Strong battery discharge check

2009 35D, on it's 3 battery ( 1 in 2010 and another in 2011) since I took delivery of it in December. Needed to be jump start 4 time in the last month, so I'm looking for a cure to my problem. I see that the starter button light, the gear lever green led and the window lock green led on the driver's door always stay on for 40 minutes after the car has been lock. I don't not if anything else is on, but I wonder if this might be the cause of my dead battery. Any of you witness this on your car? It seems to stay in a state of awareness for no reason.

Also the automatic tailgate seems to drain the battery very fast; after getting home opening and closing of the tailgate twice ( unloading, and reloading later for the next trip) always bring the strong battery discharge on? Is this a normal? I now have the habit of starting the engine just to open the tailgate; is this the reason the battery on that X5 don't last?


I know my battery is on it's last leg but I want to find the the problem's before getting a new one... Btw I'm still under factory warranty and maintenance


Thank you

Do a search. Hundreds of posts. Maybe thousands...

You will need BMW to run the TSB on parasitic drain- they will log every activity on the bus over a day or so and try to find whta modules are waking up at the wrong time and draining the battery.

I don't know if this issue is for older vehicles (pre 2010) or it includes newer vehicles. I really don't have issues except that I get a "battery drain" triangle in my dash and it stays on during the wole trip,,,but when the vehicle re-started,,,it goes away,,,,,,,really goofy!!!

Here is my input as well.
I have 2007 X5 and I had Battery discharge issue. I was reading these posts here and decided to definitely bypass BMW dealership. I am in Ontario, Canada and there is a guy here who is well know as Car Electronic Expert (I put capital E for expert because I think he deserves it). Anyway, he gave me two possibilities:
1. FOB key - if it's close to your car, car will never go to sleep mode - that wasn't my problem as my car is about 10-15 meters away from my key fob.
2. Battery - he asked me how old is that car, when I said 5 years, he said "not official rule but BMWs especially X5s need battery replacement every 4 years", if you go to dealership they would tell you "noo, it's not true, battery is good". He suggested to get new battery but battery from Series 7 as series 7 has more computers (chips) and will be perfect on my X5. It cost me about $300 for OEM battery and about $90 for labour and he said "if you have the same problem, come back I will give you back $390 immediately" - I still didn't go back to pick up the money even though it was 5 months ago which means no battery discharge problem since then. I hope it'll stay that way :-)

Good luck!

Originally Posted by djenka2

Here is my input as well.
I have 2007 X5 and I had Battery discharge issue. I was reading these posts here and decided to definitely bypass BMW dealership. I am in Ontario, Canada and there is a guy here who is well know as Car Electronic Expert (I put capital E for expert because I think he deserves it). Anyway, he gave me two possibilities:
1. FOB key - if it's close to your car, car will never go to sleep mode - that wasn't my problem as my car is about 10-15 meters away from my key fob.
2. Battery - he asked me how old is that car, when I said 5 years, he said "not official rule but BMWs especially X5s need battery replacement every 4 years", if you go to dealership they would tell you "noo, it's not true, battery is good". He suggested to get new battery but battery from Series 7 as series 7 has more computers (chips) and will be perfect on my X5. It cost me about $300 for OEM battery and about $90 for labour and he said "if you have the same problem, come back I will give you back $390 immediately" - I still didn't go back to pick up the money even though it was 5 months ago which means no battery discharge problem since then. I hope it'll stay that way :-)

Good luck!

You did not have "a battery discharge issue"..you had a worn out battery!

Glad it worked.

A

+1 on all the posts.

Best bet, if under warranty, go to dealer, do a drain observations with modules, go from there. Im pretty sure it's not a battery problem, but some module either short circuited or is on the fritz.
GL!

Yes, there was "Increased battery discharge" error and it was gone by replacing the battery by putting the one from Series 7.
All in all, issue is gone :-)

Originally Posted by djenka2

Yes, there was "Increased battery discharge" error and it was gone by replacing the battery by putting the one from Series 7.
All in all, issue is gone :-)

I like to be precise so others don't waste their time...I am not picking on your comments.

OP has reported MULTIPLE 'high battery discharge' issues, with multiple battery replacements- to no avail.

YOU have had an old, worn battery that finally tripped a single 'high discharge' warning..you replaced the battery, that worked. It may have even done it a few times...but you have not had multiple isses over years and many batteries.

(I had an 2010 with 32k miles...on the last night in my garage I was cleaning the car with the doors open preparing to return it as a lemon buyback- it actually tripped a 'discharge warning' that night- the combination of a 2+ year old battery and having the doors open and stuff on was too much for it.)

My point is to be careful to confuse the true, chronic 'high discharge, you have a module that keeps waking the car up and kills multiple batteries' from a "its an old battery, finally couldnt keep up' faults.

having said that, I 100% agree with your expert that BMWs do funny things with low, old batteries- and I often recommend replacing a battery if you are getting weird electrical issues and the battery is 4+ years old. You'll need one soon enough, and it is often easier to replace than to spend $300 for the dealer to run diagnostics....

I am starting to get "increased battery discharge" with my 2012 X5 (11K miles) and just hope this is not a long term problem for this vehicle.

Originally Posted by GPSnV1

I am starting to get "increased battery discharge" with my 2012 X5 (11K miles) and just hope this is not a long term problem for this vehicle.

Mine was finally resolved with a multitude of items/modules replaced along with a new battery, alternator, someother items under the hood, as well as the radio which in the end turned out to be the problem. It was in the shop for about 3 months,,,had good loaners vehicles and BMW took care of the issue... I hope your's is less of an issue!

Originally Posted by GPSnV1

I am starting to get "increased battery discharge" with my 2012 X5 (11K miles) and just hope this is not a long term problem for this vehicle.

2012 X5 with 14.5k miles, same symptoms - yellow icon, no halos when unlocking. Brought the truck in late Nov., checked and charged battery, recoded (SA claimed the car wasn't going to sleep). 6 weeks later, now I'm getting the same. I assume they need to run more diags to see if a module is draining and/or replace the battery.

Anything else I should specifically ask for? I'm taking it in again in about 2 weeks for my 15k.