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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:
 
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#212 · (Edited)
The E90 uses alot more electronics than the E46. I owned an E46 for almost 9 years and in that time I only had to buy 1 battery for that car and it was not until I hit 5 years, granted I didn't have Navi or comfort access. If I had to do it over again and order my E90 again I would not have got the alarm or the comfort access. There both good features but for me not must have's, I wanted the rear parking sensors and the others were all part of a pkg. Still the E90 is basically run by a computer. When I was waiting in the lounge to pic up my car after they changed the footwell module, I heard the guy on the phone w/ the customer saying, "sir we need you to bring your car in so we can hook it up to the computer to find out what is wrong" he must have said it 3 times, "we need to hook it up to the computer". It was weird.


terri_atl,
Do you know what specs are on your battery? I believe there is a TSB campaign on the battery for certain build dates, I looked at mine and I have a 90ah 720a. I believe some people that were getting the increased battery discharge had a lower # than 90ah and BMW was changing their battery under warranty to the higher 90ah. So check that out too, you may have to take the cover off in the trunk to get to it but it's right on the white sticker on top of the battery, you want it to say 90ah
 
#213 ·
The E90 uses alot more electronics than the E46. I owned an E46 for almost 9 years and in that time I only had to buy 1 battery for that car and it was not until I hit 5 years, granted I didn't have Navi or comfort access. If I had to do it over again and order my E90 again I would not have got the alarm or the comfort access. There both good features but for me not must have's, I wanted the rear parking sensors and the others were all part of a pkg. Still the E90 is basically run by a computer. When I was waiting in the lounge to pic up my car after they changed the footwell module, I heard the guy on the phone w/ the customer saying, "sir we need you to bring your car in so we can hook it up to the computer to find out what is wrong" he must have said it 3 times, "we need to hook it up to the computer". It was weird.

terri_atl,
Do you know what specs are on your battery? I believe there is a TSB campaign on the battery for certain build dates, I looked at mine and I have a 90ah 720a. I believe some people that were getting the increased battery discharge had a lower # than 90ah and BMW was changing their battery under warranty to the higher 90ah. So check that out too, you may have to take the cover off in the trunk to get to it but it's right on the white sticker on top of the battery, you want it to say 90ah
Hi Bimmer, I have no idea what specs is my battery (original) or even the new one. So I tried to look at the paperwork that was given to me after they changed out my original battery with a new one, it has this 90AG4-145C0 in one description. I am not sure if this belonged to the original or new battery. You know there are some abbreviated letters, which I don't understand. I will check with my SA the next time but I hope I don't have to go there until my service date. Can I take out the cover in my trunk? It seemed to be non removable. I still don't quite get the location of the battery but I will try to locate it. Sorry, I am terrible in this.

Thanks for posting this, definitely very helpful to know. I need to learn more and will be grateful to have any info about this issue :)
 
#214 ·
Don't worry it is very easy. The battery is in the trunk on the right side. There is a plastic dial that you turn with your finger to open, then you pull up and towards you, its just a cover, it anchors at the bottom. The tray that holds the manual is all attached. It's bottom heavy because the tools r under the tray that holds the manual. To put it back put in the bottom first and hook it align it in place then the top and turn the plastic knob to lock it. Once u have the cover off get a flashlight and you can see the white sticker on the battery which tells u what size it is.
 
#215 ·
Thanks!! I will try it tomorrow. Will post back here after I tried your method :)
 
#216 ·
No problem. I'm sure you must have the 90ah battery, I have it and my 2011 was built in Oct 2010 but it never hurts to check your car. Here is the thread that shows the TSB bulletin on this look at post #12

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=599074&highlight=90ah

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10847611&postcount=12

Here is another thread on the battery replacement under warranty

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=538228&highlight=0061380300

Hope this helps if you didn't already know about it.
 
