Originally Posted by Chucklez (Post 1089979)

Welp I couldnt find anyone who had them in stock for pickup so I placed a order for one on ECSTuning should be here Wednesday or Thursday and will install it then.

Just another note for the story if it helps others. Yesterday I drove the car all day fine no issues not even a battery symbol on the dash besides one or two times. Go to start the car this morning? Deader than a door nail, it barely started and eventually stalled out and wouldn't start again. I guess until I get that part I will have to just keep my X5 on a charger.

@electricalserv x5: I do drive my X5 daily. Only times I don't is once and a while when I have off school and work on the same day I usually relax and get stuff done at home so it sits undriven for a day. But yeah even though my battery "Checked" out fine according to Sams Club, where I bought it, they also showed that it only had 730 out of the 900 cold cranking amps it should have and when I tested the battery myself it kinda fluctuated between 11.3V and 12.3V so after I replace this I will definitely go back and try and have them give me a new battery before winter. After that its time to finish changing suspension on the drivers side, already finished the passengers, and replace the break pads before winter and she "SHOULD" be all good to go hopefully!

Originally Posted by Chucklez (Post 1089979)

Welp I couldnt find anyone who had them in stock for pickup so I placed a order for one on ECSTuning should be here Wednesday or Thursday and will install it then.

Just another note for the story if it helps others. Yesterday I drove the car all day fine no issues not even a battery symbol on the dash besides one or two times. Go to start the car this morning? Deader than a door nail, it barely started and eventually stalled out and wouldn't start again. I guess until I get that part I will have to just keep my X5 on a charger.

@electricalserv x5: I do drive my X5 daily. Only times I don't is once and a while when I have off school and work on the same day I usually relax and get stuff done at home so it sits undriven for a day. But yeah even though my battery "Checked" out fine according to Sams Club, where I bought it, they also showed that it only had 730 out of the 900 cold cranking amps it should have and when I tested the battery myself it kinda fluctuated between 11.3V and 12.3V so after I replace this I will definitely go back and try and have them give me a new battery before winter. After that its time to finish changing suspension on the drivers side, already finished the passengers, and replace the break pads before winter and she "SHOULD" be all good to go hopefully!

Originally Posted by Chucklez (Post 1089896)

Hey guys me again! I swear every other month I got a weird issue with this car or something going bad on it...

Anyway so recently (past month or so) I was having massive battery drain issues from a faulty upper trunk hatch latch. Since then I have fixed it by just straight up unplugging it since at the moment I couldn't swing the $300+ dollars for the repair and it's not totally essential the car drives with with no trunk access.

Oddly enough once that got fixed I still was having weird battery issues. Car showing low battery or completely not starting at times, once I even had the car just completely die on me while driving. So I assumed it was the alternator right? Well I turn the car on and test that with a voltage meter and it's showing 14v output. So then I was like alright maybe it's the battery doing weird things, test the battery it shows 12v with the car off and took it to get tested and it showed it as all good.

So now I'm stumped and it's getting weirder and weirder. I haven't had my car die on me completely or anything but if it sits for over a die without starting the car battery is completely drained or dead won't start. Even if I do drive it every day, I ALWAYS get the red battery light on the dash which sometimes eventually goes away and other times my car completely goes into limp mode, 4x4 warning flashes on and off and on and off break warning on and off until it weirdly stabilizes and I get wherever I need in transmission failsafe mode.

Sooo yeah I have no idea what to do besides just buy a new alternator and test it? Any other ideas guys? Also per usual sorry for crap formatting if it is typing on my phone.

Originally Posted by Chucklez (Post 1089979)

Welp I couldnt find anyone who had them in stock for pickup so I placed a order for one on ECSTuning should be here Wednesday or Thursday and will install it then.

Just another note for the story if it helps others. Yesterday I drove the car all day fine no issues not even a battery symbol on the dash besides one or two times. Go to start the car this morning? Deader than a door nail, it barely started and eventually stalled out and wouldn't start again. I guess until I get that part I will have to just keep my X5 on a charger.

@electricalserv x5: I do drive my X5 daily. Only times I don't is once and a while when I have off school and work on the same day I usually relax and get stuff done at home so it sits undriven for a day. But yeah even though my battery "Checked" out fine according to Sams Club, where I bought it, they also showed that it only had 730 out of the 900 cold cranking amps it should have and when I tested the battery myself it kinda fluctuated between 11.3V and 12.3V so after I replace this I will definitely go back and try and have them give me a new battery before winter. After that its time to finish changing suspension on the drivers side, already finished the passengers, and replace the break pads before winter and she "SHOULD" be all good to go hopefully!

Originally Posted by bcredliner (Post 1090340)

Could have been 14V the other day. Sometimes they jump up and down when they begin to fail. You can monitor the alternator by unlocking the cluster. There are Youtube videos if that is not how you tested it. 14.3-4V is about normal for the alternator.

Originally Posted by upallnight (Post 1090343)

I would take the battery to somewhere else and have it tested. A good battery should be closer to 12.6 volt if it is fully charged and good, the fact that it only tested 12v leads me to think that you have a dead cell in the battery. How old is the battery? The fact that Sam club tested the battery to only have 730 CCA which mean it is down 18.8% leads me to think that you battery is going bad.

Originally Posted by Chucklez (Post 1090346)

The battery is maybe a year old if that. I will take it somewhere else to get it tested possibly autozone tomorrow if I have the time. Thats what I was thinking too honestly I dont see how it could show only 730CCA out of 900 and they say its good. Especially when they tested it it was 60*F outside I could understand if it was like 20*F but not 60.

Also I guess another thing to add, I did end up buying that new upper trunk latch and the car still doesn't think the trunk is closed when I go to lock it. Plugged it in the and the first few times it locked the car fine but now its back to its old self where the trunk lights constantly stay on and the hatch never thinks its shut even though it physically is and the mechanism works. I seriously dont get this car at all.

Originally Posted by crystalworks (Post 1090353)

Get the battery checked because it's free... but I'm still leaning towards voltage regulator on the alternator.

As for your trunk latch. Have you tried manually pushing the trunk lid down a little to see if the light goes off? The bump stops for the lid might need adjusting if it is pushing the trunk lid out a little bit so the truck things the hatch is open. Seen that happen before on these.