My 650 Battery keep dying - Fairfax, VA - BMW

Guys,
My 2008 650CI battery keep dying. I didn't drive it for about three weeks, and the car wouldnt start. I had it towed to Fairfax BMW, Va. The guy told me that the battery had one bad cell, and need to replace new one. They charged me 679.83 to replace the battery. It's ridiculous price for just replacing the battery.
He said he has to perform a test, because something drain my battery, and would charge me another 600 dollar for the test. But the test couldn't find out anything that cause it. Thus, he wave the test charge.
Three weeks later, my new battery die again.
They did fix the recall about the battery cable.
Do you guy have any idea what keep draining the battery?
Thanks,
LaRatta

For $693 I'd get another new battery. Did they mate the battery with the car properly? The programing is a big part of your price.

You can test the battery drain while the car is off with a basic multimeter.

Thankfully they waved the diagnosis charge, but I would still find new place to work on your car from now on, those rates are just insane.

$600 is at least hours of labor (@ $150/h) for something that takes about 30 minutes to test. Like Mulchman said you put a multimeter in series with the battery to see if there is a drain when the car is off, plus they could do a complete scan and look for bad modules. That does not take 4+ hours.

I would have an indie mechanic look at it. You could have some sort of system that is not shutting off. The stereo/navigation, heated mirrors etc...

Do you drive the car at least once a week or do you take only short trips? You may need to put a battery tender on the car.

$600 is typically what a dealer charges for a battery replacement - about $350 for the battery and $250 to program the car and tell it there is a new battery installed (this changes how the battery is charged).

You can get the battery for $250 from Tischer and have an indie mechanic program the car for about $50.

I would put the new battery on a long slow charge, until it reaches full charge. Have you added any aftermarket type systems that may be draining the battery? To any new owner of a BMW that is out of warranty, ask what cost will be charged upfront. Never give the dealer an open checkbook, because they will drain it fast!!!!!!!! Based on other BMW owners that I have talked with, the average repair bill is around 800.00 each time it goes in the shop!

Good Luck!

Just make sure they code the new battery correctly. When I bought my car. The dealer told me they had just replaced the battery. Low an behold a year later I replaced it then discovered they had indeed registered the new battery, but failed to code the proper type of battery. My Battery was a 90Ah AGM and they had it set to 110Ah Lead Acid. I only know this because i did the coding myself, thinking it woudl be easy, grin. Registering the battery change was pretty simple through DIS (the pain was getting DIS running). DIS kept replorting the 110Ah Lead Acid Battery. I eventually discovered I had to use Progman to actually code the battery to the actual 90Ah AGM. It was frustratiing knowing that a BMW Dealer failed to do it right the first time.

On another train of thought. My car has had starting problems as well. it is every once in a while she just fails to start. Walk away, and come back and she woudl start just fine. Sometimes it woudl reauire letting her sit overnight before she would start again, but she always starts, eventually. You may be having the same or similar problem, and it woudl not be the battery causing the issue.

hope this offers some help. Good luck.

Hi ! Going back to original problem,battery dead after not using it for 3 weeks! It will happen again with the new battery at some point if you do not use the car!! I would consider putting it on a trickle charge or charging once per week. Look at the CTek charger!!!