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Low battery Icon - redux

1K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  RBinDC 
#1 · (Edited)
Several months ago I had a low battery icon show up. I bought a CTEC 3300 battery tender and hooked it up. The icon never came back on but the CTEC never indicated the battery was fully charged even after 72 uninterrupted hours of charging.

Yesterday I took the car in for the recall and asked my SA to check my battery. The report came back stating that it was discharging because I had left my iPhone charger plugged into the power outlet in the center console. Apparently just plugging it in causes the system to not fully shut down, slowly draining the battery.

The lesson is to not leave anything plugged into the power outlet when not in use.

Time to hook up the CTEC again and see if it fully charges the battery now. If not, it's going back to the manufacturer for a check-up.
 
#2 ·
While I don't recharge stuff from the car, that's very useful info. It really seems like BMW could have included a simple voltage readout in the OBC, given the complexity of their electrical systems.

At any rate, let us know if the battery finally gets fully charged.

Tom
 
#4 ·
Several months ago I had a low battery icon show up. I bought a CTEC 3300 battery tender and hooked it up. The icon never came back on but the CTEC never indicated the battery was fully charged even after 72 uninterrupted hours of charging.

Yesterday I took the car in for the recall and asked my SA to check my battery. The report came back stating that it was discharging because I had left my iPhone charger plugged into the power outlet in the center console. Apparently just plugging it in causes the system to not fully shut down, slowly draining the battery.

The lesson is to not leave anything plugged into the power outlet when not in use.

Time to hook up the CTEC again and see if it fully charges the battery now. If not, it's going back to the manufacturer for a check-up.
Interesting...thanks for the post. Other than the info you've posted, do you put many miles on the car on a daily basis? Short commutes?
 
#6 ·
Can you keep your charger plugged in and see if its still active after the car is off?
When I shut the car down the charger is not active, i.e., it won't charge my iPhone. However, according to the dealer, the computer does not fully shut down because it is aware that the charger is plugged in. It's the slow trickle of energy that the computer consumes in this standby mode that runs down the battery over time.

That's my understanding of what my SA told me. Is it true? Who knows.
 
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