BimmerFest BMW Forum banner

Increased Battery Discharge issue

97K views 315 replies 37 participants last post by  terri_atl 
#1 · (Edited)
Sorry, I know this topic has been discussed before by users, but I still have problem understanding it even after researching in many sites. I apologize if I sound too ignorant and also for this very lengthy thread.

I have a brand new 328i in March. I live in Buckhead, Atlanta. So I do basically almost everything within the buckhead area.

Around mid October, I first received a "High Battery Discharge"warning message. But it went away within a minute after I turned on the ignition.

On November 1, I was at my dental office for over 2 hours. I got into the car, drove to pick up some shipping supplies down the street. Got back into the car about 5 mins later, halfway to the mall, my mom called and I talked to her via bluetooth.

Parked the car, cut off engine and still talking to my mom. Whole conversation is about 30minutes. I know. After I hung up the phone, the "High Battery Discharge" warning came up again. I turned off the power.

Went to the mall to pick up a few items, went back to the car. The "Battery Charged Level Low" came up when I turned the power on. This was the first time I saw that and I was worried. I connected to the BMW Assist and the lady insisted I should send my car for a checkup. She connected me to the nearest service center at Global Imports. I got an appointment on Nov 5. The warning signs did not show up after that.

On November 5, the SA told me I have too few miles in the car, and likely due to my driving short distances. I looked at the diagnostics, it said
"#1 Cause was Terminal 15 was on.
#2 was unfavorable driving patterms" Battery at 53%

The technician came and explained I should really take my car to go far away places. He has suggested a trickle charger but since I live in a condominium, that won't work. Everyone zoomed in on my "unfavorable driving pattern". He also said the battery will not be under warranty if it dies.

So I have since tried to take the car to far places once a week. Honestly, this is stressful cos I have to purposely go somewhere far to get the battery charged.

One month later, today I received another "High Battery Discharge". Not sure if it was due to my stopping at the gas station to fill up the gas and again like 10minutes later. When I got back into the car after leaving the car for 10minutes, I received the "High Battery discharge" warning. The warning did not go away. After my one hour meeting at Starbucks, I did not see anymore of the "High Battery Discharge" warning for the rest of the day.

I am wondering instead of going to highway when the traffic is just as bad as the city roads, can I just drive around the city to get the battery charged. If yes, how long should I drive to get the batt charged. Would anyone be kind to tell me if this (driving short distances) is the only reason causing it. I also have a theory, could it be because I keep cutting off the engine at within sort period of time interval. I used to have a MB, and I never have such problem :(

Would appreciate if anyone can advise on this. Thank you!:cry:
 
See less See more
#140 ·
hi xxx555, my case it is 3 times within 9 months, or is it 4 times? Got it brand new in March. So this whole $0 maintenance & 4 years warranty is just marketing gimmick cos clearly battery is covered warranty, but oh wait cos of one or more particular reason, BMW won't pay for it :thumbdwn:

So given no choice, I have actually agreed to replace the battery :(

What about you? have you sent your car in and what reason or diagnostic the service center told you?
 
#141 ·
Latest update: Spoke to Service Director and prepared to call it a lemon. Even show him my key ring with elevator key fob, car fob and condo door key. There is no way anyone can accuse me of leaving my car fob in the car, leaving the car unlocked or leaving the radio to drain the car. I am no homeless and don't live inside my car.

But there is just no way to get a courtesy swap or make them honor the warranty for battery. Agreed to pay $258 for the battery but I want the BMW engineer who comes into that service center twice a month to check on this car and I want to meet him. He is scheduled to come in the first week of January 2012. No one in the service center can explain to me why the power is on when clearly I turn off everything n lock my car every time.
 
#142 ·
As an aside, I have the BMW alarm system, and it appears that when I lock my car by any means, the alarm is activated, thereby obviously putting a drain on the battery. Is there a way of locking my car and NOT activating the alarm (such as when I park it in my driveway after washing it)? I have Comfort Access, if that means anything.

Thanks for any enlightenment.
 
#143 ·
Hi Lufthansa, oh my.. thank goodness I don't have the BMW alarm system even though I have the "indicator" thing under the mirror (Don't ask me why). If I have, they going to say "aha, look! you have the alarm draining the battery" :(

But logically that's the whole purpose of having an alarm, you lock the door, alarm is activated. I have comfort access too. I am bad in analyzing this whole battery draining thing. Hopefully someone has some enlightenment for you :) I am eager to learn something too.
 
