Originally Posted by TrevX' post='940847' date='Jul 13 2009, 11:23 AM

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.

Originally Posted by Veight' post='942929' date='Jul 15 2009, 12:55 PM

Do you leave the key in the car while you are washing it? Because if i do that, the radio stays on and the blower fan runs and other accessories stay on for the period you are washing the car which may be enough to drain it a bit. My guess is that your battery isnt nearly charged and every day when you drive it you give it just enough to avail the discharge warning. But then if you leave anything on for 10 minutes you draw the battery down enough to get the warning. You should give the battery a full charge overnight and this should avoid your issues. But if you dont drive it enough every day you will again slowly draw down the battery because you use more than you are restoring on a daily basis.