joshz

Just bought a 2005 545i from a private seller. After two days the battery died and it won't start I had to call AAA to give me a jump start. I experienced the Active steering being inactive and the clock reset but it went back no normal after a while. The car has extended service warranty til 2011 but won't cover the battery and they want $550 to replace it.
I had it changed with Interstate MT-49 with 750 CCA(Cold Cranking Amps) as recommended by my friend who owns a very busy car shop servicing all kinds of cars from european, american to japanese. I checked their website and it says it's compatible with BMW.
I just noticed that after having a full tank of gas, the cars display says 404 mls... I noticed it goes down quickly to 403-402-401 until it reached 300 mls after driving about 10 miles. What could be the reason behind this? ANY HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! Thanks much!

Ghostteck

its correct our cars get around 300mls per tank.. i get to 240 before i have to fill up.. the sensor is just estimating by how you step on the pedal.. also if you changed the battery you should put the car in the on position for like a minture for the computer to reboot then start up.. stylezzza had the same problem but we fixed it his car was reving on its own lol hope this helps

jfk92

Not sure what the differences between our car warranty's are but I bought a CPO 2006 530Xi in January. The battery was dead this past Monday as it had a cell go bad. The dealership replaced it for free, no battery or labor charge....again, my car is a CPO with full maintenance coverage to 50K miles, currently at around 37K....you may want to look into buying into the maintenance program, basically pre-paid maintenance but nice to have....

joshz

Thanks Ghostteck, that makes sense. For about 280 miles on a 15 gallon tank is about 18 miles/gallon. Huh! I forgot I'm now driving a V8.

joshz

My car just passed the 50K miles, I believe I have the extended maintenance program but what exactly does it include? Free oil change perhaps? This is my first BMW and I LOVE IT! Thanks jfk92!!

jfk92

That's a good question, I'd cover it with your sales rep. This is also my first BMW, long time coming for the 530Xi to me but worth it. Perhaps you have the warranty against factory defects but not the extended maintenance program....however you CAN buy into this, even after 50K (just search on the topic here, there was a thread on this just the other day). I'd also advise, as others here have, to check multiple dealerships as each tend to conduct business slightly different and also interpret corp. policy probably a little different as well...it's worth the extra time to call around a little in my opinion.
Good luck!

vlad_b

yes it's normal. if you cruise on freway with low RPM it will show a better range (may be 360mi or something). If you drive on DS in the city it will estimate your range much lower. It's not the battery - it's how u drive.

katmai

Extended maintenance program will cover oil change, inspection services, wiper blades, brake pads and rotors. Pretty much any service listed under iDrive.

BMW battery is not included in this coverage or warranty. Same thing for tires.

Jrowe

I just changed out my battery as well. I had one of my friends help me with it. If you want to prevent losing any data or complications... Change the battery while the car is running! We did this and it couldn't off went any smoother.

As for my gas mileage I usually get around 340-370 a tank.

When I do the drive to San Diego which is 310 miles from Vegas I usually have about 50-60 miles left in my tank. But keep in mind I also make it to San Diego in 3 Hours & 30 Minutes, 4 hours tops if I hit a little traffic. So I am not exactly conserving gas by any means.

sdg1871

The distance to empty depends on the amount of gas in your tank and how you are driving. Typically, you can see a predicted rsnge of 400 miles if you fill up immediately after you have been doing pure highway driving. If you then vary your driving and go into city-style stop and go driving, the predicted range will plunge as yours did. By contrast, if you get back on the highway, the predicted range will stay high.

There is nothing wrong with the indicator just because it falls from 400 to 300 miles quickly after starting the car and driving.