I've already searched this topic but couldn't find a similar situation to mine. So over the past 2 weeks I've washed my car twice. Last time was on 07/03. Next day I get the dreaded "increased battery discharge" error in Idrive. No big whoop. I just get in and drive for about 1 hour to the BBQ. Car doesn't show the error anymore for the whole week. Then I wash my car again this past saturday. On sunday morning, I get the error message again. So before I start the car, I thought that maybe there may be a problem with the battery. So I look at the battery and verify that the cables are connected securely without any visible corrosion. No other items are plugged into the power outlets and my AC and radio were off. Always turn them off when I park the car. So i start the car up and drive around for about 15 min. Message went away after a restart. Got in car this morning and no error message.

The only thing that was common in both instances was that I washed the car the day before getting the error message. Is water getting into somewhere that is causing a short? Maybe the door handles? I did use my air compressor to blow all the water out of the door handles, gas cap, doors & mirrors. Could that be the culprit?

Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have you left your car door open for a period of over... say 5 minutes? Whenever I leave my door open for that long (i'm guessing), I noticed that the driver side angel eye, and the driver side brake lamp stays on.. and wont turn off unless you get into the car, turn the ignition to on, and then back off... I've also noticed this same problem on a 3 series I saw in DC just this past weekend, and every now and then on a 6 series here at work. I'm not exactly sure why it does it, but it does. Try looking for this the next time you clean your car, that may be the reason for your battery drainage... luckily, its only happend to me twice since I've bought the car two years ago, and i've caught it, preventing any drainage.

 

I've left the car door wide open for 15 minutes several times without getting that type of issue. So leaving the car door open doesn't seem to be causing the drain. The door is closed after I wash my car and move it into my garage.

 

I had same issue on 07 530xi. Dealer upgrade the iDrive software and have not had issue since.

 

During your wash, if you left the car door open long enough that the interior light turn off automaticly you will get this error code. When I clean my car's leather seats I get that error too.

 

I've left my lights on the Parking / DRL setting for up to 30 minutes w/o incurring any battery discharge notice. I do drive more than 10 miles a day on average ... but not that much more. Most of my external lamps are LEDs and interior lamps are conventional bulbs that suck more juice ... and there are about 10 of them. That could flatten a marginal battery but should not kill a fully charged one.

 

I had the same Increase battery Discharge warning one day. That said, the car was not washed for a few days and neither were the doors open for a long period.

I disconnected the battery and charged it over night. Problem never returned (so far) and I put it down to some electronic gremlin. I suspect for my case it was either the satnav DVD or BMW Connect (online) not switching off. That may have caused the "increased" discharge.

cheers

 

Might be posted elsewhere but .........

I have made the following observations this last few months.

I live in a nice area, and I often do not lock my car, the attitude being I would rather they just open the door than break the glass.

I was losing my clock and OBC stuff almost 2 times monthly at one point, since I have been locking my car every time the battery has not seemed to be playing up, im guessing before the car was not entering full sleep mode ??

Im also guessing lots of people with Garages do not lock their cars inside ?? thus the same problems maybe ?

 

Either your battery is knackered or your intelligent battery charging system has failed. Easy way to find out. Go into the boot and disconnect the wire. Do a search on google you will find all the info there. I thought I had the info but I cant find it

 

I am sure of that too. I call it a gremlin cause I lock the car even in the garage. When it happened to me, the car was locked via remote with no windows or sunroof open.

I am sure it will happen again... someday. Mean time I do plug in the charger once a month now ever since this happened.

cheers