MULTIPLE ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS..PLEASE HELP!
 

I have a 2007 4.8 Sport X5 that I bought used a year ago with no warranty.

Over the last few months I have had multiple electrical ghosts and I'm trying to figure out if they are related.

1. Check Eng comes and goes but haven't been able to have the codes read.

2. Parking Brake Malfunction - This is different than what I read on most in that it intermittently flashes the Red Parking Brake light that goes to Yellow along with the audible tone. It will not set while parked whether the car is on or off. However I engaged it while slowly moving and it does engage but then releases. First started after a car wash and I'm starting to think it comes back after it has rained. ALSO, I noticed the cruise control will not work while I have this malfunction. When the malfunction of the brake goes away the cruise control works fine.

3. Pulled into a parking lot and had multiple dashlights come on like "Inactive Steering", "DSC" and some others I cant remember, I turned the car off and all electrical died. Nothing electrical at all would work, not a light, door locks, nothing..It was completely dead. After about an hour it just came back to life and the warning lights were out. This happened 2 more times over a 48 hour period with varying times of how long before it would restart from 5 minutes to an hour. The second 2 times, it happened while I was driving and the car just died. Hasn't happened in 3 weeks now. One thing to add, I noticed small electrical interruptions leading up to the failures, like a small and short interruption in the radio.

4. About 2 weeks after the above problem I had the car quit while driving twice on my way home from work. This time the electrical seemed fine, the engine just quit and I was able to resart it 10 minutes later. At first it would just crank over like it wasn't getting fuel. After the 1st time, it happened again 5 miles later but restarted after about 5 minutes. This hasn't happened since in the last week.

5. Probably has nothing to do with the above but just in case, I had to replace the fuse (3 weeks ago) in the center console cigarette lighter which is used as my cell charger.

PLEASE, any help or insight will be immensly appreciated as I don't have a warranty but am very good with the DIY's if I know what to fix.

start with simple things first...

check the battery compartment for moisture or outright water damage.

then, there could be chaffed wire, but less likely, given your symptoms...

also, a weak battery - if the battery is old, or has been discharged more than once, you might want to start with a fresh battery... Also, while seems to be obvious, check battery terminals for loose connections...

let us know about the results, and then we take it from there...

Good luck

I was thinking about starting with a new battery, for all I know it could be the 6 year old original. Thanks, and I will definitely report back.

first thing I did was hit CTRL-F and search for "battery" in the original post. '07 X5 likely needs a new battery by now (and go from there).

I do wonder why it doesn't show the battery icon on the dash as it did with mine when after shutting the car down (but not the radio off) it would turn off the radio in less than 5 minutes (as opposed to 20). Basically, a symptom led to the icon. Why doesn't it do that for the OP's situations (especially #3)?

Regarding the motor: the crank shaft position sensor might be dying.

This happened on my 2007 4.8, but not exactly like your scenario. Basically, the motor would crank and crank until I lifted off the brake pedal (when trying to start it). Then, after a few more tries, the engine finally fired up. I immediately drove it out of the parking garage and into the lot, where I shut it off and let the tow truck come pick it up. The verdict was two sensors, one of which was the crank shaft position sensor. With this, I got a transmission malfunction error message, but the transmission checked out OK. The other sensor escapes my mind at the moment. I have the paperwork if you're interested.

With these vehicles, one minor electrical issue (such as a bad battery) can cause all sorts of symptoms that aren't really issues. The ripple effect of bad programming.

My first step would be to make sure battery connections are good and load test battery....my money is that it's shot and needs to be replaced and registered. If you do it yourself, make sure you fully charge the new battery BEFORE installing it.

I was under the assumption that coding/programming was required no matter what? The computer(s) learn the discharge and charge rates of an aging battery and thus, "adapt" (zing!) to said battery. A new battery won't be fully charged and cause accelerated aging of it.

Yes - registering the battery is a must....just wanted the OP to know that just putting a new battery in and thinking problems are solved (even if it seems to do so) is not the complete solution, the new battery will need to be registered so that the vehicle charges it properly.

I also don't assume anything anymore, many people just find a battery that fits or has similar cranking capacity and plop it in - done deal...no battery is fully charged off the shelf and the alternator is not capable nor designed to give it a full, deep cycle charge...these X's are very picky and have way too many electrical drains to try and take shortcuts.

Registering is highly recommended so that the car forgets the discharge rate of the aging battery.

Coding is needed if a different Ah or type (e.g. AGM) is installed. The OP should try to match the existing battery specs (i.e. Ah, AGM or not, and CCA).

IF IT IS THE ORIGINAL BATTERY, REPLACE IT.

After that you diagnose whatever remains....

A