X5 5.0i minimum daily mileage requirement

So I have had my car about a year and started to get Low Charge, Battery and Service messages appear. I took it down to the dealer who ran the tests and produced a clever report with all my driving statistics. My battery charge was at about 46%. My most recent 15 trips were between 5 and 10km per trip. BMW stated that the car batttery will slowly run down and fail if you do not drive on average about 15-20km per trip! I never had this problem with my 2007 4.8i. Every other car I have owned has never had this problem and I have not changed my driving habits. I do not leave the heated seats on, ignition on without the engine running, I lock the car at night.

So I wast told that I would have to buy a battery charger to plug in each night or change my driving habits. They will not replace the battery unless they get an error message during battery test analysis, even though the car was giving error messages and indicating I should take it for service! I drove the car about 100 miles to get to the dealership and the battery still read 46% charge.

I think this is the most dumb ass answer I have ever heard from any car dealership or manufacturer in all the years I have been buying cars!

Originally Posted by Bigtop

So I have had my car about a year and started to get Low Charge, Battery and Service messages appear. I took it down to the dealer who ran the tests and produced a clever report with all my driving statistics. My battery charge was at about 46%. My most recent 15 trips were between 5 and 10km per trip. BMW stated that the car batttery will slowly run down and fail if you do not drive on average about 15-20km per trip! I never had this problem with my 2007 4.8i. Every other car I have owned has never had this problem and I have not changed my driving habits. I do not leave the heated seats on, ignition on without the engine running, I lock the car at night.

So I wast told that I would have to buy a battery charger to plug in each night or change my driving habits. They will not replace the battery unless they get an error message during battery test analysis, even though the car was giving error messages and indicating I should take it for service! I drove the car about 100 miles to get to the dealership and the battery still read 46% charge.

I think this is the most dumb ass answer I have ever heard from any car dealership or manufacturer in all the years I have been buying cars!

BMW has a liability here under a 'warranty of fitness'- people in America buy cars to drive trips of 5-10km...and if BMWs cars cannot properly operate in America with Americans driving their product in this manner, BMW should fix their cars.

BMW knows they have an issue, and has some language in the owners manual about 'the battery and short trips'...hoping by having this text in the manual that can claim "we notified users about this"....

It is nonsense, but sadly this is how BMWs new 'smart battery management system' works.

So Called Efficient Dynamics" and "regenerative brakes"
My battery along with Nav Computer and some small other bells and whistles gadgets died in the first week of delivery of 2011 X5 35i

Hmmmmm....interesting. My car is also a little over one year old. As I toggle between two cars, I usually drive one for several days and let the other sit, locked and alarm armed. There have been times where my X5 has sat as long as 5 days, and I've never had a problem with battery charging. Starts right up every time. Typically, my driving would often be short trips, errands, before parking it. Interesting.

Originally Posted by Bigtop

So I have had my car about a year and started to get Low Charge, Battery and Service messages appear. I took it down to the dealer who ran the tests and produced a clever report with all my driving statistics. My battery charge was at about 46%. My most recent 15 trips were between 5 and 10km per trip. BMW stated that the car batttery will slowly run down and fail if you do not drive on average about 15-20km per trip! I never had this problem with my 2007 4.8i. Every other car I have owned has never had this problem and I have not changed my driving habits. I do not leave the heated seats on, ignition on without the engine running, I lock the car at night.

So I wast told that I would have to buy a battery charger to plug in each night or change my driving habits. They will not replace the battery unless they get an error message during battery test analysis, even though the car was giving error messages and indicating I should take it for service! I drove the car about 100 miles to get to the dealership and the battery still read 46% charge.

I think this is the most dumb ass answer I have ever heard from any car dealership or manufacturer in all the years I have been buying cars!

A battery tender is fairly reasonable.

You don't happen to have comfort access AND store the key near the car do you? I've heard that can cause additional drain.

As to why these cars leach the battery more than others, well, they have more electronics than any car I've ever had : )

Good luck!

Originally Posted by singletrack

A battery tender is fairly reasonable.

How many other cars need a battery tender FOR A DAILY DRIVEN CAR?!?!?!?!?!

Zero.

While a tender may be reasonable for a porsche that sits a week or two at a time, or for a DD when you are out of town for two weeks, it is absolutely unacceptable to be required to plug in an internal combusion car that is driven daily. Period.

I had a similar issue few months ago and the dealer also blamed it on my driving habit. As it turned out there was a recall on replacing of the fuel filter heater. If yours is not a diesel then there may be other issues such as an electrical short.

"absolutely unacceptable to be required to plug in a car that is driven daily" -- Unless of course it is a Nissan Leaf. Bummer, they have outsmarted themselves with superb german engineering on this one -- a car that cannot sit for a week in an airport parking lot and then start right up at zero dark thirty in a driving rainstorm when you finally get home has no business being in my garage -- no matter how ultimate the driving machine it is.

Well, the dealership decided to replace my battery. I do have just about every option you can get on the car, except for 3, HUD, lane change assit or whatever you call it and active steering. No I do not leave my key near the car. I always lock it in a heated garage. I live at 9,600 feet in the snow so I do use the heated steering wheel. The kids switch on the heated seats for a short period if the car is outside somewhere, but that is about it.

Really, BMW need to figure this one out. The dealership said I am not the only one and it is not just the X5.

I went through this with mine. Same thing. Shame on you for taking short trips, etc, etc. in the end they changed the battery. Recoded. Never a issue since and didn't change my trip distances.

BMW already have known that some I drive controller are causing battery drain
Have it checked out

I have been getting the battery drain warning off an on for 3 years an 55k miles. Two dealers could never figure it out. My wife and i just ignor it now. It cries wolf at least once a month.