kmslo530i

So....my E60 doesn't get a lot of miles. I have 5 vehicles, and I drive other vehicles for work. That being said, I drive my E60 everyday......after about 13 months, I only have 7800 miles on her. I have been losing about 30 minutes a month on my clock, and every so often I have to reset my clock and calender. I took car in today to have that looked at, as well as CD player continually playing issue. The SA called me and told me I'm not driving the car enough, and it isn't recharging the electrical system adequately, and because of that certain "minor" system functions are being shut down. He recommended I get a trickle charger, which I told him was ridiculous....I drive my car every day!

Has anyone else heard or had this problem??

I also had to to provide them with the service bulletin showing what the latest progman version fixed (particularly the CD player continuining to play/run while the car was off) in order for them to figure out what to do........

I did a search for electrical problems, but I haven't seen anyone mention the problems I'm having......or being told that the problems are from not driving the car enough!!

Any thoughts?

MacSid

Try having a look through this thread: http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=39645 Some folks seem to have had problems with high battery drain, and have discussed it there.

I seriously doubt that the problem is from "not driving the car enough" as you do start it up and get it going every day (I'm assuming it does get driven a for a decent period of time each day?). I would also be doubtful that it has anything to do with battery drain/not charging the car up if you are, in fact, not getting a "low battery" warning. I have only got this once, and that was after having left the car sitting for 2 weeks while I was on vacation. Even then, it did not lose any time or settings.

MacSid

kmslo530i

hey MacSid...thanks for the reply. I actually read that thread, but my issue manifests itself a bit differently. I never get a "low battery" indicator, but certain features have stopped working, and certain electrical functions like the clock and calendar either constantly need resetting, or the clock loses time.

I drive the car every day, but some days it may only get driven for 5-10 miles. My SA is telling me that the car needs to be driven at least 20 minutes before all the systems can get fully "recharged". I just can't see having to buy and use a trickle charger on a $70k car.......

MacSid

A 20-30 minute drive to charge things up sounds right to me. This is what I was told to do the one time my battery died on me completely - on my E39, after it had been left unattended while i was on a 5-week business trip + vacation. On that occassion, everything had gotten wonky and I had to reset time, date and a couple of other things.

Try taking your car on a half-hour blast once and see if that sorts out the day-to-day or week-to-week slippage in your clock. If it does, then I'd give the car a little blast once a month or so. If it does not, I'd suggest something else is wrong it should not need to be driven like that every day.

May also do your engine some good being given a good run - these are, after all performance engines built to be driven, driven and driven. I bought my 530d 2.5 months ago with 33,000km / 20,500 miles on it, and have just returned from a 2,100km / 1,300 mile road trip covering motorways, country roads, maxed out on autobahns and over some pretty hairy mountain roads over the Alps. Since completing this jaunt, I have noticed the car running sooooooo much more sweetly and smoothly than it did before - seems that it has opened up more.

MacSid

kmslo530i

I agree that 20 minutes sounds right to charge, but what the service guy is saying is that I need to do that EVERYDAY! I have, on several occasions, run the car hard, and I agree these cars are meant to be unleashed! And several times a week, my car is being driven for extended periods. It's just a few days a week, it might only get driven about 10 miles a day......

We'll see what happens after they update my progman today to 25.x.x......maybe that will cure some of the gremlins.....I don't know.....

I envy you that you get to run your E60 on the Autobahn........

AlwynMike

I seem to recall that there have been a few problems with clocks etc doing odd things. I can't remember the details, but it would have been on this forum that I have seen it - have another search or two. I don't know if people had the odd clock problems sorted or they just went away.
I had a small problem with mine whereas I was doing a bit of work on the car shortly after I'd bought it, and had the doors open for quite a while. Two days later (in a UK winter, with the car outside), the car was very very sluggish to turn over. It did start, but when I mentioned it to my Dealer when it was in for other remedial work, he renewed both the battery and the starter motor! (The car was about 2 years old with 24000 miles on it).
I work away from home, so my car is regularly left standing for three weeks, and even in the winter, always starts quickly.

Mike

Veight

I have had the problems due to low mileage. I recommend you get the BMW intelligent charger which is a small computerized charger. The thing is about 50 bucks and should be available at your BMW dealer.

This unit will regulate your battery charge and will float charge it which will not cause damage to the battery over the long haul.

The problem is that our cars have so many electrical needs that they are continually drawing power from the battery and if you aren't putting enough miles on the car the car will start eliminating some of the battery controlled features such as the clock etc. This is so you can still at least start your car before the car drains itself.

I had the problem and now iI just plug in this charger and have never had the low battery warning again.

fanm5

I hope my reply is not too late. I just joined this forum.

My 2004 545i had a smilar problem. THe battery died over a weekend. So I thought maybe I left the light or something else on for two days.
I jumped started it and drove for the rest of the week. Then it died again in a few days with much difficulies jump starting it. Finally it satrted but all functions were gone. I had no way of changing gears. Just stuck in second gear all the way to the dealer. It was a battery problem. They changed it under warranty.

There should never be a loss of functions once you started the car. Otherwise, there is a problem.