Has anyone got any insight into the cause of my 530XiT's clock slowly losing time? The battery is about 1 year old, BMW. The clock seems to be losing just a minute or so each week, very consistently. Has been happening for some months now, but it is subtle enough that I didn't notice just when it started. Everything else seems to be doing great, no random electrical issues or draws. It can (and often does)sit for 3-4 days between uses, but never turns over slowly or has any symptoms of being under-charged. It's got 9 months of CPO warranty left, and no claims so far - 48k miles.

 

My clock used to be a little off over time. After a software update, it seems to be dead-on (according to a Casio atomic watch). I don't know if the software accuracy os much improved, or if it is now reading off the GPS satellite time now (I have the CCC Navigation). This is on a 2004 E60.

 

Where did you get the battery installed? I had the same issue with a slowing clock then after a while I started getting "High Battery Discharge" warnings and the clock needed to be reset and all trip info, date, etc. was wiped. Eventually, the dealer installed a new IBS and a new battery. It's been perfect since then.

 

I had a problem with the daylight savings and what's up with LEAP YEAR? HOW does this car have a Feb. 31st? Give it up for German Engineering!

 

The battery was dealer installed last year. No symptoms of any sort other than just slowly losing time on the clock.

 

In that case, I would suspect the IBS. It is my understanding that a faulty IBS will shut down non-essential devices, the clock is one of those. Good luck finding that gremlin...

 

Any black holes in your area?

 

I just saw this topic and my clock is also losing time. I have even gotten a few "Low Battery Charge" messages when I was on a road trip yesterday. Luckily the car started right up every time.

So, what is an "IBS"? Is it very expensive? I think I need to take my car into the dealer this week.

 

Drive exactly 88 MPH, and enter the time on the iDrive.

 

I used to have this problem just up until this weekend. First I had a high battery discharge warning, then my clock would lose a minute or so a day. I didn't drive the car for about 5 days and it lost about 20 minutes, and my headlights wouldn't come on when I unlocked the car.

I noticed that if I drove the car for an hour or so a day this didn't happen as much, but on weekends, when I wasn't driving as much it happened again with the clock falling behind.

I looked at my battery, and I thought I had an original BMW battery but it was actually an EverMaxx! It had run just fine for 3 years with no problems and it was probably nearing the end of its life.

I did a lot of research about non OEM batteries, and registering the battery, etc...

I ended up taking the car to a local tire/battery shop, and the guy said they replace BMW batteries all the time with no problems. They put in a device in the lighter to keep the car's memory in tact, and replaced the battery with an Exide AGM (glass matte) battery.

So far I am a week into it, and problem solved! The first day after replacing it though my clock did lose a few minutes, but since then it has been solid. I'll update this post if I see issues again, but it looks like this solved the issue.

Note -- you don't need an original $450 battery from the stealer. And I also didn't register the battery from the stealer.