[ronin550]

Hey guys, I don't know if anyone has experienced this, but I was cleaning my car and had the car doors open. Then I put my car key into the ignition to start it and this crazy loud tone came up front the center counsel and the speakers made this extremely loud crackling noise. It would not go away and the crackling in the speakers would go in and out and then get extremely loud. I freaked out! The center counsel, LCD and everything else was working properly. My idrive worked. It was just this loud tone, then the tone died down and got lower and then stopped. I put turned off the car and then tried turning it on again and SAME THING! There was a message that said ATTENTION and the image of a car lift appear on where the spedometer is.

Eventually the car just died and would not turn on.

I have no clue what is going on. I had to have the car battery jumped. I'm not sure if this happened as a result of a dead battery or some kind of short circuit. Has this ever happened to anyone?!?!?!?

Taking the car to BMW to have it looked at. BTW I have a 2010 550.

Also, it seems like the noise is gone after the car was jumped and seems like everything is working properly. Letting the car run right now to charge the battery. I will take it out in a bit to see if it comes back.

 

[bmwoem1]

Yes, this was caused by the low battery voltage. The MOST bus control units are sensitive to voltage fluctuations. Thle problem should not reoccur after battery replacement.

 

[ronin550]

You're right it was the battery. I got a charge and everything went back to normal but ill probably have to replace the battery.

Are batteries covered under the 4 year warranty??

 

[bmwoem1]

Yes they are covered, but it might be tricky in this case. They will be able to see that you drained the battery (while cleaning your car) and might consider it "unfavorable driver profile". I'm a bmw tech so I see these situations pretty often. They will replace it when the diagnostic equipment says the battery failed, not when the battery was drained by something or someone, they will just recharge it.

 

[sl8tr]

Maybe unrelated but I had my windows tinted a while back and when I picked it up I had a crackling sound coming from the speakers also. Turns out he sprayed water from a squeeze bottle on the rear window. The parcel shelf was damp but once it dried out the issue went away. I only bring this up because you mentioned you had cleaned your car before this started...