skibarefoot

Thanks for this great source of information and sharing. I post a lot on a forum for ford diesel trucks, www.thedieselstop.com. I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge and experiance here too.

Well, back to my problem. The car is going to sleep. I got tied up and could not go look at when exactly the car went to sleep but the gear shift indicator is out and there a 2.5 amp draw still. All fuses where put back in when checking to see if the car went to sleep. Now what? Thanks again.

billeul

I have a 04 545 that had a very similar problem. It spend a month at the dealer while they tried to figure out what was draining the battery. They concluded that the TCU was bad, not allowing the car to go to sleep. They replaced the TCU and everything was fine for 6 months, then it happened again. Again they keep the car for several weks and came to the same conclusion and replaced the TCU. (the replacement TCUs are remanufactured). This time they tried to tell me that BMWNA told them that pairing my Blackberry 8830(not on compatible phone list) was damaging the TCU an that if I continued to pair the Blackberry they would not replace another TCU, if the problem reoccured. My problem first occured while the car was in warranty but then reoccured after the warranty expired. The dealer was very good about honoring a recurring problem. At any rate, I didn't buy the 8830 story and requested to meet with BMWNA engineering. BMWNA engineering agreed with me, he also used a Blackberry 8830, and told me to use my Blackberry. All is fine after 3 months, but I have been using a battery tender if the car will not be driven for 2 days.

skibarefoot

Do you know if the car was indicating it was sleeping? According to another member if the gear indicator light is out the car is asleep. My indicator light is out but that is not to say the car is not actually sleeping. My battery is dying overnight. I tried a battery tender until I figure this out but the tender could not keep up. The battery was still dead in the morning.

methodsound

I would suggest a low tech search just in case you get lucky. Here is my idea: Since any devise using electricity would have to either make noise, light up, heat up, vibrate, ect., you could look for that (while your car is asleep).

I have diagnosed E39 battery drains this way by just listening carefully for any noise around and inside the car. Do you feel any air moving thru the air vents, or hear any cooling fans in your radio/ amp/ satellite tuner, Nav disc or CD spinning in the head unit, CD's changing in the CD changer. Do any relays in your fuse boxes vibrate or get hot to the touch? Any noise from fuel pumps or valvetronic motors? Buzzing headlight ballast?

skibarefoot

I thought of that too. It's got to be pin drop quiet to hear what sounds like a small fan running in the center of the dash. I don't know enough about these cars to know if this is normal. Also I've pulled all the fuses one at a time. I would think one them would shutoff the fan thing

Rizbel

Like on the other similar thread, get your alternator checked. GL.

skibarefoot

It been checked output and diodes all ok

billeul

it's a manual transmission, no indicator light.

Silver525xi

Try this if you have a volt meter.

1. Vehicle off you should have a 12V potential.

Start or jump vehicle and the alternator must produce a higher vlotage as the unit should produce 13.5V at least. If not, there is no output from alternator. Dead..

With vehicl off, disconnec to ne of the battery terminals and put a bulb inline with the terminal. Attach wires to bulb and connect one end to the battery terminal and the other to the removed terminal. Remove cloch fusse as that always draws from the battery. Basically your isolating the clock. If the bulb lights, then there is a draw from the battery some where. If no draw, then there is nothing pulling current throught the battery/frame/accessory loop.

I hope that helps.

I actually remove the battery caps and ensure I see 2V avery cell as they add to 12V's.

And, I check resistance between them as you should read infinity or the cell's are starting to break down and plates are faulty.

Closed battery style, won't help as you can't check each cell individually. Most people just run out before the above checks and buy a hundred dollar battery when in fifteen minutes you can actually isolate the issue.

skibarefoot

[quote name='Silver525xi' date='Nov 6 2009, 12:53 PM' post='1048910']
Try this if you have a volt meter.

1. Vehicle off you should have a 12V potential.

Start or jump vehicle and the alternator must produce a higher vlotage as the unit should produce 13.5V at least. If not, there is no output from alternator. Dead..

With vehicl off, disconnec to ne of the battery terminals and put a bulb inline with the terminal. Attach wires to bulb and connect one end to the battery terminal and the other to the removed terminal. Remove cloch fusse as that always draws from the battery. Basically your isolating the clock. If the bulb lights, then there is a draw from the battery some where. If no draw, then there is nothing pulling current throught the battery/frame/accessory loop.

I hope that helps.

I actually remove the battery caps and ensure I see 2V avery cell as they add to 12V's.

And, I check resistance between them as you should read infinity or the cell's are starting to break down and plates are faulty.

Closed battery style, won't help as you can't check each cell individually. Most people just run out before the above checks and buy a hundred dollar battery when in fifteen minutes you can actually isolate the issue.

/quote]


I've read the amp draw with a digital ammeter. The draw is around 2.5amps with the car asleep. In the glove box pulling the two ignition fuses and the radio fuse results in a .85-1 amp draw. There are other fuses in the glove box and trunk that when pulled dropped the amp draw by .2 or .1. Next unless someone comes up with something else to do I am going to pull every fuse in the car and note the amp change no matter how small.

Alternator tests good for output and diodes.