Pending Battery Failure or???
 

The Vehicle:

• 2008 X5 3.0i
• 56K miles
• Original battery as far as I know. I certainly have not replaced it in the 27 months that I have owned it and the service history for the first 30K (a lease by someone else) didn't mention anything about the battery.

Symptoms:

• MPG average reads 99 MPG (Wouldn't that be nice if it were true?)
• Radio periodically doesn't work. The I-drive screen appears to be fully functional but no sound. Than after driving for a period of time the sound just miraculously reappears. This occurred yesterday morning (per my wife's description) after a cold start (it was in the high 20 degree F range here in CT)
• Aux. connection doesn't detect I-Pod. Again, this occurred yesterday morning.

I have not checked the voltage from the battery but my initial thoughts of course are with that being the issue. With an in-service date of 8/27/08 this battery has to be on its last leg. I have ready so much about battery drain etc. on the E70's and I have NEVER had a problem. Perhaps I am answering my own question with this thread but was wondering if there were any other thoughts. I hope its not the radio itself?

Id look at the nav/electronics area and make sure you dont have the dreaded "sun roof drain clog that floods the nav and causes $$$damage".....

Other than the reported random electronic issues, I did see the battery icon pop up on my dash (not idrive) once. This was a few months ago, also an '08. It happened when I turned the engine off but left the radio on - which is not something I do often. I was just wait for someone to come back. It turned off a lot sooner than it normally does (15-20mins) - this time it was like 5min. So I push the start button again to turn it back on and shortly it went off again but with a battery icon. Maybe you should try that simple test. The battery icon is unmistakable.

Have you seen a message "increased battery discharge" on the center screen?
The day I was it on my x5, that evening the car died (failed alternator @ 90k miles).

Is the car diving sluggish, or less responsively then you may think you are use to?