thanks for the advice, i did the FSU about 2 months ago so i know thats not an issue, and i cant afford to do the light sensor at this time, plus i dont think my X5 has any issue with not going into sleep mode, but i will check, im currently out of town. i have my mobile guy heading to my place today to pull the battery and take it to battery direct and exchange it, i know the battery is toast because just before i left town i was sitting in a ferry lineup and after 20m of listning to the stereo on low i couldnt turn over the car even know i had just driven 4 hours to the terminal... shows me for not getting things fixed before i leave town for 4 weeks and leave a dead vehicle for the wife... wont do that again.

car battery
 

might want to check your alternator. Bavarian Auto for about $400. easy job there is a link somewhere on this site.

Can I hijack this thread? :)

Yesterday my car wouldn't start after happy-hour. No, it doesn't have a breath tester built in ;) The lights came on, headlights came on, but memory for seats was out of whack and the clock was reset... yet memory for radio presets was good. Needless to say, the starter just clicked and wouldn't turn over. Jump start and I was on my way and it started up this morning.

I think I'm on borrowed time here. I've not replaced it since I bought it probably 4 years ago and it's an '03 so probably the original. I made a 10 minute hop down the road to the restaurant yesterday and probably had the heater fan running after I got out (habit). So considering it's likely a 7 year old battery and we just had two back to back days of single digit nights... battery is looking like it's time.

So at this point I'm thinking of either heading to Battery Plus or the local Auto-Zone type place. From what I've read I need to make sure the replacement has an external vent hookup. Is that the main caveat to the OEM replacements?

Lay3r3 they battery has to have the same specs as the oem at the least. After 7 years I would say it needs to be replaced. The BMW battery does have a vent in the side. Do a search and you will find plenty of info. Twinspoppa just had a thread on this. Probably on the second page.