Dead battery, a matter of time....

[X-cellent]

Well you're all right and wrong. Apparently the car told them I had opened the door too many times without starting the car this weekend!!!! So hmmm...Saturday I washed it, I guess opening the doors to vacuum the interior out was too much for it (I hope Phil has a charger in his place when he details these!).

Now, my keys stay far away (can't handle the car locking and unlocking a hundred times while i wash it (comfort access), and it's locked everywhere and every night (otherwise this would be someone posting about the POS car he stole having a dead battery!!!) cause I've read about this great event too many times on here not to keep it locked up.

They put it on a charger and flushed my brake fluid (2 years old now)....all is fine, no idiot charges for me this round, just a warning.

I agree with deutsch, I did not spend $75k to have to put my car on a charger every night, or at all. This car gets driven everyday and in the past two weeks has done more than it's share of long hauls (more than 100 miles each day at mixed speeds of highway and city).

My A8 had as much electro-wizardry as this truck, my Range Rover had almost as much, my Porsche sat for months at a time (I could never drive it in the rain, the undercarriage might have gotten dirty!!), and they NEVER let me down for battery issues.

I love my X5 and plan on putting my order in for an X5M in a few months. I have probably seen the High Battery discharge warning twice in the life of the vehicle (and not for at least six months) so we'll chalk this up to hopefully just one bad time.

While i realize the vehicle has SOOOOOO much electronic stuff in it, on average most people drive 12k-15k per year, so that's 32 to 41 miles per day (and according to BMW probably not enough for this truck) and to have a vehicle that requires you to have to put it on a battery tender is absurd. Fine, if it was a 66' GTO that never goes anywhere OK, or 599 that I will only drive on the sunniest of days, I guess, but my daily driver..no way....

rant over, fingers crossed...just too many people on this board with the same troubles not to think it's an inherent design issue.

[London Lad]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Sorry, I wasn't responding specifically to your post, I was just making a comment in general about preventative measures for the "too many short trips" syndrome. If the battery is truly getting a cumulative current deficit due to short trips, eventually leading to a dead battery, I would start with once a week on a battery tender and only put it on more often if the battery discharge message popped-up again.

What you say is very true -- if a battery ever gets run-down, one should not depend on the vehicle system to fully-charge it back up. One should put it on a battery charger, as you say.

[motordavid]

Just as a humorous aside, a poster on B'Fest was told by his dlr that Airport "Interference" was killing his batt!
The BMW dlr "advisers" must be using a Magic 8 Ball for "answers"/excuses for the fairly common dead batt issue.

Flat Battery Again!! - bimmerfest - BMW Forums

[rh71]

Originally Posted by Craig

my new Lexus GX 460 arrived at the dealer today

Lexus makes very comfortable cars with good technology, and their service is one of the tops in the industry... but you could've at least gotten a nicer looking SUV.

[ChuckG]

Originally Posted by rh71

Lexus makes very comfortable cars with good technology, and their service is one of the tops in the industry... but you could've at least gotten a nicer looking SUV.

But they weren't smart enough to put software in the computer to make braking over ride the throttle in case of a runaway. It would be a very easy software fix. BMW has had that since 2005 I believe.

Four people here died in a Lexus which went as fast as 120 mph before it crashed.

You won't ever catch me in a Lexus.

Chuck

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by ChuckG

But they weren't smart enough to put software in the computer to make braking over ride the throttle in case of a runaway. It would be a very easy software fix. BMW has had that since 2005 I believe.

Four people here died in a Lexus which went as fast as 120 mph before it crashed.

You won't ever catch me in a Lexus.

Chuck

Chuck

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article739808.ece

[ChuckG]

Penguin,

I know what to do but I can not be sure if I was in a Lexus with someone else driving that they would and I might not have time to give instructions.

In a BMW you would not even have to think if this happened as the software would react to the situation for you.

Chuck

[Penguin]

My point is that all of these companies make mistakes, and it's silly to say you would not ride in a Lexus due to this recall, e.g., if you total the accidents and deaths, I suspect you have a better chance of being hit by lightening or by a vehicle while crossing the street, than injured due to the Toyota/Lexus throttle problem.

Someday BMW may have a similar problem. In the past couple of years, BMW Motorcycles have had leaking fuel lines, and the recent BMW MOA motorcycle club magazine had an article, with photos, of a new BMW motorcycle that caught file while being ridden and burnt to toast on the side of the road.

That said, I would never buy a Lexus, but not because of any safety issues or fear of riding in it. And I can understand why someone else might prefer a Lexus to an BMW.

P.S.

Thousands of BMW Motorcycles Recalled

[jaaX3]

OP: how often do you drive the car? And for how many miles at a time? Frequent, short commutes are hell on batteries.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by jaaX3

OP: how often do you drive the car? And for how many miles at a time? Frequent, short commutes are hell on batteries.

You are correct, but my personal experience makes me sometimes wonder how, with all this technology, we seem to be going backwards in some areas of functionality. I have a 1992 Ford Explorer with 198,000 miles on it. I use it exclusively to drive one mile to a coffee shop every morning, M-F, and back. A round trip of 2 miles five days a week. I have been doing this all Winter long, and I have no battery problems whatsoever, even starting it when the temperature was a bit below zero.

I also spent $1,200 to get the comfort seats on my X5, and I find the bottom seat bolsters to be too narrow for my apparently big behind. So I went to adjust the bolsters, and found they were non-adjustable. Heck, my old Explorer has power adjustable sat bottom bolsters, making my 18 year old Ford seats more comfortable than BMW's latest and greatest $1,200 "top of the line" seats.

Looks like I'm going to have to buy a small foam cushion for the driver's seat for long trips.