high battery drain again

[bigx5er]

I do have the iPod adapter and had the problem today for the first time. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

[bigx5er]

This happened again to me yesterday. I called my service advisor who is a good guy, he said they wanted to look at it and run some tests.

I'm going to wait for it to happen again and then make an appointment.

[stockguru]

Does anyone use the BMW battery charger when they leave their car sitting for over a week? I often do that since I have multiple cars and only drive a few days a week. My X is new so I'm not sure if this will become an issue yet but it sounds like it might.

[bigd00755]

I have owned my E70 for three months now and I received this message several times. I took it into the dealer this morning to see if they would find anything. It just bothers me that I am receiving warning messages on a brand new car. I’ll post a response with their findings, if any, later tonight.

[bigx5er]

Originally Posted by bigd00755

I have owned my E70 for three months now and I received this message several times. I took it into the dealer this morning to see if they would find anything. It just bothers me that I am receiving warning messages on a brand new car. I’ll post a response with their findings, if any, later tonight.

Please do!

[Aviator]

I have had this too. After two trips to the dealer and car checked out they have come up with nothing yet. Dont get it all the time.

[bigd00755]

Picked up my vehicle from the dealer yesterday evening and here is what they had to say: 'Vehicle is not driven long enough to provide sufficient charging to vehicle. Checked for faults, performed energy diagnosis. Short circuit measurement shows ok, vehicle is driven in the last 35 days: 23 times less than three miles, 86 times less than 12 miles. This is not sufficient enough time to recharge the battery. Customer must drive the vehicle on longer trips, or when the low charge battery warning comes on , charge the vehicle with a trickle charger overnight. Cleared faults and histograms to close current measurement.' What a poor excuse, I must drive my car more to allow it to function properly?? I expect my car to run properly on short or long trips. So basically when I drive my E70 I should take the scenic route anywhere I go and burn more fuel and waste more time! That’s why I put gas in the car- last time I checked, it was not an electric car, I should not have to charge it overnight! Great.

[rh71]

^ as mentioned earlier in this thread, I only got this problem when I started driving more highway miles as opposed to short trips to the train station. Now it may have been a different cause at that point - there doesn't seem to be any commonalities here.

I would agree though that frequent short trips don't allow the alternator to work sufficiently. Have had that problem on my other vehicle in the past. Trickle charger is really the only solution... or get a hybrid... the braking is what creates energy for it.

[Tainui]

I'll share my experience in hopes that those interested may work with their dealers.

My E70 has been in the shop for a quite some time for two issues related to high battery drain.

The first problem required three separate visits for various error messages from high battery drain, ABS failure, stability failure, you name it. Basically it turned out to be corrosion (yes, corrosion in the first 15k miles) due to water leaking into the rear where the wire loom connects to the body. Apparently there was a puddle there with a connection bathing.

Recently the high battery drain message returned and the entire month of November it has been in the shop again. They diagnosed a footwell control module not going to sleep as it was supposed to. They reprogrammed the entire car, updated several BMW patches to software, and the problem persisted. Finally, they replaced the instument cluster this past week. Supposedly since then, everything has been fine and the car has been hibernating as it is supposed to.

I'm due to receive it back finally today.

The sad part for me is that I've owned it for 12 months and more than 2 months it has been at the dealership for repairs.

[bigx5er]

I guess the question is how the X5 measures to display the High Battery Drain error. I wonder what the real trigger is. It could be as simple as measuring the battery voltage while starting the car.

Knowing that may help determine if the error is worth worrying about.