e60 530i..."high rate of battery discharge"...any ideas?

[turboman786]

After a year of flawless and highly enjoyable ownership, my e60 530i (petrol) has got its first problem...

Fo a while now, first thing in the morning, the car shows a warning stating "high level of battery discharge". I ignored the warning for about two months, as the car started fine, and showed no problems.

However last week, one morning, the car was dead. I started it up using jump leads, and went to an autoelectrician who suggested that I should change the battery. The aternator was tested , and is charging fine.

I put a brand new Bosch silver battery in, and after a couple of days I didn't see the warning light, so assumed all was well..

However I am now seeing the warning a couple of time a day, only when started up.

Where do I start in getting this fixed? The alternator and battery are good, so presumably there is something draining the battery....but nothing obvious...

Has anyone else encountered this problem on an e60, and if so, what was the fix?

[sparkythecat]

Someone here had similar problems.

and here

The part they are referring to is this one

[eliot]

Certainly on the e39 its a common problem. Other clues is your blower motor speeding up or slowing down whilst the display shows the same level.
Did they carry the same part over to the e60?

[turboman786]

Thanks for the replies...

The hedghog problem seems to be one relating to the e39......has anyone experienced it on the e60?

The heater has played up once or twice recently, but now works perfectly, so I certainly dont dismiss the possibility that this is the cause of the battery drain...

Anyone else had this problem on an e60?

Thanks!

[eternity]

I am having the same problem. My 525 has been running problem free since I boughtit over a year and half ago and then about 4 wek ago, a message appeared stating 'high rate of battery dishcarge'. I ignored it for about 3 weeks but then one day went to start the car and it was dead. I bought a brand new battery and within a few days it went dead again. I had my BMW dealer check the car over and al of the realys, alternator etc are all working properly. However they blamed it on the aftermarket dvd player and playstation that was fitted (stating that I would have to strip it all out) and then bring the car back to them for another diagnostic test. I have since taken out the dvd and playstation but just left the tv screens as they are in the headrest but the car is still going dead.

Any ideas?

[eliot]

turboman786 said:

The heater has played up once or twice recently, but now works perfectly, so I certainly dont dismiss the possibility that this is the cause of the battery drain...

What did it do?
Mine would work fine for weeks or months on end then play up and then be ok again. So if the motor speed seemed increase or descrease without reason - then that does sound like the hedgehog.

[turboman786]

The heater just stopped working sometimes, ie blew no air...and then it worked intermittently...and now it works perfectly again

I am really reluctant to tae the car to BMW for them to diagnose, as they will relieve me of a good few hundred pounds and there is no guarantee that they will even find the cause....

[eliot]

turboman786 said:

The heater just stopped working sometimes, ie blew no air...and then it worked intermittently...and now it works perfectly again

I am really reluctant to tae the car to BMW for them to diagnose, as they will relieve me of a good few hundred pounds and there is no guarantee that they will even find the cause....

So fit a new hedgehog - £50. BMW would charge you £25 just to plug the computer in.
If that doesn't solve it, you can flog the old hedgehog.

[Junior Mint]

Exact same here on a 2005 E61. Check the forums on E60.net (see http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=63661&am... for example) to see that loads of us have the same issue but no definite cause diagnosed by dealer.

I had mine checked under warranty a few times to be told by the dealer that they couldn't find anything wrong. Got a new battery fitted. Now (out of warranty) it has started to appear the past few weeks. I wonder if weather related now it has turned colder?

I am sure something is either stopping the car going into sleep mode when parked up or something is coming on of it's own accord. It is very annoying. I get either "increased battery discharge" or the more serious "battery very low" message intermittently and the car then will shut down the iDrive in order to "conserve energy". PITA and I don't really want to take it to the dealer again to pay to be told they can find nothing wrong....

