Battery Charging
 

I have a 2000 X5 and the battery is weak and needs a charge. It's located in the trunk where I can't get at the terminals unless I remove the spare wheel and some complex looking electical gizmos. My owners' manual appears to say I can charge it by connecting to the terminals in the engine compartment, those you'd use to boost it. The AAA guy says no but doesn't say why not. Any advice would be appreciated

The wire in the front in directly connected to the battery the only issue that I see is that you have line lost and the charger might attempt to over charge the battery.

A jump-start attempt to the front terminals under the hood won't be enough as I've had it tried before by AAA. These X's require a lot of juice to get them started, the AAA guy had to jump the battery located in the rear directly with his tow truck AND hook up the portable jumper to the front terminals under the hood in order to get the vehicle started.

Negative lug on drivers side.




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I've had to jump start my X plenty of times and it always works fine from the front end terminals. You have to wait a good 3-5min's (let it charge) though before you can attempt to jump start it. Hell enough with the jumps, wifey just needs to dish out for a new battery.

I thought the question was can the front lug used for charging?

Looks like I might be ok then to charge from the front terminals. I'll just have to be careful not to leave it on charge too long to avoid over-charging (I'll leave that to BMW).

To address the other comments, AAA had no problem boosting from the front terminals although they didn't leave it to charge as someone recommended. They ended up using two boosters. I've also used a little Eliminator battery booster. You plug into the accessory socket and leave it for 45 minutes. Worked like a charm, which suprised me considering how much power the X5 needs and how cheap the Eliminator was ($14)

Its better for the battery to charge it slow and not use a boaster.

Great, thanks for the info.

Yes , I've used the jump start lugs under the bonnet (hood) to charge the battery with no problems.
Most battery chargers have in -built circuitry to prevent overcharging, if you watch the ammeter on the charger , notice it gradually decreases the amount of charge inputted as the battery itself is charged.
Obviously a maximum of about 12 hours from flat is the most I would recommend.
Regards,
Lez Taylor