Iceman

Hi all,

I had my dealer installing an anti theft device (GPS car locating device - like Lojack in the USA). The system was installed succesfully, but after the installation I now receive warnings at startup of the engine: Increased battery discharge.
First my dealer thought it's the battery itself and replaced it. With having the new battery I still get the warnings...

So - here are my thoughts...

There are a couple places where you can get power for installing aftermarket devices. Thats where my dealer had it installed.
That means, the device is still able to get power, after the engine is shut off. But usually all devices are shut down when the car is parked, so the computer doesn't know that there are devices who need to be running all the time and who are not killing the battery.
The car is going in a sleep mode after 1 hour. I think it remembers how much power was left in the battery when the car went into sleep mode, and finds out at start up of the engine (coming ut of the sleep mode) that there is a discrepancy. Thats why it is giving the warning. IMO...

Now my question is:

Is there any way to program the software, so that the warning is only coming when the battery is at a certain level (low) ?
Or is there anybody on this board who has Lojack or another Lojack-like anti theft device installed in his E60 ?

My dealer seems to be a little puzzled...

NickP

Lojack is one of the first things that will go on my car (ugh, I'm in a holding pattern on my order, hope for it to go in end of this month)

On my Z4 I have Lojack and have NOT had any warnings. The diag system though is not as effective as I-Drive's.

I'm sure some of the US readers have LoJack installed? Anyone willing to speak up if you've seen similar messages, even if you have LoJack and have no problems?

sj3

Hi. Lojack is self-powered, i.e. they don't have connections to the battery. I had one in my '00 540i (no messages) and so far no messages in my E60.

Sam

GotBMW

This BMW Service Measure deals with battery discharge. The two things many just be unrelated (the install of the LoJac and the warning).

But here you go................(this was issued not too long ago)

Rizbel

I have the basic Lojack system not the upgrade which can contact the owner in case of intrusion. Never have that kind of problem. Contact the dealer and have them check the current drain of the installed device.

NickP

Wait? I thought they used to pull 12V to keep the Lojack battery charged. No way is it running 5 years on a single battery module...

sj3

I just called them and confirmed the thing is self-powered, with no connection to the car's battery. They recommend an inspection every two years and the lady wasn't able to tell me the specific type of power source. This is for the basic Lojack (~$700, installed), which I have and have had. I'm not sure about any other options they have.

Sam

Iceman

Thanks !
I talked with my dealer and BMW for quite a while today, and my car will be at the dealer next week for a couple days. They will talk to the BMW technicians in Munich to solve this problem, what seems to be something they experience for the first time on an e60. They are trying to find a way to program the software, that the low battery warning is only showing up when the power falls under a certain level. Service is Monday next week, I post an update if this problem is solved and how at the end of next week.
Thanks everybody.

That Lojack is self-powered is truly amazing. My system is having a battery, but this is used only in case when the car's battery is empty or gets disconnected. It will immediately send me an alarm message. So my system is more different than I thought... Thanks anyways, guys.

UrbanDriver

Hi all,

Has anyone else has this problem since Iceman's post?

I had a message a while ago "Increased Battery Discharge" which came up when I started the car. Next time I started up no problems at all. No problems for about a month and then I had the same eror messgae "Increased battery discharge" followed by "Break light failure Warning" (or brakelight failure - thrown the piece of paper away ). The car would not start but I had access to all othere systems. BMW came out and had a look ran a battery test (97%) and could find no other errors. Car seeemd to be shutting down ok after about 10 - 15 minutes and started up fine. There are no added extras drawing power and the car gets used daily for long runs.

The other problem is the range of the key (about 2 meters). From other posts I think this is seperate (trasmitter amplifier??) but could it be related?

It's going in tomorrow for a check but just wondered if anyone else had had something similar.

Cheers,

JIM R