Originally Posted by fiona' post='1066915' date='Dec 3 2009, 11:05 AM

Keith, I sympathise. I am getting so annoyed with this.

One thing I did notice yesterday was that although the car was locked, the red alarm indicator wasn't flashing on the rear view mirror. I had to unlock the car, open a door, shut it and dead lock the car again. It had been like this for about 3 hours. Could this be causing the car not to go into sleep mode and draining the battery? It does this occasionally.

Not a good week for car ownership. I had a screw in as good as new rear tyre on the 5 series that wasn't repairable, my other car is getting work done that may reach 4 figures and my other car is going into the dealer on Monday for a week to get some warranty issues fixed.

Originally Posted by Anzafin' post='1066928' date='Dec 3 2009, 11:53 AM

Ok.
That 20 feet could be close enough for car detecting the key and not getting to sleep, but that 10 floors wouldn't!

Hmmm... Could it be the possibly malfunctioned IBS and the car doesn't charge the battery properly? I know you said the battery is ok, but still...

Originally Posted by fiona' post='1066902' date='Dec 3 2009, 04:28 AM

Just had the AA out to my '05 535d E61 as it wouldn't start this morning. I have had intermittent "increased battery discharge" since I owned the car in 2007 but it seems to have got worse lately and is really struggling to start after standing for 12 hours or more. AA chap managed to get it going with a slave battery.

I've been leaving it on trickle charge when I can and the AA confirms the battery is in very good condition. Something is causing it to drain when it isn't being used.

When it was under warranty it had 2 or 3 trips to the dealer who tried to diagnose a fault. There was the usual reloading of software, making sure everything went to sleep and assurances it was fixed but a week or so later it was back again.

I have a young baby and can't be without the car in order for it to be stripped apart only for it to happen again. To be honest, I don't really want to spend money with the dealer promising to fix it again with no success.

I've tried taking the CD changer carousel out, making sure nothing is left on auto, removing the Sat nav DVD, etc when it isn't in use. If I sit in the car when the engine is off I can still hear something come to life and start whirring in the dash a good while after the electrics are off.

Any ideas what else to check? I have the electronic tailgate and I've heard this can sometimes cause problems.

This has happened after leaving it for 8 hours after a 350 mile drive so I don't think it is down to the driving profile. The car regularly does 100 mile trips a day.

TIA.

Originally Posted by higher' post='1082542' date='Dec 31 2009, 06:27 PM

I had something similar and mentioned this to a very good auto electrician friend. He said it's a common auto electric fault - that's the good news.

It is almost always caused by a sticky switch or module. The switch looks like it is off, ie' light goes out on the dash / switch, but actually it is stuck on and contines to drain the battery. Most common is rear heated screen or some other high drain component, like heated mirrors. GM cars in the UK are notorious for this fault. Garages really stuggle to find the fault, but it keeps my auto electrician friend in mortgage payments !!!

I would pay a good auto electrician to check it out, I can guarantee it is something simple and they will know right-away what the problem is (it is probably common). The bad news is it might cost you 100 Euros

Originally Posted by fiona' post='1084641' date='Jan 5 2010, 04:02 PM

When I was packing to go away for Christmas I opened the automatic boot maybe 10 times with the engine off and this was enough to drain the battery so much I had to get a jump.