[Chili Palmer]

A couple of weeks ago I went to move my wife's car and noticed the a message came up that said the battery was low so drive to charge the battery. I asked her about it and she said it came on a couple of weeks ago and hasn't seen it since. Okay, no big deal. Earlier today we were heading out to the beach and when I start up the car the message to drive to charge the battery comes up again. I noticed that the A/C wasn't blowing hard then another message came up that said some of the electrical items will be put in a power reduced mode until the battery charges up. OK, lets go.

We get about 3 miles and the headlight alignment control message comes up that it's not active, then some alpha-numeric message comes up that it is not active. That's it, we're tuning around and we'll take my truck. Just then another message pops us that says the steering mode has changed - just as I change lanes to get off the freeway I notice that I don't have any power steering. I get to the light at the end of the off ramp and stop, the light changes and.....no power. I'm moving at about 1/2 mile an hour and I'm in the left turn lane, I barely make it across the street and to the curb and the car quits.

We get a tow and I call my dealer and they say bring it in, they have a loaner I can use. I got a call later that says the battery is dead, it has a dead cell in it. The techs are leaving now and they will put a new in a new battery and program it Tuesday. Is this covered under the CPO warranty? No, it's a maintenance item. How much? $640.

Excuse me? $640? Yes, it's an AGM battery like an Optima, no liquid it's an absorbent glass mat and it needs to be programmed. Programmed? Yes, programmed. Each battery has to be programmed to the each car. Really? Yes, BMW's have been like that for over 10 years.

I need to write a nasty-gram to BMW - that the warning system for the battery could have gotten me and my wife killed if it had happened on a busy freeway at 70mph. The message should have read there is an electrical fault, take it to dealer for service. It shouldn't tell me to keep driving. The more I think about it the more pissed I get.

Let this be a lesson to all of you out there, if you get that message get your car to a repair facility, pronto!

[ezmaass]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. In fairness to BMW, though, it probably wouldn't have been a dire situation if the battery was simply low and needed to charge. Driving it would have done the job. Sounds like your failure was actually a defective battery, which was then misdiagnosed by the system as simply being low.

Yes, these batteries are expensive and they need to be coded to the car when installed. Again, in fairness to BMW, it's not usually been a problem - I'm on about 15 years now of driving them. The F10, however, has been known to drain batteries prematurely - my car is only in service for 2.5 years but BMW proactively replaced the battery about 6 months ago. The only explanation was a bulletin that told them to do so.

Again, sorry for your poor experience. If you truly want an experience that will have you writing nasty letters to BMW, wait until one of your RFTs blows out on a Sunday while you're more than 50 miles from home - can't repair it, no shops are open to replace it, and it's too far to drive home! Talk about screwed.

[Stück]

List price on he AGM battery these cars use is $399.

Installation takes about 15 minutes.

Battery registration with ISTA-D takes about 5 minutes.

Dealer is likely charging an hour for the install and registration. So $640 sounds about right.

That said, the vehicle should still run fine on just the alternator. The N54/N55 cars have a 215A alternator, more than enough to run the vehicles electrical systems with the battery completely out of the car. Batteries are chiefly electrical storage devices for vehicle starting....

I find it unlikely given your synopsis of events that the battery is bad, or at very least the only problem. Textbook alternator failure and loss of electrical systems as the battery depletes.

[VB5ER]

Chili. Is this the 2011 550? Original battery?
Just changed mine on 2011 535i as a preventative measure. It wasn't going to last much longer. Battery was $230 from BMW, $198 if I got the Exide version from autozone. Yours does cost more though. Switched it out myself, easy, and import garage registered it for $40 bucks. I'm pretty sure BMW adds a diagnostic fee in there as well. If you haven't had them fix it yet, YouTube it, buy a battery, change it yourself in their lot and drive off.

[lsturbointeg]

i understand what the cost of the battery is but the fact that BMW is going to charge you to register it is RIDICULOUS!

[Chili Palmer]

The part that pisses me off the most is the message to keep driving to charge the battery. The car had done a lot of sitting at the airport for the last month so I didn't think anything of the messages, but if it had said something about an electrical fault, take to dealer for service I would have. It could have caused a really dangerous, if not deadly situation.

[DaveCM5]

Interesting,

My last BMW was a 2008 M5 and I replaced the battery twice over the time I owned it and never had to have it coded. I bought the batteries at Autozone.

:

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by DaveCM5

Interesting,

My last BMW was a 2008 M5 and I replaced the battery twice over the time I owned it and never had to have it coded. I bought the batteries at Autozone.

:

Could be a reason you required the second new battery. How long did the first uncoded battery last? Less than 5-years?

Batteries are known to fail earlier, if not registered to the vehicle.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Chili Palmer

The part that pisses me off the most is the message to keep driving to charge the battery. The car had done a lot of sitting at the airport for the last month so I didn't think anything of the messages, but if it had said something about an electrical fault, take to dealer for service I would have. It could have caused a really dangerous, if not deadly situation.

Have they found there are additional issues? I can't understand why your alternator didn't keep you running, once started.

[krautmeister]

Originally Posted by DaveCM5

Interesting,

My last BMW was a 2008 M5 and I replaced the battery twice over the time I owned it and never had to have it coded. I bought the batteries at Autozone.

:

+1 on this... I got duped the first time with my E60... Replaced it with Autozone battery the second time and no issues with programming.

[Bbb34]

Originally Posted by Chili Palmer

The part that pisses me off the most is the message to keep driving to charge the battery. The car had done a lot of sitting at the airport for the last month so I didn't think anything of the messages, but if it had said something about an electrical fault, take to dealer for service I would have. It could have caused a really dangerous, if not deadly situation.

