I am not sure if this was related, I have similar problem in my car. I have been back and forth to dealer. after so many trial and errors and replacing almost every thing related to computer and all software upgrades problem was found. They found the problem with "High Battery Drain" by replacing left passenger side door handle components. This component is part of comfort access module.

That was done since May-2007 I don't have any more issues with battery drain. Discussed at HIGH BATTERY DRAIN

 

Thanks this thread is helpful. It seems like different cars had differenet parts replaced for the same issue. It will be an exhaustive search to find out the culprit.

 

So far, I have not gotter the battery drain message.
However, for 3 days in a row now, the date and time were lost in the morning. I also got a low tire pressure warning once, but the pressure is just fine in all 4 tires......
I was starting to get worried anyway, since my car has been trouble free for over a year now. Now I feel better.

 

I got this message some time back when I didn't put a lot of miles on my car. You only charge the battery when you are spinning the altenator faster that the power you are consuming from all of the electric things you are running. It takes significant driving to actually charge the battery all the way.

You might want to invest in the $70 BMW intelligent battery charger.

BTW a trickle charge from a regular car charger won't do anything cause the BMW computer will not allow the battery to take that kind of charge.

 

I had this problems with mine several weeks ago. Basically drove the car for 40 minutes, then parked for about 45 minutes and when I went to start the car I got the 'Increased Battery Drain' message along with blank clock, reset Journey Computer etc. The car did start fine and after several journeys the warning disappeared.

Took the car to the dealers soon after to be checked out and was told no fault codes were stored or any signs of an electrical problem - they reckon they tested every electrical circuit and that they worked on the car for approx. 3 hrs. All they found was that the battery was partially discharged.

However, what they did say was that because I usually leave a power cord plugged into the cigarette lighter (used for powering accessories) when shutting the car down that this can (but not always) prevent the car from entering 'sleep mode'. Apparently this was a know issues with previous CIP versions. This should have been resolved from CIP version 24 or 25 (I think they said) but the dealer told me they have seen this still happening with version 26, which my car has.

So, that's what my dealer reckons. Just out of interest, since then (about 3 weeks ago or so) I have been ensuring that I disconnect the power cord before shutting the car down and have not had anymore problems - maybe coincidence?

Do any of you guys frequently use an accessory power cord in the cigarette lighter?

 

No. I never leave an accessory power cord plugged in. The only thing I usually leave plugged in is my USB hard drive but during my testing of this issue, I've left it unplugged and it still doesn't fix the problem.

Keep in mind that I'm not usually seeing the increased battery discharge message, I'm just losing the ability to unlock the car using CA and when that happens, I usually have dashes for my clock (with a "set time/date" message showing up once I power up the car...)

 

I just find it amazing that CIP v.26 and the car is in its 5th year of production that they don't have the "minor" software bugs worked out yet. And more frustrating is that in some cases they fix the bug only to have it reappear in later versions. When the F10 comes out there will be another software program and the process will start all over. Battery drain issues, if truly coming from a power cord plugged in, should not be a 5th year production issue. Not from BMW anyway.

 

Completely agree with you! This is my first BMW - had it for 6 months now from new and have to say things like this disappoint me no end. The car itself is excellent but this kind of thing should not happen with cars like BMW.

Whether or not the power cord is the cause of the problem in my case remains to be seen but is something that my dealer says they have seen on quite a few cars! Whether they are talking rubbish is another thing.....?

 

How can a power cord cause the problem?

I leave the phone cord in all the time and it's not charging the phone when I'm out of the car (the phone is in my pocket!) and power is cut to the accessory/cigar lighter after a few minutes as standard. This can be confirmed as I have a camera detector that its on the front of the dash which can be seen to switch off some minutes after the car is locked.

Seems to me there is so much power being used, the size of the battery is the problem and like the X5 it needs a heavy duty battery?

 

As a side note, even after a good run on Thursday the car still had the low battery warning yesterday morning.

Had a run to London yesterday and now it's fine again?

I had wondered if the cold weather had something to do with the problem but that doesn't appear to be the case either...