DennisA

Hello,

I picked up a 2007 550i last week and have been reading this forum trying to get as much info as I can about this beautiful car. I have to say that the posts I've read have been very enlightening and thoughtful.

On to my issue. It had been raining pretty hard all week and yesterday was nice so I was "exercising" the car a bit in the dry weather, nothing extreme though. I then parked it in the garage up until a short while ago.

I moved my car out of the garage to set the Home Link this afternoon and was distressed to find this under the car



It certainly came from here



My first thought was battery acid! Has anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts? I'll call the dealer tomorrow to find out what he recommends but it certainly doesn't seem right.

Thanks,
Dennis

PraiseTheLowered

yep dealer time asap

ive never experienced that before in owning any car or bike

Krozi

Ohhh...definitely dealer time...

Masterspy

I suggest that you check your battery compartment and check the battery. It has a drain hose that runs on the side. maybe it is disconnected. I also suggest that you disconnect the battery and clean the battery compartment. If the hose is not disconnected, your early guess is right a battery leak. Since your car is still under warranty, bring it to your Dealer. GL

pauliehcfr

do you know the history of the car? was it ever hit in that area? possibly a cracked battery. If not, the battery could be getting overcharged causing the acid to boil and vent out the tube.

luigi524td

If you recently purchased the car I expect you have either the remainder of the factory warranty or a warranty from the dealer where you purchased the car. BEFORE you go doing any self-repair CALL the selling party and notify them of the issue. Don't compromise your situation by doing anything the dealer can say created or complicated the problem.

DennisA

Wow you guys are quick with the responses

The car has a clean Carfax and was purchased from an autobroker in San Diego who told me the battery had just been replaced by BMW so maybe the tech borked the install. I've booked an appointment at Irvine BMW tomorrow morning and will let you guys know the outcome.

Thanks for the replies.

Dennis

pauliehcfr

it almost looks as if the vent tube is missing.

subarashi

It certainly looks like acid but there are a number of fluids that can cause corrosion so who knows. It's an unusual spot though I'm not sure where the vent tube runs and where it exhausts...

GL with the repair - keep us posted...

S

DennisA

So here is the story. Irvine BMW told me today that the battery exploded back in October of 2009 and when Brecht BMW replaced the battery, they did not clean up the mess that was left. Brecht just left all the stuff in the battery compartment. When it rained, water entered the compartment through the drain holes and liquefied the mess and it started dripping down. Eric Edwards at Irvine BMW told me that they were going to try to get Brecht to pay for the cleanup and that the cleaning process could take several hours to accomplish. They had no more loaners so I'm going to make another appointment soon to get it taken care of (it was really busy there today and took close to three hours for him to tell me this).

He had no idea why the old battery exploded but to me it seems likely that it would be caused by an overcharging situation. I'll insist that the mechanic checks for possible causes when I take it back.

Thanks again for the input.

Dennis