There are many threads on this issue. Battery warning pretty much guarantied to come up in cold weather is another issue that most modern BMWs seem to suffer from.

The message shows up apparently because the threshold for the warning in the system is set pretty high. I heard as high as 80% remaining charge in the battery will give you the warning, not really sure if that's accurate info. I was also told that this is due to sensitive nature of electronics in our cars, kinda protective measure. In case of extreme cold or in your case, car sitting for longer period of time, I think it's normal for charge to drop bellow 80%. Of course the fact that certain features are shut off to protect battery further is less than ideal for daily use of the vehicle (think cold outside and only defrost heater will come on under these conditions).

For me driving the car doesn't seem to be effective way to re-charge it in the winter and clear the warning, trickle charger or warmer days seems to do the trick. (don't you just love having cables running to the closed trunk of your expensive luxury car in the driveway, and it's not even an electric car)

Dealerships in my area "highly recommend" installing trickle charger on all new cars. There are also several different batteries that you can buy these days, but if you go to bigger battery, besides registering it, you're facing re-programming charge, apparently car needs to be coded for bigger/more powerful battery.

[Chili Palmer]

I just got the call from the dealer - battery had a dead cell, all other electrical items including the alternator are good. Battery is installed and programmed, ready to be picked up. I'll be by this afternoon. I'll need to talk to the service manager about how this happened.

[Gilgorm]

Originally Posted by Bbb34

The message shows up apparently because the threshold for the warning in the system is set pretty high. I heard as high as 80% remaining charge in the battery will give you the warning, not really sure if that's accurate info.

I just had my battery replaced two months ago. It was reading 70% with no indication of death. However, it had thrown a few warnings in the immediate past. I was told 57% is the replacement cut-off for BMW to follow.


I was also told that this is due to sensitive nature of electronics in our cars, kinda protective measure.

Absolutely correct. Power is hoarded for starting.


(don't you just love having cables running to the closed trunk of your expensive luxury car in the driveway.

You should use the connections under the hood for charging or boost starting.)

See my notes within the quote.

[Bbb34]

Originally Posted by Gilgorm

See my notes within the quote.

Right , I was referring to the plug in trickle charger, which local dealer installed in the trunk. They recommended to be used periodically throughout the winter to avoid battery drain to the point of triggering the warning, and they are correct, it's just annoying having to do it.

[DaveCM5]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Could be a reason you required the second new battery. How long did the first uncoded battery last? Less than 5-years?

Batteries are known to fail earlier, if not registered to the vehicle.

First time was right after I bought the car. It was a CPO, and the dealer wouldn't replace the battery even though it kept telling me that I had a low battery. They kept telling me I needed to charge it though I drive 30miles a day. So I finally got fed up and replace the battery myself. The battery lasted four years, and then I had to replace it again because it was starting to have problems staying charged. Right after I replaced it the second time I got rear ended and totaled the car.

It seemed to be just a regular battery. It cost $120 at Autozone and I didn't have any problems keeping it charged during what I would consider the normal life span.

[Chili Palmer]

Got the car back and was told I'm good to go, no other electrical problems, just the battery.

We'll see.....

[Chili Palmer]

Got the call from my wife she said on the way home the drive to charge battery message came on again. I called my service service guy at the dealership and told him about and he said to bring it, they have a loaner waiting.

As the tire turns......

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Chili Palmer

Got the call from my wife she said on the way home the drive to charge battery message came on again. I called my service service guy at the dealership and told him about and he said to bring it, they have a loaner waiting.

As the tire turns......

Don't like to say this but not surprised, the way your car failed wasn't typical of just a battery issue.

Hope they quickly get to the real problem.

[Stück]

Originally Posted by Chili Palmer

Got the call from my wife she said on the way home the drive to charge battery message came on again.

Huh... you don't say.

[Chili Palmer]

Got the call, they're going to replace the alternator (even though it checked out when they had it earlier in the week). But at least it's covered by the warranty.

[ezmaass]

Originally Posted by Chili Palmer

Got the call, they're going to replace the alternator (even though it checked out when they had it earlier in the week). But at least it's covered by the warranty.

This sounds more like it. IF it was simply a dead cell in the battery, once the car was running, it wouldn't die in motion - just, perhaps, fail to start the next time. I'm shocked the dealer didn't put 2+2 together on this.

As for your frustration with the warning message, you need to realize that these cars can't self diagnose every issue. All the car knew was that the battery was low and wanted you to charge it. There's a difference between symptoms and root causes. In this case, the car was asking you to treat the symptom, but it couldn't tell you what the root cause was, of course. It's really hard to fault the error message here.

[Chili Palmer]

Originally Posted by ezmaass

This sounds more like it. IF it was simply a dead cell in the battery, once the car was running, it wouldn't die in motion - just, perhaps, fail to start the next time. I'm shocked the dealer didn't put 2+2 together on this.

As for your frustration with the warning message, you need to realize that these cars can't self diagnose every issue. All the car knew was that the battery was low and wanted you to charge it. There's a difference between symptoms and root causes. In this case, the car was asking you to treat the symptom, but it couldn't tell you what the root cause was, of course. It's really hard to fault the error message here.

Nope, don't buy it about the self-diagnosing, if there was a volts gauge installed I could diagnose that there was something wrong with the charging system. My Chevy Silverado lacks the technological sophistication of the BMW, but if there is a hiccup in the electrical system it tells me as well as having s gauge to verify the fault.

I feel the message system on the BMW needs to be revamped to notice difference between a battery with a low charge and a alternator with low output.

But now the G30's will be out soon and maybe this issue has already been addressed.