#217 ·
Thanks! I got this car in March 2011. How do you know when your car was built. Anyway, my original battery that came with the car has been changed out. I have a new battery installed 2 days before Xmas. Initially dealer made me paid, but the BMW engineer asked them to reimburse me back.
 
#219 ·
If you open your drivers's car door, inside the door jam is a plate, on it will show your VIN # and on the 2nd line on the far right side is your build date, mine says 10/10, meaning it was built Oct 2010. I actually know it was built the last week of Oct because my dealer SA advised me everyweek what stage my car was in.
 
#220 ·
Oh... :rofl:

Sorry.. thank you for being so patient with me. I never notice it I guess :eek: I will look out for that tomorrow too.

Have a great evening!! Will post back here tomo :)
 
#230 ·
The BMW engineer called me last evening, he's going to come over my place one of the weekends to check if there is anything here that will drain the car battery. I can't wait!! :)
 
#253 ·
Hi Lufthansa, you mean any series other than the 3 has battery issues?
 
#254 ·
Hi all, sorry been swarmed with work for the past many days. Meant to post an update here sooner.

The BMW engineer came to my condo and ran some tests on my car. All seems to be working great. The car was sleeping soundly. The alternator seemed to be doing its work, the charging level is 14.3 The voltage when the car was sleeping - 12.73V (if I remembered correctly). I am pretty sure he said it was voltage of a 99% charged battery.

He hooked up many cables, put in a gadget and left but to return in an hour. He drove up n parked next to my car and said he would charged my car battery while he rana test so that my car battery would not deplete any of mine as a result. So he hooked up his laptop n started generating data. He mentioned there are 60 computers in my car, and the full data was 50 pages long. The data would tell him everythingabout the car for the last 45 days. He said he would look through them n if he sees any abnormality, he would call me.

Told him I haven't gotten the reimbursement for the battery and the service center scratched my steering wheel. He said he would talk to the service director on Monday when he was scheduled to visit. He would also make sure the scratched part would be taken care of.

On Monday he called back and said the reimbursement check has been sent and I should receive it this week. He was being told the check needed two signatures so that took quite a bit of time. He also said the next time when I was due for service (oil change), to remind my SA that my scratched leather needs to be fixed. He said he has make sure that has been placed in my file.

The engineer has been so kind n helpful. I feel really grateful knowing he is always going to be around to help :)

So hopefully my car will be happy from now onwards and not give me any same issue again :) *fingers crossed*
 
#257 ·
Hi all, sorry been swarmed with work for the past many days. Meant to post an update here sooner.

The BMW engineer came to my condo and ran some tests on my car. All seems to be working great. The car was sleeping soundly. The alternator seemed to be doing its work, the charging level is 14.3 The voltage when the car was sleeping - 12.73V (if I remembered correctly). I am pretty sure he said it was voltage of a 99% charged battery.

He hooked up many cables, put in a gadget and left but to return in an hour. He drove up n parked next to my car and said he would charged my car battery while he rana test so that my car battery would not deplete any of mine as a result. So he hooked up his laptop n started generating data. He mentioned there are 60 computers in my car, and the full data was 50 pages long. The data would tell him everythingabout the car for the last 45 days. He said he would look through them n if he sees any abnormality, he would call me.

Told him I haven't gotten the reimbursement for the battery and the service center scratched my steering wheel. He said he would talk to the service director on Monday when he was scheduled to visit. He would also make sure the scratched part would be taken care of.

On Monday he called back and said the reimbursement check has been sent and I should receive it this week. He was being told the check needed two signatures so that took quite a bit of time. He also said the next time when I was due for service (oil change), to remind my SA that my scratched leather needs to be fixed. He said he has make sure that has been placed in my file.

The engineer has been so kind n helpful. I feel really grateful knowing he is always going to be around to help :)

So hopefully my car will be happy from now onwards and not give me any same issue again :) *fingers crossed*
To sum it up the battery was replaced and no other issues found?
 