#144 ·
Issue Seems Common Among Owners

My car is a 2011 about 1 yr old now, a few weeks ago I got the Increased Battery Discharge message on my navi. I have comfort access w/ alarm. I have not left the key fob inside, nor the lights or the ignition on. The message went away once I drove it the next day on the highway for 30 mins. A few weeks later I got the same message again, I know for sure I am not leaving anything on. I wonder if the alarm is draining the battery.

I called my SA and he said the increased battery discharge he has heard other owners having the same issue. I've also had issues with my alarm disarming when I lightly touch my door handle, key fob in my pocket, alarm is going off, I'm looking stupid and I have to reach in my pocket to disarm the alarm and then I am getting random messages appear that a door is open when I am driving and I know for certain there is no door open on my car. So something is going on electrically with my car so I have an appoint next week.

I also have slight turbo lag in D mode from 0-20 mph that is noticable. So we will see what they say.
 
#145 ·
My car is a 2011 about 1 yr old now, a few weeks ago I got the Increased Battery Discharge message on my navi. I have comfort access w/ alarm. I have not left the key fob inside, nor the lights or the ignition on. The message went away once I drove it the next day on the highway for 30 mins. A few weeks later I got the same message again, I know for sure I am not leaving anything on. I wonder if the alarm is draining the battery.

I called my SA and he said the increased battery discharge he has heard other owners having the same issue. I've also had issues with my alarm disarming when I lightly touch my door handle, key fob in my pocket, alarm is going off, I'm looking stupid and I have to reach in my pocket to disarm the alarm and then I am getting random messages appear that a door is open when I am driving and I know for certain there is no door open on my car. So something is going on electrically with my car so I have an appoint next week.

I also have slight turbo lag in D mode from 0-20 mph that is noticable. So we will see what they say.
It doesn't help when I run my car a few times a week with 30mins each trip. In the end I have a "Battery Charged Level Low". At least your SA acknowledged about the issue. Mine and my service center initially want to pin on my low miles in the car. Now they just say ignition off, power on.

I will update here in case anyone is interested in knowing. I find it awful when they simply assume "Terminal 15 was on" is based on owner's leaving keyfob in car or leaving the radio on night after night. I don't live inside the car but 4 concrete floors above where the car parked and actually the other side 4 floors up.

Merry X'mas to you and everyone here :)
 
#147 ·
Hi hi :) Will definitely post something back when I meet with the BMW engineer in January :)
 
#148 ·
You should have called BMW NA and complained. The battery, if that is what they recommended to be replaced in their final diagnosis, is covered under the warranty and should be replaced for free. Period.
 
#152 ·
I did, and BMWNA just sitting on the fence, said if I don't trust this service center, I go try going another one. I intend to write to BMWNA after I meet with their engineer.
 
#151 ·
I am wondering instead of going to highway when the traffic is just as bad as the city roads, can I just drive around the city to get the battery charged. If yes, how long should I drive to get the batt charged. Would anyone be kind to tell me if this (driving short distances) is the only reason causing it. I also have a theory, could it be because I keep cutting off the engine at within sort period of time interval. I used to have a MB, and I never have such problem :(
I didn't read all 5 pages, but if it's any consolation I've experienced the same issue, albeit with different causes. I've gotten this warning 3 times. Each time it was associated with washing/detailing my car (which usually takes about 60 minutes). IMHO the OEM battery is too weak. Damn Germans probably scoff at the idea of someone actually doing something other than driving with their car.

In answer to your ORIGINAL question, you don't need to drive on the highway. Driving around town is adequate. In my experience, 30 minutes should be enough.
 
#154 ·
I read the warranty & service book that comes with the car. I am going to make a copy the next time I head to the service center and show it to those people who kept saying I have too few miles on the car. It stated if any driving less than 10 miles, to put it on highway occasionally. The first time I went to service center, I was being "blamed" for city driving. Took the car out on weekends and at times even weekdays
 
#156 ·
Thanks everyone who posted. I really appreciate all infos, help, comments or just by listening :)
 
#170 · (Edited)
Looks like there is a need for a logging current meter

Looks like there is a need for a logging current meter.
Which would give you history of how much charge you are using or putting back into the car
when driving . It would have to attach to the negative terminal as the positive splits out three ways.
 
