one?

[slowlanemcvane]

I tested terminal voltage per your suggestion, readout on my miltimeter showed 12.62 volts after running the headlights for two minutes. I started the car with the multimeter attached, and got a low voltage indication of 10.71 volts. Car starts without hesitation, there are none of the usual indications of a weak battery, from my experiences with older cars (slow cranking, dim headlights or interior lights, battery lights on the dash.)

I appreciate your guidance, and I thank you for teaching me a few things about testing automotive batteries.

[jfoj]

Those numbers sound pretty good, albeit a bit higher than I would expect. Not sure if the meter is not highly accurate or of the battery just holds one hell of a surface charge.

Would have expected the terminal Voltage to drop closer to 12.2 Volts after 2 minutes, but also the Min on cranking sounds good.

I never researched the CCC very much in depth as to how the memory is stored in the system, I do know the CIC has a hard drive.

I plan on upgrading my system to a CIC system soon and will also swap the hard drive out for a SSD drive as well.