#263 ·
Hi Verts4Ever, not yet. You see this "unassigned" heated seats that flashed across the iDrive doesn't show up every time :( but the engineer said to take a pic of it the next x it shows up n email him. The weather is like in the 50s here on average, it was 65F yesterday. Crazy winter, so I didn't get to use the heated seats much. But I will be watching it.
 
#276 ·
I heard that saying before, of cos I strongly disagree even before I walked over and join "the dark side" ;P
 
#277 ·
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!
 
#278 · (Edited)
Hi djenka2!

You probably have read about my frustration initially when the dealer suggested my fob was too near the car which implies either I slept in my car or in the parking deck.

Since the battery was replaced last December, I have no more battery issue. It's absurd that a brand new car and a car battery can start to giving problem after about 8 months.

When my car was sent in for the first year maintenance service in March, the shop foreman told me sometimes car batteries become defective after the cars are made and are ready to deliver overseas. Say they may sat at the port for a period of time, and also those times when they arrive in US and eventually to the dealer. At least ie what he told me. Since the engineer from BMW stepped in and got my battery replaced for free and also personally checked my car, the service center has been exceptionally nice to me. I have no complaints though this morning I have to send my car in cos the glove compartment was jammed. It just happened out of the blue. Very strange!

Thank you for posting here :)
 
#279 ·
@teri_atl, I am glad issue is gone. What a coincidence, my glove compartment get jammed few times as well but I thought it's from over 40C inside (plastic expanded or something), hmm strange.
Interesting thing is (or it's dealership's theory) what ever you bring the car in for they say, "ohh it's common for that car". I first brought mine to have rear suspensions replaced due to suspension air bags are gone and they said "ohh it's common at X5s". When I came to pick up the car I was joking and said "hopefully there won't be any errors when I sit in the car" (after every service new error comes up) and guess what? Yes, new error, something like "dual tail lights" and guess what they said "ohh it's common at X5s", come on is there anything that's not common, what's next to expect...
Anyway, I found out, the less you visit the dealership (even if it's regular maintenance) the less headache you will have.

Good luck!
 
#282 ·
Hi djenka2,

The service center did not tell me why or if it is a common issue. Then again things break even though I am known to take good care of my things. I am glad my glove compartment is working again even though I don't open it on a daily basis. I hope your X5 is not giving you any problem at the moment :)

Yup, I have to say it's very tiring to bring in the car for service/repair. They gave me a 2012 328i convertible as a loaner this time. It sure drives better than a very basic 328 loaner but I sure miss my Harmon Kardon.
 
#283 ·
Hi there! I believe the service center always register a new battery with the car. I have to pair my phone all over again.
 
#281 ·
After the battery was replaced in our 328xi we found that the real problem was really the battery cable that includes the current sensor. Fortunately it was all covered under the warranty.
 
#284 ·
Hi mgthompson, for my case, they can't locate any other problem. My car battery has no problem since the replacement. I hope it stays this way *fingers crossed"
 
#287 ·
hi, getting, Increased Battery Discharge message on 2010 328I convertible, vehicle has 11, 500 miles, does battery need to be replaced? , when the car s turned off i don't see anything that could be draining the battery... thanks
 
#288 ·
Hi Tropics! I am no expert in cars but of cos if you have read my postings from the beginning, you know I have this same problem. You know the dealer/service center will first blamed on your low mileage in the car. Actually I am going to ask if you live in a house or condo, if you have recently not drive this car for over 7 days, do you play your music with the engine off.. I am sorry to ask so many questions. I am trying to help by sharing what I learned, my situation (living in a high rise, in a city), what the service center and the engineer from BMW have said or advised. So please feel free to share with me any info. U do know the service center will try to blame it on your driving pattern n made you pay the battery. I did my homework and got the engineer from BMW involved and got the charge reversed. Write back soon :)
 
#289 ·
Fyi

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...YR5QNFyu70IsyKRlg&sig2=n01pCoLeEeHrH8mjC3ThAA

Even when the car is sitting it will use some power .
If you lock the car it will use less.( as it puts it in a low current draw state)
Also keep the fob well away from the car.

