Battery drain....after 2 days sitting dead...

Well I have searched threw this forum I think i spoted everything the most common was the FSR....which we disconnected and still had a drain.....mayb just disconnecting this part is not enough?

We removed all aftermarket parts .....we removed every fuse on the front box and rear box...the only fuses left are 5-6 major ones a separate box they look liek S fuses cant really remove those cause we dont know what they control.


Any help wpuld be appreciated?

Could it be that even by disconnecting the FSR maybe i need to wait 15-30minutes before checking? or should Ijust purchase a new FSR and install it?

I have a drain on my elec. system right now. My battery keeps dying and I have a charger/jumper in my trunk to get me around. I'm taking the car into Eastside Bavarian tomorrow to get it worked on. Had to wait a week to get in.

I will report back what they find and fix tomorrow. This my help you.

2000 528i

Please keep me update cause i guess my last solution will be to go to the dealer buy a FSR try it out and if that doenst work bring them the car so they can charge me 90$can/hour

I have the same problem. Do either of you have DSP? I believe mine to be a failing amp.

Blown resistor in my heating unit. Took them 10 munites to find.

Originally Posted by WSU98BMW200

Blown resistor in my heating unit. Took them 10 munites to find.

part would be 64116923204?/

Total parts and labor for THAT fix $184.30

Would this be the same as a "blower motor resistor"? Or could a bad blower motor resistor cause the same symptions? If so, we have a winner.

In otherwords, are FSU and blower motor resistor the same?

Bumpity bump. Also, would this throw any codes? I've had mine into the stealership for this.

First time, they tested the battery and replaced it.
Second time, they tried replacing the ignition switch.

Neither of these turned out to be the culprit, the tech was guessing it was my DSP amp. Now, if anyone is in Atlanta and wants to loan me their DSP amp for 30 seconds, I can test this and return the amp. I think they are $1000-$1200 new, maybe $350'ish on fleabay.

I get a "hiss" out of my front right speaker when the car is turned off. Disconnecting the amp relieves the problem (as well as prevents the stereo from working).

I would much rather replace my blower motor resistor if this could possibly be the culprit. I know mine was failing and the cause of intermittent fan operation for the A/C unit.

Anyone?

Originally Posted by JYG Y2k5285spCT

part would be 64116923204?/

I guess i need to find one to see if its that for me as well....since I did remove the FSR but the drain didnt go away i guess maybe it gives a feedback to a control module...

Hello, I am new to this site. I have a 2001 540ia Sport and have recently ran into a battery drain. My 540 has 22K miles and does spend too much time in the garage since getting a company car. Originally I thought I had a dead battery due to the lack of driving over the winter, but after replacing the battery I got about 3 weeks of driving before it died.

After reading through this post, it seems I have the same issue. What was the outcome? Did you get your drain fixed?

Thanks

Ken

I've had similar problems with my battery dying when parked for a few days. In total frustration I asked my dealer if they could put a battery disconnect switch in. They agreed and to my surprise they installed a lovely and tidy disconnect switch. Interesting part is that the actual switch comes wired into every BMW coming over from Europe. Part of the sale readiness process is removing the battery disconnect switch. Guess them engineers over there have found out about dead batteries too! I have pics if any one wants to see them drop me a note.

Good luck and keep us posted on why your battery keeps dying.

Bix

BIX, when you shut off your battery, do you loose all of your settings?

It is interesting that my battery issue has just started and a new battery did not cure my issue. I have seen alot of reponses on other sites that my battery is just draining because of sitting. They are all stating the same issue I currently have.

Regardless I want this fixed so i can take he out. It's getting pretty nice out there for a swift drive!

The final stage resistor is about a $100 part....since they fail so frequently, I would start there. Worse case, you now have a spare. But it seems from my monitoring this site, that 90% of the time, battery drain is related to the FSR failing.

Originally Posted by Bix

I have pics if any one wants to see them drop me a note.

I would love to see some pictures. Please post or PM me if you would rather email the pictures. And how much did this switch cost?

Just to throw my two cents in.

My 2000 528i over this past winter would be dead if I left it for a couple days. I also had my AC/Heat fan take on a life of it's own (the screen showed what the fan speed should be, but it really was doing what ever it wanted).

Both problems went away after replacing the FSR.

My 2001 X5 4.4i was having some issues lately with the battery draining. I took the battery out and charged it and put it back in (a PITA btw to get it in/out from the trunk under the spare) and things were fine for another week then the battery was dead again.

