I just got back from a four day car camping trip. From about two days, my car was parked and basically never opened except for unloading. Because of racoons and such, I kept my dry food stored in a bin in the back and I'd do a lot of opening and closing of the car at dinner and breakfast time.
When I started the car to leave, the clock was blinking and I had a warning message about low battery.
Is this normal behavior? There was certainly some discharge of the battery over those three days (although not extreme, by any means. Should I be concerned?
I just got back from a four day car camping trip. From about two days, my car was parked and basically never opened except for unloading. Because of racoons and such, I kept my dry food stored in a bin in the back and I'd do a lot of opening and closing of the car at dinner and breakfast time.
When I started the car to leave, the clock was blinking and I had a warning message about low battery.
Is this normal behavior? There was certainly some discharge of the battery over those three days (although not extreme, by any means. Should I be concerned?
I just got back from a four day car camping trip. From about two days, my car was parked and basically never opened except for unloading. Because of racoons and such, I kept my dry food stored in a bin in the back and I'd do a lot of opening and closing of the car at dinner and breakfast time.
When I started the car to leave, the clock was blinking and I had a warning message about low battery.
Is this normal behavior? There was certainly some discharge of the battery over those three days (although not extreme, by any means. Should I be concerned?
Sounds like a little driving will get your battery charged up. We had a thread not too long ago about battery life and reports were quite diverse (3 - 5 yrs generally). The most interesting note that came out of this was a warning from BMW (some owner's manuals) about daily driving habits and keeping the battery charged:
"if your car is driven only for short distances of less than 10 miles over a prolonged period of time, without an occasional drive at highway speeds, the engines (sic) charging system will not maintain the battery."
Somewhat of a challenge for "seniors" who may only go to Costco once per week! :yikes:
how many times did you unlock the doors? it takes 30-60 minutes for all the car electronics to go to sleep where the drain is 40mA. until then, there is a pretty big drain on the battery, depending on options, while the electronics are awake.
I'm just experiencing this: lights that stay on for an unnecessary amount of time; example, the parking indicator light stays on for nearly 1/2 hr after exiting the car. Certainly this is not drawing much, but what else is staying on, why so long?
Kilgore, have the electrical system checked out - especially the IBS (intelligent battery sensor). I had the battery low warning on my CPO '07 E91 (original battery, ca. 37,000 miles), followed by the car stalling going around a slow corner.
Dealer found nothing wrong until they tried to move the car at which point it wouldn't start. When it did start, the alternator was charging at 17+ volts. Alternator was replaced. Dealer said that sometimes happens on the 7 series but is uncommon for an E9x.
A few weeks later, the Low Battery warning came up again - new alternator found to be overcharging at 15+ volts, replaced again.
Two weeks later, with the car in for unrelated service (and no more dash warnings), I luckily asked them to check the charging system. Sure enough, the alternator was again overcharging and this time they checked the IBS unit which was found to have an intermittent fault (first time my dealership had encountered this problem - ain't it fun being a guinea pig?).
Battery cable and offending IBS unit replaced and all has been fine for the past 4,000 miles. Glad the car was under warranty as alternators are something like $900 a shot!
When I started getting that warning, it was the beginning of the end of my battery. Mine was probably 3.5 years old. Mine was replaced under warranty, but that's a debate I hope I don't reopen.
Interested to hear how the conversation w/ your dealer goes. Got my low battery symbol at about the same time as you KT, & it's been a street fight with my dealer ever since.
"Are you driving enough?", "You need a trickle charger", "You aren't shutting down properly"...
I've just started a thread about a battery recall. My e91 is exactly 2 years old and there is a recall for battery replacement. I don't know a reason an if it is co-related to your ride but you could check it out with your dealer.
I have noticed that I can not allow the car to sit for more than 2 weeks with out being on a tender. I found that out when the car was months old, and sat unattended for 2 weeks. If the car is going to be sitting for more than a week, I plug it in. I have not experianced any other problems with the battery. I also drive less than the OP.
Now I don't know if this is true or not, but a CA once told me that other BMW key fobs can wake your car. Because of how the handshake works (and I'm not sure if this is *all* cars or just the ones with CA), if someone else unlocks their BMW, all BMWs in the vicinity also 'wake up' to see if it is the correct key fob, and when yours sees that it isn't, it doesn't respond and goes back to sleep, but nonetheless some of the electronics do wake up momentarily. He said they have issues with the cars on the lot because of how often these little wake/sleep cycles occur. Could be BS, could be true, but sounds plausible.
SilverX3:
Go to a good independent BMW shop but call them first and tell them you need your battery registered.
Coding cable and software is nice but that is all you need. Maybe 50 bucks.
More than likely you have the wrong CCA too but that isn't as big a deal as BMW makes it out to be.
Coding can adjust the CCA too but BMW only has so many choices and what you had installed is most likely not one of them but close.
Remember it is a battery and the only reason for doing the registering is to help prolong battery life.
However from what I have observed on most BMW forums it has not helped much.
A battery tender helping 500% more than registering your battery...
Rang local independent they said they can register it for $50 labour
will bring the car to them
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