High Battery Drain - Solved?
 

Had the car at the dealer since Thurs for the "High Battery Drain" issue. The service manager personally checked it out, ran all the diags in SIBs. The result:

Replaced Battery 61-21-7-594-976 (made in Italy)
Replaced Battery Cable 61-12-9-215-954
Replaced Battery Cable 61-12-9-217-004
Replaced IBS and BST (no part nrs, one is Intelligent Battery System, no idea what the other is).

Negative battery terminal cracked causing corrosion on IBS.

No idea how the battery cracked. It's held down tight and to be honest, I've been remiss and have never even looked at it since it's out of sight. Hopefully this will be the fix. I'll post if the warning returns.

LOL, had mine in for the exact same thing. Dealer replaced my battery, which did not fix the issue. Took it back again and BMW just released a service advisory sw update that resolved the issue. I guess the car was waking up more then it should, thus the high battery drain.

Updated all the software too. Did it help you?

Do you have the SI B number ?

No part numbers?!?!? That is pretty bad... how can BMW give you a work order saying they replaced something and not tell you what it was?


Sigh.

Hmmm...
I wonder if the IBS is the actually the Intelligent Battery SENSOR :dunno:

Funf Dreisig

*Quoted from E70 Energy Management.pdf

I had both cables and sensor replaced plus a brand new battery installed. I still experienced the High Battery Drain message. The SA stated that I did not drive enough for the battery to get charge up. I think, it is kind of make sense, because I only put on around 4 miles per day from home to work.

Hmmmm...could be....:lmao:

Nope.

Irritable Battery Syndrome.

:bustingup

I really wish I had thought of that one :thumbup:

Funf Dreisig

Yes everything is fine now, you should ask your SA about the sw update. Tell them to call BMW of Pleasanton if they can't get it figured out.

Made in Italy, really? Is it white or black? Can you snap some pictures of this battery?

According the ETK it's made by East Penn / Deka which is in Pennsylvania. And it's the newest spec (as of 1/2010+) AGM battery 90 Ah / 900 A. I'm pretty sure it's their 9AGM49 battery that has these spec:

BCI Group Size = 49
Din Size = H8
Voltage = 12
Cold Cranking Amps at 0 degrees F = 900
Cranking Amps at 32 degrees F = 1,035
Reserve Charge = 180 minutes
20 hour Amp hour rate = 95
Length = 13 15/16"
Width = 6 7/8"
Height = 7 1/2"

I got that error message today... After restarting the car.. the message disappear.

And made several stops today... and restart the car without that error message at all. Freaky.. just happen once... hopefully its a fluke.

I do worry a bit.. that i have audio and amp in the back.. and if its Dealer warranty.. I wonder if they will slam me with that i have after market aamp that is draining the battery.

I the amp and speaker was install about 8 month ago.. never had any problem.. but .. it seem that last month, we did a firmware upgrade.. and then this is happening?

Do any of you Guys have the SW update number, so that I could tell it to my sa too? I'd Really Appreciate it because I got the same song and dance in that you're not driving it enough!

Thanks in advance! :beerchug:

Got the 'High Battery Discharge' message everytime I started the X5 yesterday and today... I had a new (AGM) battery installed this year and thought it might be the seat heaters (it is getting colder over here in the Netherlands) that draw too much current (especially on shorts trips hard on the battery?) So I charged it completely (using the Ctek charger on 'AGM-setting' (higher voltage)). Today I didn't use the seatheaters at all but still got the message everytime I started the car..... Thoughts anyone?

Do you lock the vehicle at night using the remote? When the car is left unlocked, there seems to be a slight drain on the battery in the morning. Locking the x5 at all times seems to help in my case as I do not get the battery warnings anymore.

Yes I do lock it every night using the remote..... Strangely enough I did not get any warnings today....

Here is a tip. Once I set in my X5 with the ignition turned off and key removed. It's interesting that the Navigation DVD player was waking up here and there. This obviously drains the battery. So, I remove the DVD disc whenever I don't get to drive my X5 for few days. Worth a try.

but what about the seat weight sensors...the car may be waking up thinking that someone is still in the car...jmy 2$

The seat sensor definitely kicks in if the door is locked. But, not sure if that's the case when the door is in unlock position.

Thanks, but already tried that.
Still no (new) message of the drain again......

How do you remove DVDs? My wife's car is having high battery drain issues as well.

Problems are typically caused by one thing. How much did they charge for the ibs?