Dear E70 X5 owners,
Seeing an increased number of E70 X5s pull into the shop with frequently failing batteries is now becoming a trend and made us at Das Autoworks research the matter further. It appears that it is a BMW factory default and has been tackled by US and European dealers by offering their customers battery tenders to keep their X5s charged over-night. Ridiculous, to say the least.
The problem is diagnosed and termed "High Battery Drain" and there are service/warning bulletins from BMW AG regarding that issue. It is caused by the multiple car modules not going into sleep mode once the car is turned off. Dealers will initially blame it on your driving style being comprised of "short and insufficient mileage drives", BS! Our dealer(s) haven't heard of the problem considering the amount of batteries replaced on individual X5s that we had to work on.
Solution?
In one of the severe cases we worked on, 5 modules would "stay up" and drain the battery over some period of time. According to the service bulletin, the body harness had to be checked for "crimping faults" in some of the E70 batches, monitoring of modules activity over a period of time simulating driving and end-of-day conditions while taking note of voltage drop vaules. Through "Energy Diagnosis", an update is sometimes able to lower the number of modules staying up after the car is switched off and the problem is solved. But in most cases, you can cure a few of the modules with no chance of curing the problem a 100%.
So, if your E70 X5 is suffering from this issue, don't expect the dealer to have a clue about the condition. Claim your rights and ask them to research the "High Battery Drain" bulletin and get back to you. If all fails, I'll be glad to offer an "Energy Diagnosis" and see what can be done.
Please update this thread with similar cases.
Seeing an increased number of E70 X5s pull into the shop with frequently failing batteries is now becoming a trend and made us at Das Autoworks research the matter further. It appears that it is a BMW factory default and has been tackled by US and European dealers by offering their customers battery tenders to keep their X5s charged over-night. Ridiculous, to say the least.
The problem is diagnosed and termed "High Battery Drain" and there are service/warning bulletins from BMW AG regarding that issue. It is caused by the multiple car modules not going into sleep mode once the car is turned off. Dealers will initially blame it on your driving style being comprised of "short and insufficient mileage drives", BS! Our dealer(s) haven't heard of the problem considering the amount of batteries replaced on individual X5s that we had to work on.
Solution?
In one of the severe cases we worked on, 5 modules would "stay up" and drain the battery over some period of time. According to the service bulletin, the body harness had to be checked for "crimping faults" in some of the E70 batches, monitoring of modules activity over a period of time simulating driving and end-of-day conditions while taking note of voltage drop vaules. Through "Energy Diagnosis", an update is sometimes able to lower the number of modules staying up after the car is switched off and the problem is solved. But in most cases, you can cure a few of the modules with no chance of curing the problem a 100%.
So, if your E70 X5 is suffering from this issue, don't expect the dealer to have a clue about the condition. Claim your rights and ask them to research the "High Battery Drain" bulletin and get back to you. If all fails, I'll be glad to offer an "Energy Diagnosis" and see what can be done.
Please update this thread with similar cases.
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