Hi

I have a 2008 E60 520d saloon.
I've had a lot of work done to it recently. A few months back, I had a Nokia phone kit installed, along with a
HD-based media player, and a reversing camera, both of which feed into the iDrive screen.
Just in the last few weeks, stage two was a complete overhaul of the audio system. New speakers, earthquake subs
and three amps to power them all. I also installed an inverter in the boot.

Since I got the car back, I have experienced a warning that the battery is discharging at a high rate. This has happened
with the car parked overnight.
We initially thought that the cause was the phonekit, but it doesn't appear to be.
We've gone through everything now and the problem *may* be cured. The media player has a manual switch, as has the inverter,
so those shouldn't cause any problems.
Right now, my installer reckons it's cured, so I'll try things out for a few days and see how things are going.
Two auto electricians have looked at the car and have declared it ok.

One of the electricians measured the standby current. Once the doors are locked, the current drops substantially as you'd
expect. The worrying thing is that my installer quoted the second electrician as saying the standby current was 'less than
half an amp'. I have an 80 amp hr battery, so that leaves me just a week before the battery goes flat. I'll talk to the electrician
tomorrow, to confirm what the actual measurement was. He did say that it seemed normal to him.
What is a normal value for current consumption on a parked E60?

My other concern is a whirring noise, like a fan, coming from the area around the climate controls. It stays on, even with the key
out of the ignition and I don't remember hearing that before the work was carried out. I'm concerned that the current leakage is
coming from here and I don't know whether the noise eventually stops by itself. That said, we've checked another E60 and it seems
to have the noise too. Just wondering if anyone else has heard it?

My real difficulty is that I often have to leave my car for weeks on end. Probably the longest period so far has been around six weeks
and I got the high discharge warning on that occasion. I don't have a problem with this, but if the battery only lasts a week, I'm
going to have serious problems.

TIA

Hey galvin, do a forum search. This issue has been discussed on and on and on over the past few months.

sixcard :)

All e60's need to get the battery adaptation implemented, whenever a "new" battery is replaced to prolong the new battery's service life.I started with this staement because I am aware that many choose to bypass " programing " because it is a "nuisance" that equates to a good fraction of the cost of a new battery. In your case, it seems that you will definetly neeed a trickle charger to maintain your battery condition while your vehicle is not driven during the storage period, as most e60's do experience some form of static discharge during storage (lack of vehicle being driven). If you are serious about having an audio system ( as it sounds you are ) you defeinely need to upgrade your alternator to a 200+ amp alternator to keep up with your sound systems power requirements. The amp ratinf could be less or more but that depends on the specs of your current audio gear setup. Lamen terms: you e60 already heavily depends on the electrical system without a new / serious sound system implemented. If your alternator isn't spinning to recharge the battery, you battery will not have adequate current from which to draw from. A trickle charger alone may or may not provide sufficient power in the future without an alternator upgrade.

I talked to the auto electrician today and 'less than half an amp' turns out to be less than bugger all.
The current, when parked, hardly registered on the meter.
Hopefully, all is well. I'm giving it a good cut tomorrow so we'll see how she runs.