jusdoit

Can you imagine having to reprogram your BMW every time you returned from a business trip where you're out of town for one week? If I don't drive my 535xi for three days it will lose all memorized settings, to include radio stations, seat/positioning settings, trip distance, clock settings, etc... All of it gone. Additionally, this is a 535xi... after sitting for three days, it will also say that there is a malfunction with the DSC and the AWD is inoperable. Upon starting and driving the car, reprogramming everything, all will be fine until I leave on my next > three day trip.

I took the car into the service department today and was told that the battery was "low" and that it just needed to be charged. There were no bad cells. Personally, if the battery starts the damn car, it's obviously not that "low." Is there a CMOS battery? Do you know of a service bulletin identifying this problem? Any help would be of great assistance. I really don't like having to reprogram everything every time I fly out of town for a week long business trip. Thanks!

luigi524td

You'll find lots of posters reporting battery problems for their vehicles.

They mostly boil down to driving usage that is (according to BMW SA's) insufficient to maintain the battery charge. That said, if you are driving your car enough miles the other 4 days of the week it should be able to park for 3 days w/o losing its mind! It seems to me that the current drain of our cars, when parked for a few days, exceeds the capacity of the battery. You would think that an easy solution would be to replace batteries with a higher amp capacity and ensure the vehicle charging system has sufficient capacity to recharge the battery under "normal" circumstances.

As a low benchmark, since BMW promotes its leases based on 10K miles/year ... its cars should be usable at that driving level (~27 days/day).

However, based on what I've been reading, I would have to cancel all of my 15 day holidays unless I can plug in my BMW and keep the battery charged !!!

BMWNA are you listening?

325/528

That seems like an awfully short period of time for that to happen. I parked my 528xi for 2 weeks in the garage in Indiana in the winter, and it was probably 45 degrees inside. No memory setting loss and no problem starting it. It must have a drain problem. You can either accept it and get a battery tender and plug it in when you're not using it or do what I would do which is complain and make them fix it.

jusdoit

And again pointing out... It's charged enough to start the car, so why not enough to store memorized settings?

sixcard

I am no expert but I've been there and seen that.

I believe the system disables less critical functions so as to preserve some CCAs to crank the engine.

sc

gerrypd

2 words for you, buddy, TRICKLE CHARGE.

skylolow

Its a design flaw that BMW needs to address. Telling people they don't drive enough (might be true for like 1%) or to use a battery tender is like saying you have stain on your carpet just put a rug over it. There is a problem here and they need to address it. I'd voice my concern to BMW USA and see what they have to say.

LW78

+1 on this. If the battery isn't 100% anymore (that's why they are replacing it), the car makes sure it'll start, but cuts off less important sources.

porsche911targa

I agree 100%. We pay enough for these cars and should not accept such lame-ass answers. Seems like this dealer is too lazy to look into the problem. I'd either talk to the service manager at the same dealer or to a different dealer altogether. I would then escalate the issue to the regional BMW rep, if no dealer can take of this.

bigbadbull

If you want to see no answers or can't figure out what's wrong , take a look at what I'm going threw..
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=69068

I still have yet to hear back any progress since Sat morning.