I just had the same issue. Replaced the battery with an Autocraft Platinum AGM and no more issue. Battery was 5 years old I believe.

Thanks for the info. Who sells that brand and what was the cost of the battery?

2012 X5's were built from ~June 2011, so it may be older than you think. I've gotten 6 yrs, 9mo and 7 yr, 3 mo from my E70 & E60 original batteries. Never left me stranded, but got tired of the battery discharge warning. If indeed you still have the original battery, there's a date code on the top of one of the battery posts. It shows
wk no., and year mfd. If short trips are the problem you can get a little more out of it if you put a 10A AGM charger on it overnight. Schumacher chargers are ~$50 at Walmart.

I got the same Autocraft replacement which has been working great for years now. You can find it at Advance Auto Parts stores. https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/o/car-battery

Don't forget to get it programmed for utmost compatibility/efficiency after install.

Who would perform the programming?

Silly question where the heck is the battery on an X5 5.0

It's in the back cargo area under the cover, under the plastic.

This is annoying to ask btw, do you not read newtis.info or do a simple search here?

Thank you very much for the information

If you go to a dealer, you will likely wind up paying $400-500 for the 'inspection and battery replacement'.


Owner: "I think my battery is failing, could you inspect and let me know"

SA: "Sure, diagnostic fee is 150"

Owner: "OK, let me know"


[music plays...]


SA "You were spot on- battery is dying. Replacement is $300 plus installation and computer blah blah. So a total of $445.99. But we wont charege a diagnostic if you replace it." If you just want to piuck it up, its $150.


Owner "dang it, should have just bought one for $199 and picked up the carly app, or paid an indy $50 to code it"

I was getting the same warning intermittently over the past few months. I also had strange DTCs for various support and ancilliary electrical systems stored.

Battery never failed to start the engine but winter was coming so I took steps to replace it. When I took it in for the airbag recall, I asked them to inspect the vehicle condition, perform a power analysis and report.

They kept it over night and provided a loaner vehicle. The report said for a seven year, 130k mile vehicle that it was in very good condition with no electrical issues and that the installed BMW battery was an AGM and appeared to be original to the vehicle: 26 11 was stamped on the post, IIRC. They recommended replacement. There was no cost for any of this.

I replaced the BMW battery myself with an Odyssey PC1350 and registered it with Carly. I did not have to change the capacity from the original 90 Ah battery.

I was surprised to get almost seven years of in-vehicle use out of an automotive battery. Wish the BMW battery in my M5 lasted a third that long. I've owned the X5 for four years. I keep it on a battery tender if I'm not driving it for an extended period of time but there's been a few times in my ownership where it has sat in long term airport parking for one to three weeks with no issues.

I'm still settling in to my new place but I have put the old battery on my battery conditioner and once I'm set up, I'll perform a capacity test to see how it performs.

Note: I've since installed an Interstate MTP flooded-cell battery in the M5 and it's been over five years.