Charge Battery?? Really??

A couple of days ago I had my 2013 X3 out while doing some errands. At the end of an about 30 minute drive through the city I shut it off and was greeted with the warning chime and the display saying "Charge Battery". This is the first vehile I've ever owned in my 35 years of driving experience where the alternator was not able to keep the battery charged while driving normally - stop and start with no unusually long periods of time at idle with a lot of power hungry accessories like headlights, heated seats, rear defrost, etc. all turned on. The temperature outside at the time was about -20C (-4F) and I did have the heated driver's seat on as well as the heated steering wheel, but that's it.
So what gives?? By my way of thinking a vehicle's charging system should be able to keep up with any demands the electrical system can place on it. Does BMW need to do more cold weather testing with their vehicles? Comments??
BTW, when I came back to the X3 after a couple of hours of it sitting outside in a mall parking lot it started fine.

To improve fuel savings the alternator is designed to charge on deceleration and take advantage of the vehicle's kinetic energy.

I too have had that message displayed but after a five minute drive in sport mode with plenty of intended engine revving (gearing down) the battery was good to go. Actually one of my HID headlights failed during this incident but magically fixed itself upon restart (designed by Microsoft... haha, fixed by a simple re-boot).

I have thought about hooking up my multimeter to the battery to confirm the car only charges on deceleration... but hell, a $50-70K car should be smart enough to charge the battery if discharged regardless of accelerating or decelerating...

I have had my 2012 X3 just over a year now and when I got to work this morning and shut my X3 off I also got the charge battery indicator for the first time. It was also -10 F (-23 C) this morning and I was running my heated seat and steering wheel. My commute is about 25 miles and is mostly highway so there isn't a lot of deceleration going on during my commute. I wonder if the error is more temperature related than an actual charging problem. If my X3 doesn't start when I'm done with work today I'm going to be pissed.

Originally Posted by colson79

I have had my 2012 X3 just over a year now and when I got to work this morning and shut my X3 off I also got the charge battery indicator for the first time. It was also -10 F (-23 C) this morning and I was running my heated seat and steering wheel. My commute is about 25 miles and is mostly highway so there isn't a lot of deceleration going on during my commute. I wonder if the error is more temperature related than an actual charging problem. If my X3 doesn't start when I'm done with work today I'm going to be pissed.

Sounds like my commute. I'll have to watch that with my new X3. You would think it would go into charge mode like any other vehicle if the charge got too low. Not sure if there are any BMW Techs on the forum(s) that could comment about how it works.

Agree with noka... the car should charge regardless if the battery is low. I never did hook up the multimeter to see if the battery charges at other times.

Colson79, I trust your car will start given the manual extracts below:

I had a charge battery warning on Christmas eve, when it was about -20 here in Calgary... this was shortly after taking several short (10 min) back-to-back trips. Cold weather starts are very hard on batteries, and it only gets compounded by all the electronic gizmos in our cars.

I threw on my $30 C-Tek charger from Canadian tire overnight and I haven't had any problem since. It's pretty sad to have to plug in a brand new $60k car... but I've just accepted it as a fact of life with everything we demand from our cars these days - heated seats & steering wheel, nav, bluetooth, 16 speakers, comfort access, and better fuel economy.

As long as it starts I will through it on the charger when I get home. It's not suppose to get above zero for a few more days so I don't want to run into any problems. Still I have never had this issue with any of my other (and much cheaper) cars so it's kind of annoying, but you are correct that there are a lot more gadgets in my BMW that take a toll on the battery.

Yeah, after my incident I used a C-Tek charger too and have not had any problems since either. Got mine at Cdn Tire too, but seem to remember paying a lot more than $30 for it, hmmm.

Originally Posted by Norm50

Yeah, after my incident I used a C-Tek charger too and have not had any problems since either. Got mine at Cdn Tire too, but seem to remember paying a lot more than $30 for it, hmmm.

My mistake... it was probably more around $45 (at 50% off, it goes on sale pretty often). I picked it up even before I got the X3, figuring that my wife's Mazda3 battery would die from being neglected (since we carpool). Little did I know that I'd be using it on the new BMW first.

I just started getting the “charge battery” message a couple of days ago. I have a 2012 750Li and I believe that if you don’t drive it every day the battery goes k-put. It came on again this morning, but after off and on driving, it has not come back on.

Anyone have or know about CTEK charger(s) or could comment on model 3300 vs. 7002 for use with X3?
I found this post that I'm also reviewing: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=656587

Originally Posted by colson79

As long as it starts I will through it on the charger when I get home. It's not suppose to get above zero for a few more days so I don't want to run into any problems. Still I have never had this issue with any of my other (and much cheaper) cars so it's kind of annoying, but you are correct that there are a lot more gadgets in my BMW that take a toll on the battery.

Good news is my X3 started without issue last night when I was leaving work. I drove home and shutoff my X3 and didn't get the warning that time. I charge the battery anyway and didn't have any issues this morning so hopefully the problem is gone.