Dead battery, a matter of time....
 

Well, I ve had a few of the dreaded "high Battery Discharge" warnings over the 20 months I've had this truck, but this morning got the full effect...just enough juice to light all the warning lights, turn on my stereo and headlights, but then when i tried to start it.... dead as Kelsey's nuts. Took about half an hour of charge from my wife's car to get her to roll over, then had a whole world of colors and failures flashing on my dash.

I was worreid she wouldn't start at all and the first thing I did was open the glovebox to get the manual out (brake/gear tool lives in my door pocket) as I was worried she'd have to be towed to the dealer (as was my neighbors E70).

Called the dealer (on hold for 20 minutes so I was pulling in as my SA picked up the phone)..we'll see what they say, sure I'll be scolded for not driving her enough!

Oddly enough, i also had a service notice pop up last week for brake fluid level (i know it's totally unrelated) so i guess at 18k miles I've worn the pads low enough to drop the leve, so they'll take core of it all at once...

So for now I'm in my HOT HOT HOT, Pontiac Vibe!!!! 28k miles and smells like a dirty old dog!

ask them if that Vibe has battery issues and if not, trade them out. ;)

That's why I plug mine into a battery tender plus every night.

Good luck,

Craig

Put in on charge over night or you will have the same thing in a few days time :-)

Unless something is drastically wrong, I suspect that putting it on a charger one night a week would probably suffice.

Is your X5 a 'hybrid' ??? :rofl:

I make sure I lock the door which seems to minimize this issue.

LOL! No, it's a diesel, but BMW and my local dealer say I need to plug it into a battery charger every night. I think I have the problem taken care of, my new Lexus GX 460 arrived at the dealer today. I'm waiting for the certificate or origin to show up, then I will pick up my new car and trade off my hybrid X5 diesel...

Craig

What I meant was give it one good full overnight charge, don't just rely on the 30 mins jump from the wife's car :thumbup:

Sorry, I wasn't responding specifically to your post, I was just making a comment in general about preventative measures for the "too many short trips" syndrome. If the battery is truly getting a cumulative current deficit due to short trips, eventually leading to a dead battery, I would start with once a week on a battery tender and only put it on more often if the battery discharge message popped-up again.

What you say is very true -- if a battery ever gets run-down, one should not depend on the vehicle system to fully-charge it back up. One should put it on a battery charger, as you say.

My '08 4.8i had it's fair share of battery issues (as did our Z8 Alpina). I just find it totally ridiculous, that with a car that costs ($50-100,000 for X5 models or $140,000 for the Alpina)...that BMW can look a customer in the face and say "put it on a charger" at night.

While we have had several Mercedes and Range Rovers that had their fair share of unique problems...NEVER once did we need to worry about battery chargers. Even my old 1983 300TD with 193,000 miles (that got driven maybe once a week to the Supermarket or Home Depot) never needed a battery charger.

Considering a great deal on a new X6 5.0i. Wondering if all these X5 "goodies" happen to the X6 as well!!