Dead battery, a matter of time....

[AzNMpower32]

BMW Roadside Assist is rubbish. It took forever for the tow company to get authorisation to tow the vehicle. I helped out dad by waiting/dealing with the towing company but that means I waited (wasted) 3,5 hours because some bureaucrats couldn't get it together.

I had an appointment at 3 which I barely made. I didn't even go to the dealer; simply helped get the 3-ton lump onto the tow truck and told him to drop it off at the dealership. Called the SA, told him to deal with the flat battery and tell me when its fixed.

Technically his X5 doesn't qualify as a lemon.......yet. We're confused as to why a $60k X5 has worse reliability than a 3er or a X3 (which is still on its first battery, knock on wood)

[bracoX5d]

I had been getting the excessive battery discharge warning for a few weeks, at my last regular service I mentioned it to my SA. They did some sort of a diagnostic and determined it was not able to hold charge correctly, so they replaced it. This was couple of months back, so far no issues with new battery. We'll see if it starts to happen again...

[briandwlee]

Originally Posted by bracoX5d

... They did some sort of a diagnostic and determined it was not able to hold charge correctly, so they replaced it. ...

So, can service dept check the health of battery by some sort of a diagnostic? I should talk to them then. Last winter, car just didn't start with a blink. Before warranty expire, I might talk to SA to replace my battery.

[AzNMpower32]

Got a call this morning from the SA, who said they ran the diagnostic overnight and determined that the cause was "the parking lights were left on"

What a load of BS.

My dad completely lost it on the phone this morning and is going to speak with the manager, as he repeated that he did not do anything as such, and I don't think he would. More than likely a fault with the system- any help on this?

We're not going to pay $600 for a new battery. If this means hiring a lawyer, so be it.

[X-cellent]

Got mine back late yesterday..new battery was installed..we'll see how it goes for the next 4 months (lease ends in April).

[3Series]

"Got a call this morning from the SA, who said they ran the diagnostic overnight and determined that the cause was "the parking lights were left on""

My theory on this is that the battery is weak and doesn't charge to 100%, but it charges high enough to not be "defective" or "dead".

So, if you leave your car door open for literally 5mintues, it will drain the battery enough where you will have problems and the car will say "parking lights left on". Unfortunately, I don't think it tells you how long they were left on.


The E60 forums has an actual PDF of the Energy Diagonostic procedure and the possible results that the tech reads.

"So, can service dept check the health of battery by some sort of a diagnostic? I should talk to them then. Last winter, car just didn't start with a blink. Before warranty expire, I might talk to SA to replace my battery."

Yes, but I bet they won't. They will run an Energy Diagnostic on the entire car. It will say if Comfort Access is draining your battery, the car isn't going into sleep mode or you don't drive enough to recharge the battery.

You can check the health of a battery yourself using a volt meter seeing how much voltage the battery if putting out when cold and also when the car is running with all the accessories on.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by briandwlee

So, can service dept check the health of battery by some sort of a diagnostic? I should talk to them then. Last winter, car just didn't start with a blink. Before warranty expire, I might talk to SA to replace my battery.

Yes, any auto parts store or battery store can load test your battery. Even the dealer can load test your battery...

Craig

[bracoX5d]

This was listed on my service statement...

6120502 (Tech 1478, $270.15)
Desc: PERFORMING BATTERY ENERGY DIAGNOSIS

[AzNMpower32]

Originally Posted by 3Series

"Got a call this morning from the SA, who said they ran the diagnostic overnight and determined that the cause was "the parking lights were left on""

My theory on this is that the battery is weak and doesn't charge to 100%, but it charges high enough to not be "defective" or "dead".

So, if you leave your car door open for literally 5mintues, it will drain the battery enough where you will have problems and the car will say "parking lights left on". Unfortunately, I don't think it tells you how long they were left on.

So if the battery was weak, what would bring it down to that low voltage in the first place? The vehicle was driven on the highway as part of his commute on Mon-Tue-Weds and his commute isn't short-distance. He's the kind of person that probably didn't even switch on the heated seats or any other strong-draw equipment.

I imagine that he arrived at work, got his rucksack out of the passenger seat, got out of the car, and locked it. Simple as that.

The vehicle is a lease, less than 8 months old with about 8k miles on the clock.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by AzNMpower32

So if the battery was weak, what would bring it down to that low voltage in the first place? The vehicle was driven on the highway as part of his commute on Mon-Tue-Weds and his commute isn't short-distance. He's the kind of person that probably didn't even switch on the heated seats or any other strong-draw equipment.

I imagine that he arrived at work, got his rucksack out of the passenger seat, got out of the car, and locked it. Simple as that.

The vehicle is a lease, less than 8 months old with about 8k miles on the clock.

BMW has a know problem and, in typical BMW fashion, they are denying it and blaming it on the customer. Eventually they will fix it, but they are a stubborn bunch most of the time.

Case in point. BMW motorcycles were having the same problem of inadequate charging resulting in dead batteries in the early 1990's. BMW NA took exactly the same approach, i.e., you are not riding at high enough engine RPM, too many short trips, etc. It got to the point that they were giving a free BMW battery charger with every new BMW. BMW never admitted they had a problem/flaw, but somehow it disappeared.

Well, oddly enough, after about three years of this, they stopped giving the free battery chargers and nobody was having problems with dead batteries any more! I guess it was just magic that suddenly the battery problems disappeared.

Either the BMW charging system is flawed, the batteries are flawed, or there are flaws that cause excessive battery load when the vehicle is shut-down. It is absolutely ridiculous to even suggest that a vehicle with a 250+ HP engine cannot be designed to generate enough electricity to recharge a battery in a vehicle on short trips. My old 1992 Ford Explorer was driven one mile to and from the coffee shop every day for at least one-year and it never had any battery or starting issues. Sure the X5 has a lot more electrical load than a 1992 Explorer, but then shouldn't they design the charging system to match the increased load?

It has reached a point where the local newspaper "Problem Solver" even got involved in one of these excessive discharge issues.

BMW NA should be ashamed of how they have been handling this obvious flaw... or should I say NOT handling it.

P.S. Articles like this in major newspapers like the Chicago Tribune should do wonders for BMW sales:

Battery drain gets a charge out of BMW owner - chicagotribune.com