I have a 08 e60 and last week after coming out of the laundry mat my car would not start. So i kept getting battery discharge and low battery warnings on my Idrive. I got a jump and it cranked right up. So later I go to the gas station, turned off the car and left my headlights on for probably minute and a half and tried to turn my car on but it wouldbnt start nor did getting it jumped. I also got a little battery icon where the info box is.My headlights, interior lights and display still came on but this time when i checked the Idrive control messages it didnt say anything about the battery being low.

So I took the battery out and checked the charge and it was at %75 so I charged it to %100 but the green light didnt come show up on the battery in the little window but I put it back in but still no crank. At this point i figured it had to be my starter, but last night I just turned on the car to listen to my radio and the radio started spazzing out then the message on the display said brake failure or something of that sort, and also the little battery icon popped back up right before the car completely cut off. So i roll the windows back up but they roll up really slow. So this leads me to believe that maybe it is the battery. Ive had battery issues twice before so maybe I just need a new battery and the issue will be resolved. My question is how will I differentiate a battery issue with a starter/alternator issue?

 

If your battery is more than 3+ years I would replace that before the starter. I had a similar problem and replace battery and haven't turn back since!

 

drained battery beyond recharge, replace it. H8 at walmart is the same battery, made in the same place maybe white casing maybe black, no bmw sticker but same battery

 

Replaced the battery still no start. Gotta brake and driving control system malfunction and a transmission malfunction when I put the key in. So I guess my next step is the starter???

 

If you replaced the battery and get warning lights that's normal because everything needs to reset itself.
What are your symptoms now? When you get a jump start does it work?

 

It was a brand new battery in there so I didnt figure it needed a jump start. I just figured it wasnt the issue. Im buying a starter next and see if that fixes it

 

Check to see if your starter is working correctly first. Could be starter, ISM, or IBS