blipszyc

Just purchased an '07 530xi on Saturday. Car was driven for at least 3 hours before being parked for the night. Once parked I decided to play around with the idrive and settings. Without starting the engine (parked in a garage), I had the accessory power, idrive screen, 1 heated seat, and 1 overhead light on for about 1 hour. After that 1 hour, the radio decided to shut itself off. When I tried to restart the accessory mode, the idrive was complaining the clock needed to be reset and then I got a Battery Power Low message on the screen.

Should the battery have gotten that low that quickly? I shut the car down for 15 minutes and then took it out for a drive, and everything seemed to be ok, but I'm a bit worried about the battery now.

luigi524td

If the car sat at dealer's lot for several weeks it is very possible the battery had gone so flat that it can't be recharged [well it may be recharged but in my experience once these batteries have gone dead - it's only a matter of time before they die again]. Even 3hrs of continuous driving cannot recharge the battery [if it's been flat-lined] on these cars.

Until you get it correctly diagnosed I strongly recommend you attach a battery tender [trickle charger] to your battery. You can sort of check the health of the battery [you'll need a flashlight and mirror] - there is a round 'window' on the top of the factory battery. It's a pain to look into it - thus the mirror - to see if the float indicator is the correct color. Your owner's manual has instructions. If you didn't get one, on the information section of this forum you can download a copy.

lospice1

The battery is the weak link in the e60's. The car really needs a 24v system. You can try autozone where they will test your battery for free.
w

EBMCS03

You had all that running on accessory mode for an hour??? The iDrive alone shouldn't be ran on accessory mode for longer than like 20 mins. It takes waaay more power than the batt can handle. So you're lucky to get an hour out if the battery before it died on you. It sounds like the battery is fine but you drained it. I wouldn't use any accessory for anything longer than 15 mins without it running. That's my own rule.

sixcard

sixcard

blipszyc

Yeah. I figured I'd park the car and then go through all the iDrive options at once. I live up north, and it's been snowing, so I figured I'd turn on the heated seat. The rest of the air system was off. Managed to get through all the setup options, plus bluetooth, plus all my radio stations and then was going to program the Homelink stuff. Got out to get my garage remotes and came back and about 20 seconds later, the radio and iDrive shut off. Interior light was on, and now that I think about it, so were the headlights. Oops. Oh well. I'll drive it around for the next few days and then take it into Autozone for a check.

Thanks everyone.

tooltec

+1.

Curmudgeon

Good Grief! You had that much running for about an hour? There's nothing wrong with THAT battery! Just drive it.

porsche911targa

That's right. If the battery can take that kind of abuse for an hour and still have enough power to start the car, it must be a very good battery. I'd just drive the car for at least an hour straight and limit my iDrive playing to just a few minutes or maybe leave the engine running while playing with the iDrive.