E70 Major Electrical Fault - Has anyone experienced this ?

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by 70Sixter

I'm too big, maybe a small child or woman. The hinged rear floor moves up at the very rear making access from the back seat very difficult at best.

The owner's manual says you can manually release the rear hatch from the inside without battery power using a screwdriver (Page 33 of the 2008 manual). I don't know if it works if you have the power tailgate.

So if you have inside access and a screwdriver, you should be able to crawl back there and open the rear hatch for access to the tool kit under the floor.

[FunfDreisig]

Originally Posted by Penguin

...
So if you have inside access and a screwdriver, you should be able to crawl back there and open the rear hatch for access to the tool kit under the floor.

Of course, the screw driver provided by BMW is IN the tool kit under the floor. So now we know of two tools in the BMW "tool kit" that should NOT be stored under the cargo bay floor, unless of course you don't actually need them

FWIW BMW had this tool kit thing down right decades ago, when they put the tool kit in a place were it was accessible even when your cargo area (AKA trunk) was completely full and all you had was a physical key. The tool kit for our late 70's 530i is stored in a molded plastic drop down tray on the underside of the trunk lid. But that was pre Biff & Buffy. The design and engineering talent that was previously lavished on the tool kit, is now consumed making sure that Biff can figure out how to open the protective cover and that Buffy doesn't break a nail pressing the BMW Assist button

Funf Dreisig

[Barcius]

Got the car back from the stealer today. Here is what they found and said in the invoice:

CUSTOMER STATES VEH IS DEAD AND WILL NOT START CAUSE:
INTERROGATING FAULT MEMORY IN DIAGNOSING SYSTEM
PERFORM BATTERY ENERGY DIAGNOSIS
CHECKING BATTERY WITH TESTER
REPLACE BATTERY/REGISTERED BATTERY
WARR USED ISID TO CHECK FAULTS
RAN THOUGH THE ENERGY DIAG TEST PLAN AND CAR SAYS THE KEY WAS LEFT ON TOO LONG
CHECK THE BATTERY TO BE BAD
REPLACED THE BATTERY AND CLEARED FAULTS
MIDTRONICS WARRANTY CODE: B8E10-S4KF7

Taking to the service advisor he said it is a very common issue with 2007 and 2008 (built before October 2008) X5s and X6s. He said every other week he gets X5s and X6s in the shop with the same issue. According to him the original battery was too weak for the car and the new batteries being installed seemed to correct the issue. He said BMW knows about the issue, but has chosen not to recall these vehicles.

I wonder how much money BMW has saved by used a cheap battery in a $70K car and not announcing a recall... Is it saving dollars more important than their customers leaving and coming back home safe??? BMW shame on you...

I will write a letter to BMW this week. I will keep you guys posted.

[70Sixter]

Originally Posted by Penguin

The owner's manual says you can manually release the rear hatch from the inside without battery power using a screwdriver (Page 33 of the 2008 manual).

My other problem was I couldn't get to the manual 'cuz the glovebox locked itself also. Even my tiny Boxster trunks have emergency releases!

BMW Assist knew none of the info several of you posters have thoughtfully provided.

And naive me, I thought the service people they called might have to know some of it to qualify. But the second tow truck driver was veeerry familiar with towing X5s. "Yeah, I tow 'em all the time."

By the way, I promised pin to pin info on relay failure. Sorry, there wasn't much more except Pin #1 to Pin #2 in the fan cut-out relay had no power.