#174 ·
Looks like there is a need for a logging current meter.
Which would give you history of how much charge you are using or putting back into the car
when driving . It would have to attach to the negative terminal as the positive splits out threw ways.
Hi Ctuna: Hi there!! Thanks for your suggestion. You have been very nice :) Initially I thought it is really my problem, ie why my original post is to find ways to charge my battery. But now I really find the original battery either is defective to begin with or there is a fault somewhere. I am pretty sure I am not a battery abuser; I actually meet BMW's standard when it comes to "Battery Care" as put out in the car's warranty & service guide.

I will research more on that, but in the mean time I am just waiting for my SA to call me & tell me when the BMW engineer is coming in. I want him to check my car again and explain to me what went wrong when I did everything right. Thanks again for "seeing" you here :)
 
#171 ·
terri_atl,

There an E90 electronic information file in pdf that you might want to look over, it is posted over at E90post in their diy threads. On page 41 it talks about the terminal 15 message that I think you were referring to. It also says that Note: The battery may be discharged if the driver ignores the warnings and locks the vehicle. Not sure if this relates to you but it's interesting to read all the electronics on our cars.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=468137

look at the bottom of the page on the first post is the pdf. 114 pages of great info.

If you remember my post above I was also getting the increased battery discharge a couple times, I was also getting a door open warning while driving when I didn't have any doors opened, I just got my car back from the dealer after 4 days and the invoice says they had opened a Puma case because my car was throwing fault codes 9CBD and 9CBD and they were told to change the footwell module, the newest module is version #3. My car is only 1 year old but still a 2011. My invoice also says they changed my battery during programing.

I think the more options we have on these cars the more electronics and the more it uses the battery. If your car is throwing fault codes it's also possible that if you ignore them long enough that it can cause an increased battery discharge until they fix the problem. I admit that I did not take my car in right away and I waited awhile so it could be that it was using up my battery slightly when my fault codes were going off for weeks, it may have even been up to a month but I finally had time to take it in and have it taken care of. I hope you get your problem fixed.

I'll report back on this thread if I encounter any other issues on this topic but everything seems to be ok for me now.
 
#175 ·
Hi bimmer4life, in my case I called them and scheduled a checkup. My case is just a big mystery for now. Please post back here if you encounter any other issues on this topic. I will also report back here esp after I get to meet with the BMW engineer. Thanks again. And I am definitely going to read on the electronic file you provided. I really appreciate that :)
 
#176 ·
Your welcome. I know our cases were a little different but I did get the increased battery discharge message so I wanted to post what happen to me on this thread. I was trying to find out more about this module they changed on my car and I came across that pdf file at e90post and when I was quickly reading it I saw that term 15 section and thought about this thread where you posted about it. I figure the more info we can get as consumers the better and this pdf is good info on how the electronics work in our cars. I hope it helps some.
 
#177 ·
for all of us who have the "battery discharge" problem, at least we know we are not alone :) I still don't get it though, why it seems like everyone just accepted this "fate" aka "battery discharge problem". Definitely, I am glad you posted here for me and perhaps many others to learn about your issue.
 
#178 ·
terri, you have 2 fobs. Do you know where the other one is ? Leave your key fob in your condo and go down and try and start the car. There was a thread where the person's 2nd key fob was under one of the seats. I have never had CA so I don't know how a car behaves if a key fob is left in the car.
 
#179 ·
Hi Mclaren, my 2nd keyfob is always in one of my kitchen drawers. So no issue with any keyfob in close proximity to the car. I will not leave any keyfob in the car cos the car will not locked. Not sure if you read my earlier post, I live in a highrise condo, my home on the 9th floor, car always on the 5th.
 
#181 ·
Hi all, I am heading to Global Imports when the engineer is scheduled to visit there this Wednesday. As suspected, the dealership did not call me as promised but luckily I call them this morning. Will post back after I meet with him.
 
#182 ·
I had a battery warning yesterday. Digging in via the nav to the "status" screen, the recommended fix was to set my clock. Now I don't know why the clock needed resetting--though it was new year's day--and I don't know why the clock not being set would drain the battery. I set the clock last night and haven't been back to check the car...and my wife just drove off in it. Will check back.
 
#183 ·
Hi there!! Strangely for my case, I never have to reset the clock. Just monitor the battery and hope all goes well for your car. Post back here if you have this problem again :)
 
#189 ·
Hi all, I am going to come back and post my experience with the BMW engineer later today. Just a quick note though, I dropped off my car and picked it up this morning, my leather wheel was scratched :( I have called them. The day has been very crazy, sorry for the delay. I am so eager to share this with everyone. Brb!!
 