Took the battery to LocalCarPartsMart and had it checked. They informed me my alternator was bad. I said that i've been driving around with no issue and that I can jump a dead battery then drive around for a half hour and the battery is charged back up. He looked at me blankly again and said that I will need a new alternator.

So I fled that place and went to sears to get the battery checked. They told me it was bad and I should replace it. In my joy of having found what I thought the problem was, I said ok and then paid for a battery with a surprise $29.99 for install "because it's hard to get it in and out of the trunk...". Never assume that if you buy a battery at sears that they would install it for free.

No problems for a week then BAM. Dead battery. I jumped it and have been carrying a little jumper pack around but this morning it was completely dead. I mean totally dead, not just weak. The battery jumper did not have the strength to start it.

I took it out, charged it up, put it back and drove it around some. This time though, I noticed that after I turned the car off, the floor air would still be blowing lightly and I could hear a fan running if I listened for something in the vents.

Couple of searches later and I came across the blower motor resistor/final stage unit. I went to Momentum BMW West (a crappy dealership btw) and paid 125 after tax for the part and installed it and voila, no more problems.

The funny thing about it was that I had zero issue with the fan not working or doing whatever it wanted to while the vehicle was running. It just intermittently would not stop running when the vehicle was off. It's possible it was doing it the whole time I was having this problem, but I just failed to notice it. The floor air was running when i replaced the FSU and the moment i disconnected the old one, the floor air stopped. I put int he new one and it did not come back on.

There is a guide to install an FSU in a 5 series out there which is similar to an X5. The differences being that the carpet side panel cover is held in w/ one screw that is visible, then it has three of the little plastic pop outs (the same kind that hold the interior door panels in) a DC outlet, and a tab at the end of the panel toward the rear of the vehicle. I took the screw out, pulled the panel toward me until i could flex it enough that I could pull the tab on the left hand side of it out, then worked it out.

Once I got that worked out, it helped tremendously to remove the plastic panel under the glove compartment (remove the two tabs that hang down by twisting them any direction 90° then pull down and then remove one screw). I removed some skin from my hand trying to disconnect the plug to the FSU itself and finally gave up and pried it out with a screwdriver. Putting back in takes some patience but keep at it and remember you can come at it not only from behind but you can somewhat feel from underneath.

I went through this nightmare. I changed out the FSU and the problem resolved. Months later a similar problem popped up. Found worn trunk wires. Freyed and broken wires were shorting out. Now the trunk opens with the remote again and battery drain has ended.

I think I may have a similar issue. If I have the vehicle running/ powered w/ the key and I open up the trunk lid, the rear window windshield wiper and spray goes off.

THis only happens when I use the hand button to open the upper half of the hatch lid. If i press the button while the hatch lid is open, the wipers go and the spray goes off also. I just ignore it but if you know of an issue like this that has been fixed, i'm searching for it now.

Originally Posted by X5 751

I think I may have a similar issue. If I have the vehicle running/ powered w/ the key and I open up the trunk lid, the rear window windshield wiper and spray goes off.

That's a new one to me but certainly a plethora of weird electrical gremlins occur due to a frayed trunk lid loom wiring.

As for the FSR (aka FSU), since you disconnected it and the problem remains, it's not that - but I too cast my vote for the replacement final stage resistor (aka final stage unit) fixing my monthly battery drain problems (battery went dead overnight periodically).

Good luck - and - if someone has a picture of that battery-disconnect switch, I'd love to see it because I constantly have to "reboot" my DICE Silverline by manually disconnecting the battery.

If there's a convenient battery-disconnect switch I can install, that would help immensely!

Hey Blue -- here's a pic of a very handy little disconnect switch you can get from Griots Garage. Turn the green knob, and battery is disconnected. Now I can leave the 530 for a while with no worries. Like maybe during this blizzard - don't know when I'll be back on road.

All I have to do afterwards is reset the time and date.

For others -- if you are leaving car for a few days, lock the car manually. The security system is a big draw.

I think everyone has had a battery drain problem at some time, My fix
was to remove the CD pack.....
I replaced the battery / FSU before pulling the CD pack.
No problem in 8 months

Please excuse my ingnorance what is the CD pack. Thanks

I put the Priority Start on my M5. It will disconnect the battery if the voltage drops below 12 and you can reset it by just going to start on the ignition switch. $35 bucks on the bay. I used it until I found the drain and just decided to leave it on since the car isn't driven too much.

what is that priority start thing? have not heard of something that will disconnect your battery if it drops below 12V.