If you leave the car sitting or only drive it short distances the battery will not
recharge.
If your driving profile fits in the last description you should get a battery tender/charger
such as a ctek3300 and use it .
 
#291 ·
#292 ·
Hi all, since the dealer has replaced the battery in my car in Dec 2011, I no longer have this "Increased Battery Discharge" issue. I dropped my car off yesterday so that the service center can fix the "recall" problem. When I picked up my car this morning, the system alerted a warning sign when I was on my way out. I had to turn the car in, the warning? "Increased Battery Discharge"! Anyone has any take on this? I am wondering if someone did not lock my car when it was at the service center the whole day yesterday or the recall repair has created a new problem. Any idea is very much appreciated here. Thanks!
 
#293 · (Edited)
Lufthsana the member have measured the draw at .5 amps

Lufthsana the some members have measured the draw at .5 amps
in the awake mode . The asleep mode has been measures at 10 - to 20 ma without and alarm .
Granted it will draw more with and alarm but I don't think
it will be .5 amps . The only way to know it to measure it.
They probably depleted Teri's battery by working on the car but if her driving profile hasn't changed
you are going to have to replace the battery every two years.
To disagree is Ok to measure it the only truth.
 
#295 ·
Lufthsana the some members have measured the draw at .5 amps
in the awake mode . The asleep mode has been measures at 10 - to 20 ma without and alarm .
Granted it will draw more with and alarm but I don't think
it will be .5 amps . The only way to know it to measure it.
They probably depleted Teri's battery by working on the car but if her driving profile hasn't changed
you are going to have to replace the battery every two years.
To disagree is Ok to measure it the only truth.
Hello Ctuna! During the past 2 years, my driving pattern has changed a little but I never have this battery problem ever since and even when I brought my car for service a few times. My first battery lasted me 9 months when it started giving me problem. Just hope it was something with them not locking my door (cos I have to teach my new service advisor how to lock the door) or something to do with the repairing of the battery cable (recall).
 
#296 ·
Hello Lufthansa! Can't believe I am back here talking about battery again. Maybe I jinxed myself when I ran into this technician who worked on the battery issue 2 years back. I was telling him the car has no more battery problem :(
 
#297 ·
My advisor called and said the technician test drove my car the whole day :( and couldn't duplicate the warning message. So we agreed to leave the car overnight and I would pick it up tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!!
 
#298 ·
Update: I have written to the very nice support engineer from BMWNA. He just replied letting me know the warning was set when the repair was done. Battery has to be disconnected during the repair. He has also checked the data the car sent to the servers in Munich, my car was perfectly fine. So ok, perhaps false alarm here. Hehe.. Yes, it is a big relief for me esp hearing from the engineer :)
 
#299 ·
Three years later, thanks for your help. My 2009 328xi has had the "Increased Battery Discharge" warning on a few times. I do drive only short trips, and I do leave my lights on automatic, so perhaps that's it.

I am nervous about buying the battery tender from the link above... is it possible for me to damage my car with this? What should I absolutely not do? Also, would it help if I charge my battery with the tender for a few hours now and then (i.e., when I am near a real garage with outlets)?

Thanks so much!

Sheila in Boston
 
#300 · (Edited)
Which link the Cteks are very fault tolerant.

Which link the Cteks are very fault tolerant
Buy a model 3300 or better.
Also I believe they have a harness that can be attached
that only allows you to plug it in the right way.
Most battery chargers have a reverse sensing circuit
that prevents you from doing damage . (look for it)
plus they are not all that expensive.
Also locking the car causes it to go to sleep which saves the battery .
The batterys last about 6 years even in a car that is driven a lot.
I top my battery off about every three weeks.
Cold Climates are hard on battery's.
 
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