#190 ·
I meant I dropped off my car on Wednesday n only got it back this morning. But I will want them to repair the scratched leather :(
 
#191 ·
This is going to be a lengthy post.. Hope no one falls asleep by end of my post :D (Ok, I confessed.. I can get too detailed in many things)

So I have posted earlier, I called on Monday and made an appt with my SA to see the engineer on Wed at 9.30am. On Tuesday, I was surprised to receive a call from the Service Director himself letting me know the engineer coming in the following day. Told him I have already scheduled with my SA that I would come at 9.30am. He seemed to have no idea I have already called the day before, but informed me the engineer would only be available from 10am onwards. I said I would come at 10am then.

On Wednesday prior to my visit to the service center, I was busy printing out all the visits I had, who I spoke to, what I was being told, etc and also a copy of the voltage readings I have taken for the past 5 days. I prepped myself for the battle.

Surprise surprise.. when I went to the Service Director's office, the engineer was already there looking at my file. I briefly explained the whole situation and he told the Service Director to go ahead and reimburse me for the battery. For me, it was not just the cost of the battery because I felt there was a problem somewhere (in the car). I have actually met the BMW's standard of "Battery Care" on Page 22 of the "warranty & service information" booklet. So why on earth this "Terminal 15 was on" kept haunting me and my battery was failing. I showed the engineer my readings of the voltage of the battery. It was 12.2V on first 3 days (idle, ignition off, no AC, no music), but on the last 2 days it dipped to 11.9V He asked me how did I get those readings, I said I went into the onboard computer and unlocked the functions. He said he wanted me to show him how I did it.

So both of us went to my car, I started showing him how I unlocked the onboard computer, his expression was amazed and very impressed. He went something like "Woah, how did you learn how to do that? Who taught you that?" So we had a conversation in the car. He asked if I have told my SA or anyone I live in a highrise. He said the SA I have is new, so he apologized that I had to pay for the battery, etc.. I told him I have been mentioning my living in a highrise (to everyone I spoke to in the center) which eliminate the possibility of the keyfob being in close proximity of the car, or my car not being locked or the radio being run all night. I also told him I specially went in and talked to the Service Director and he too said because of the "Terminal 15" fault, BMW will not reimburse for the battery. He said he would straighten things out with the director about this. He started looking at the phone that is paired with the car, which is an iPhone. I asked him why, if that is an issue. He said no, iPhone is perfectly compatible. However, if my phone is a Blackberry, there may be an issue because some times blackberrys won't let the car sleep. He said he would throughly check my car for any drain or anything not working. He said he is usually good in finding things like that. He said if he found no other problem, he might come to my condo building to run a test on the spot I parked my car. He said he had never heard of this particular car e93 has this problem but there could be a possible that some electrical in walls draining the battery. He quoted an example of a name (I suspect is a celebrity) living at Nashville (country singer??), she has this huge house. Her car was parked near some walls which have electrical wirings inside and actually drained her car's battery. I did not ask what model but it is a BMW.

We walked back into the Service Director's office, and the engineer started telling the director "she actually knows how to access the onboard computer, .. instrument cluster.." Of cos I have no idea what he was saying. All I heard next was "I bet 20 of your tech guys do not know what she knows". Wow.. Ok, clearly I must have done something right. Actually I am thankful for someone who has been so kind and patient to teach me everything I know. The credit is to him. So the engineer said he would like to keep the car for a day. I said please keep the car until any problem is fixed. I got a loaner, not complaining much cos it is brand new with only 8miles on it, though it is a very basic car.

On Wednesday evening, my SA called me and said the engineer would like the car to be driven with the voltmeter on it and someone is going to take the car home and run the test all night. My SA said this need authorization from me. I am not too thrilled but what choice do I have. I asked my SA if the car just going to be driven from service center to whoever's home and back. He said yes. I said ok as long as whoever drives my car is not going to take my car to the mall. He said that would not be authorized. He emailed me the form, I signed but put this "*only on condition no damage is to be incur on the car', scanned the signed form, and emailed back stating "Global Imports is responsbile for any damage(s) on the car". Ok, I am getting paranoid here, but can't blame me after hearing horror stories of how dealerships ruin/damage the cars. (I am right, my steerling wheel was scratched :( )

On Thursday evening, I called my SA cos I heard nothing from them. He said he was about to call me (I hope he wasn't lying). He said they find no other fault in the car. The engineer wanted the service center to explain to me in details what test they have done and show me the readings of the battery when I went to collect my car.

