Sarge

My wife apparently took to locking the 535xit as a means of shutting off the radio, which quit quitting yesterday.

We went out to take in-laws and son to a Christmas show at church this evening and the car was dead as nails. PLugging it in to the trickle charger resulted in a Spielberg-worthy light show - right, left, front, back, dash, inside and out - all the lights started flashing on and off like God's own disco/rave as soon as it started charging. Totally insane. Then it would overheat the battery charger and die. I say "overheat" even though it's -5deg F outside here in Jackson WY, and the battery would register about 5% charge.

The $400 BMW battery was new last fall. No wonder the resale is worse than Audi on these cars. A blond babysitter on meth at a county fair is more reliable than this POS vehicle.

Is there some explanation/solution, or is this the immediate end of my BMW ownership (after E39, E46, E70, now this). It had it's THIRD HPFP last month. I'm at the end of my $(*&%(*& rope.

Can anyone help?

Merry (*&*(&% Christmas.

PS the nearest dealer is 100 miles away.

Here's the video: (if the link works?)

Theo

If the lighting switch is on auto the Xenon will drain any tricklecharger, I guess it was on auto?

Sarge

It probably was on auto. But if there's no key in the ignition and the car is locked (and the system is dead so comfort access is not capable of detecting the key) will it still do this?

Even then, the car was driven a few hours prior, so how did the nearly new battery get drained?

Tow truck will be here in a couple hours (BMW won't pay Jackson Hole rates for towing, so we have to wait for a tow truck to come from 100 miles away from Thayne, which is 100 miles in a different direction from the dealer in Idaho Falls... utterly retarded service levels, but that's another matter).

If the past is any indicator, the dealer won't be able to solve the problem and will just charge or maybe replace the battery and give it back to us a week from now, so unless I can give them the solution, we'll still wind up with the same problem.

Something also caused the wires for the DRLs in the headlights to melt. The dealer says DRLs aren't covered under CPO warranty, so I turned them off in the dash computer. I wonder if that is still causing a problem.

Thanks for any further insights...

Theo

I was thinking the fob might be near the car but this is apparently far more serious.

Instant battery drain and melted DRL's, might there be some short circuiting going on?

Anyways your biggest problem really seems to be the dealer, when you have a good one even frequent problems will hardly bother you because everything is handled smoothly and professionally.

Good luck!

luigi524td

Sounds to me like you have serious electrical issues with your car. Melting wires !!! Yikes - that's serious. Are you aware of any mods done by the previous owner? Or, yourself??

Lastly, double check your CPO warranty - I know nav and radio aren't covered .. BUT lighting etc ?!?!?! I think it is.

You might need to get a BMWNA Regional Rep involved as what you described isn't going to be resolved by a wanna-be tech at AutoZone .. .. or a lazy one at a BMW Service Center!