bmxtreme

Well, my car is now stalled in the garage and assist will be arriving an hour from now (WTF?).

So I am wondering what could be wrong? I openned the door (exterior lights all on) and got on the car but didn't start it because I was looking for something. When I was ready to leave, I start the car and the iDrive gone crazy telling me I have transmission failure, brake malfunction. Then after a few tries, it starts telling me my airbag/restrain system is malfunction. So, from no onwards, whenever I unlock my car, no exterior lights come on, only interior lights. Still can't start and giving me the same 2 errors.


What's up? Battery dead? I've seen the battery low sign a few times now and I had to reset my clock. I took it to the dealer 4 months ago asking for a new battery and they refuse since the car is a little over 2yrs old and only had 5k miles then. Any idea?

Laci535i

Sounds like a battery to me and lots of other members on this forum. I have mine on the charger tonight just to keep her fully charged. 2009 535i

sahiljain22

This is a classic dead battery. It all happened for me for a few months, before I finally bought a $80 battery and installed it and everything is fine now.

pcy

While the symptoms point to a weak/dead battery, total charging system should be checked (alternator, battery, IBS, and the associated connections).

ponnu

Its seems that you drive less. I would advice you to invest on some good battery tender. I bought one from Amazon..

bmxtreme

Thansk alot guys. I got the car when it was 5k miles and got the battery issue days after. I brought it in back then and the dealer didn't bother to check it becasue they "thoguht" it's still good as new based on the mileage the car had. I have been driving it every day and it's almost 10k now after 5mths (I didn't realized it's already August!). I have been getting battery reset occasionally and was really pissed at it.

BTW, assist came last night and 20 sec later after a jump, I am off to home. I will take advises here and get the charging system hecked tomorrow and might look into the recommended investment.

Sahil: Where did you get $80 battery? Thats cheap. Is this an auxilary power or?
Ponnu: That's one thought that cross my mind when this crap happened

What I don't understand is, why it went dead when I have been driving it everyday, and was driving it at least 30min to work yesterday morning.
I know there are a few occasion I kept the door openned with the interior lights on while I wiped the inside of the car for like 15mins and the low battery warning came on, is that common in the E60? This seems quite ridiculous....my E90 battery went dead once, but thats becasue I was playing radio in it for 30mins while I clean the wheels (silly me), but that's about it and had that car for 5yrs without battery issues.

sahiljain22

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_Battery,-Group-Size-93,-850-CCA-AutoCraft-Silver_2040034-P_2916_R|GRPBATTAM2_1729495452____ is the one I ended up getting. There are some 30 or 40 off 75 coupons that you can find with an easy google search.

I had the battery issue for 4-6 months. 2-3 trips to the dealer (heck, even paid for a battery diagnostic and overnight monitoring) did not reveal anything. I used to get frequent clock resets, idrive errors and in the worst case, dead battery after just 2 mins of keeping the lights of the car on after parking, etc. The battery itself had the green dot (which showed that the battery was healthy) so I always thought it was something else. Even the dealer kept telling me it was my radar detector or something else and I ended up getting a jumpstarter and was jumpstarting almost every other day. Then I decided to get another battery just to see if it fixed the issue - and voila it did.

The AAP battery is a bit smaller, but other than that, it works fine and I have not gotten any errors since I replaced it a month ago. The guys even installed it for free, and I kept my OEM battery for a week just to make sure it wasn't the battery. I have the same driving habits (drive 1-2 miles every other day some weeks) and have yet to get an issue - so I am pretty sure the old battery (and not my driving style) was the issue. I thought about the battery tender, but unless its a new battery, I don't think it would be worth charging a dead battery overnight. All that said, by all means, try and get your dealer to fix this.

If you are around Chicago, you can have my jumpstarter for cheap. I dont think I would need it again anytime soon.

p2theg77

sahi, I clicked on the link but it said that battery wasn't the right one for my 525i. I think I'm having battery problem too because I still have the original battery in my '06. if it wasn't quite the right size how much smaller is it? Will the support bracket still clamp down on it?

sahiljain22

Its small for the support bracket. I just padded it with some extra wooden pieces but it was screwed down pretty well. The guy who installed it told me that it shouldn't make any noise, unless I am driving like crazy.

I would be worried if the battery is larger and won't fit.

bmxtreme

Got the car back from the dealer and it was a dead battery. I had to get assist to come to my home to jump it the morning i drive to the dealership. Bad thing is, the reprogramming wiped out all my coding goodies and I am now lazy to recode...sigh. Oh well, hopefully i don't get stranded again for a long time