So this morning (Friday) I went to the Service Center. The tech guy who drove my car explained to me a voltmeter (think that was what he said) was plugged into the aux outlet, and the car was driven around. Think he said with the presence of the BMW engineer. The voltage was around 14.4-14.5 which is good, meaning the charging system is working. When he went home, he drew the reading, it was still good. He mentioned something about mills (Sp?) He said 80 is the magic number, anything below 80 is good. He said all the readings, the highest reading for the battery is like 20+..

He said he recharged the battery, I stopped him there and asked him if everything is working and charging properly, why the need to recharge the battery. He replied saying he was waiting for the engineer to come by, he just recharged it so that there won't be any problem. He and the director took me to a deck where the car was parked overnight. Okay, I didn't get it too, I thought the tech guy supposed to drive the car home and brought back in from his home to the service center. He told me the car was parked overnight with the hood propped up so that nothing disturbs the car and not waking the car up. Apparently even by opening the hood will wake up the car. He put the voltmeter with the 2 clips on the terminals, it reads 12.6V which he said is a fully charged battery. Of cos he has recharged my car battery remember? But well, he said to go ahead and opened the car door, and access the onboard computer.. so he was still taking readings and showing me the voltage readings actually dropped when all these things being done.. I told him I fully understood, but if I did the exact same things every time & if I see a dip in the reading, I will wonder why? I opened the same door, did the same thing and my commute the same everyday during that 5 days readings (they questioned the car woke up around same time but also depends where the car has been the day before).

So conclusion: they find no fault whatsoever. The tech guy has said the first diagnostic test came up nothing, so usually that is a sign for the tech people to look at the fault. For my case, he ran another test to specifically look into the car "manually" to find any fault. None. So their conclusion is my car is fine now. I did ask the service director and the tech guy if anyone has a theory why the "Terminal 15 was on". They have nothing. So I told them then perhaps let's leave it as a mystery for the time being. I did ask them could the walls in my condo building draining my battery or could some homeowners left their blackerrys in the cars n hence drained my battery. The service director said that may happen if the phone is paired with the car. And of cos now I wonder if something in other cars draining my car battery. could it be the DB9 parked near me or could it be the 328xl? Yes, I am going crazy here, hehe...

The service director said he would contact the engineer to see if he wants to come by my condo building soon or come by if I start to have the same problem. The director told me to contact him directly if there is any irregulairites occurred again. I called my SA after I got home to ask him to note in my record my steerling wheel was scratched and the service center is to fix it the next time I come. He said ok. I hope it can be smoothened n made less visible. My heart broke when I said the scratches. I was already driving far from the service center.
 
#194 ·
Surprise surprise.. when I went to the Service Director's office, the engineer was already there looking at my file. I briefly explained the whole situation and he told the Service Director to go ahead and reimburse me for the battery.
Excellent news. Did you have a new battery installed prior to the engineer coming on site or during?

The voltage was around 14.4-14.5 which is good, meaning the charging system is working. When he went home, he drew the reading, it was still good. He mentioned something about mills (Sp?) He said 80 is the magic number, anything below 80 is good. He said all the readings, the highest reading for the battery is like 20+..
He was likely referring to the current draw which would have been measured in milli-amperes for this particular measurement. Amperes is the measure of current drawn from a source (such as a battery, which is rated in amperes). Milli-amperes is 1/1000th of an ampere. According to this information any current draw less than 80mA (milli-amperes) during sleep is within specification. Anything above 80mA is out of specification and means the car is drawing too much current in its sleep state which would prematurely draw down the battery.
 
#239 ·
So both of us went to my car, I started showing him how I unlocked the onboard computer, his expression was amazed and very impressed.
Hi Terri. I've recently begun experiencing the same problem - increased battery discharge messages and wonky CA activity. I've read through this thread (admittedly in 2 separate sessions, so I might have missed something) but didn't see how you learned to access the on-board computer. I found these two guides (iDrive and non-iDrive), but the iDrive version (at least) looks like an older version of iDrive. I'd like to gather some data as I expect a fight from the only BMW dealer in town. How did you unlock the OBC?

Thanks!
 
#193 ·
Same thing my tech has been saying to us about our '08 535xi since we've had it...everything is normal...we need to drive the car more...lock the car even in the gargage...use a battery tender.

The interesting thing is that my 2011 335is (I've had it now 20 months) has been sitting in the garage not being used for over a week. My wife's car was not used but once over the weekend to go to the supermarket. (She uses it to drive 6 miles on the highway back and forth to work every weekday.) On Monday morning, my car's battery is fine and her's was so low that it wiped out all of her saved information "AGAIN".

The only thing my car does not have that hers does is the alarm system?
 
#195 ·
Hi beden! So your wife's car run on highway back and forth each way during weekdays and once over the weekend to go supermarket? From how the service center staffs been "brainwashing" me, hahaha.. ok they said driving short distances will not be sufficient to charge the battery. I told them I meet BMW's standard of "Battery Care". It stated if car is driven less than 10miles (per trip I believe) and not occasionally run on highways (I believe they referring to 30mins), the charging system won't work. I need to add something what the engineer said to me in my next post. He said my 200 miles over 14 days is perfectly good. But the service center still loves to talk about the low miles in my car. The service director said even 10 miles per trip is not sufficient to charge the battery. I told him I got that figure from the "Battery Care" but if we all meet BMW's standard, no one should fault us. If BMW likes, they can be very specific as to say drive more than 20 miles per trip, etc..
 
#199 ·
I need to reply to if it is possible to deactivate the car alarm when locking the door. I was told that it is supposed to arm the car and prevent theft after car is locked. So the answer is no. Then again I read 1 series has this original accessory, an anti-theft alarm that one can deactivate or activate it with the remote.
 
#202 ·
Terri,

Thank you so much for relaying my question, and also your diligence and very thorough and informative post on what's going on with your situation. Hopefully the end of the story has been written, but being somewhat of a cynic, I'm thinking 'to be continued'.

Thank you again.
 
#203 ·
Hi Lufthansa, you are very welcomed :) somehow I have the same feeling about the "to be continued" part ;)
I am pretty sure the BMW engineer and I will meet again soon :)
 
#208 ·
Fyi

http://bmwcoders.com/forum/attachme...e90-e91-e92-e93-03_e90-voltage-supply-bus-pdf

What I am getting from the way this works is it wakes up every 14 seconds and checks to see if the battery is still charged therefore using more of the battery capacity . Also now there are about 10 modules that it keeps in a state of readiness whenever you come near the car therefore drawing more charge out of the battery. It looks to me the only thing that needs be in a state of readiness is the ignition most of the time and the fob and door sensors .
I can't understand why they would make it wake up every 14 seconds cause its not going to matter to you until you start the car.
 
#209 ·
http://bmwcoders.com/forum/attachme...e90-e91-e92-e93-03_e90-voltage-supply-bus-pdf

What I am getting from the way this works is it wakes up every 14 seconds and checks to see if the battery is still charged therefore using more of the battery capacity . Also now there are about 10 modules that it keeps in a state of readiness whenever you come near the car therefore drawing more charge out of the battery. It looks to me the only thing that needs be in a state of readiness is the ignition most of the time and the fob and door sensors .
I can't understand why they would make it wake up every 14 seconds cause its not going to matter to you until you start the car.
Hi ctuna!! :) ok if that is the case, then all BMWs will have "Terminal 15 was on" issue. But looks like I am alone on that. Not even in any forum. I don't enjoy waiting and riding the elevator 4 floors down just to admire my car, hehe.. So nope my keyfob is not near close proximity of the car at all. Then again I read in one of the 2 articles I posted, not sure if it applies to BMWs, it mentioned something about cars will wake up when they detect signals when any keyfob is nearby and to match if it is the key that matches the car. That is a flawed design if you ask me because many cars nowadays have keyfobs and cars will not have their good night sleep. Speaking of sleep, I m finally sleepy!! nite!!
 
#210 · (Edited)
Well you are not alone with the battery issues.

Its just that they don't manifest in the same way or with the same severity.
But the fact that its not a problem on the older BMW's without this system
or other current cars says something about the design. There was a recent
report on Motorweek on Gosses garage about the fact modern cars are requiring
more and more battery capacity to run all the computers and sub modules on cars.
I had the terminal 15 error on my car but it is an 06 and I induced it by having
the doors open for 3 or 4 hours while modifying the stereo . Before I started working
on it knew the battery was low .
 
#211 ·
Its just that they don't manifest in the same way or with the same severity.
But the fact that its not a problem on the older BMW's without this system
or other current cars says something about the design. There was a recent
report on Motorweek on Gosses garage about the fact modern cars are requiring
more and more battery capacity to run all the computers and sub modules on cars.
I had the terminal 15 error on my car but it is an 06 and I induced it by having
the doors open for 3 or 4 hours while modifying the stereo . Before I started working
on it knew the battery was low .
I guess you have a point. The report on Motorweek is definitely spot on about modern cars requiring bigger battery capacity.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top