[jbvipercerb]

Hi, this is the first time Ive been on the BMW side of things, I had a Cerbera for some years before my 2005 530D M Sport.
I work for a local auto electrical firm and have just seen an E60 come in for the battery going flat, it was an early one, 2003, and what was found was on the earth strap of the battery (- to vehicle body) there is an (air bag type) explosive device that detonates when the car is in an accident and disconnects the battery, this was faulty and was draining the battery.
At £120 it wasn't cheap but fixed the fault. Maybe it could be worth having this checked?

[phelix]

jbvipercerb said:

Hi, this is the first time Ive been on the BMW side of things, I had a Cerbera for some years before my 2005 530D M Sport.
I work for a local auto electrical firm and have just seen an E60 come in for the battery going flat, it was an early one, 2003, and what was found was on the earth strap of the battery (- to vehicle body) there is an (air bag type) explosive device that detonates when the car is in an accident and disconnects the battery, this was faulty and was draining the battery.
At £120 it wasn't cheap but fixed the fault. Maybe it could be worth having this checked?

How is it checked/tested?

[jbvipercerb]

The person who did the work found the problem by checking the discharge rate with an ammeter and when he flexed the earth lead the discharge varied up and down with the movement, also he could see some damage around the curcuit board, on the lead, where it had been disturbed beforehand. I hope this helps.

[scott10005]

The E60 battery negative lead has an Intelligent Battery Sensor built into it,the early ones were prone to moisture causing an internal fault inside it,just above its location there is a vent that can let a little moisture in. The new IBS's are completly waterproof and i haven't had to change one yet. If the sensor is faulty it can stop the car going into sleep mode and actually cause the battery to go flat,the complete opposite of its invention.
The dealers have an energy diagnosis test that highlights if there is a battery drain fault,but if that shows up o.k,i would suspect the i.b.s is faulty.
If a battery has gone faulty and it is replaced,then we have to register it in the ibs's memory so it can start monitoring the battery drain accurately again.
I've seen cars that haven't had a new battery registered keep putting up check control messages because the ibs is confused.
If u disconnect the little red wire on top of the ibs,(its power supply) the battery then goes back to just being a negative lead again,so you could try that and if the battery doesn't go flat then u could buy an ibs
Strictly speaking if you fit a new one you are meant to carry out a full software update.
You could try ur local dealer for a goodwill claim,its worth a phonecall to them

[phelix]

jbvipercerb and scott10005 - thanks for the replies; this is one to remember for future reference.

[Junior Mint]

Just an update from me. I haven't had the message since I began removing the cd changer insert and the navigation disc when I leave the car locked. Although the car was going into sleep mode I could hear the DVD drive spinning away. Will keep an eye on it though it could just be a coincidence.

[vinnieT]

Hi All, haveing trouble with my 2005 520d sport... over the past 4 weeks I'm getting the message "high rate of battery discharge" and my I DRIVE is going blank(radio dead etccc). I took to my local bmw dealership last friday and after 3 hours they said that they would need to have it for a full day to sort out the issue as they couldn't find anything wrong... this morning when I went to start it: It opened with no issues and then I inserted the key and the handbrake light etc appeared but then when I pressed the start button I couldn't get it to start. none of the orange lights would appear(the ones that usually appear before you start the car). can someone show me a pic of this IBS lead so I can check it please... any help would be greatful as I rang the bmw dealership and they want me to bring it to them,,, €€€€.... please help.....thanks guys

[hman]

bit of a thread resurrection, but I had the warning message come up, the autochanger revert back to cd1 track 1 , the fan only working on 1/2 speed and the bluetooth system not working.

I disconnected the IBS lead power feed by following the black lead to a plug with blue and red components, and then disconnected it and tied the live feed up out of the way .

car is fine now- dont think I'll bother replacing at £100 for the unit + fitting and programming

[Marty.ob1]

Hi folks, same thing happened with my 2008 5 series. So naturally I took to the internet and trawled all the different boards sites in search for the solution before I brought it to my mechanic. To which there was loads of different suggestions, but none that was a definite solution.
So I took it to my mechanic and he suggested it was the glow plugs that were causing the problem. So he replaced all of the plugs, think they were 20 Euro each.
Problem solved. No more "high rate of battery discharge" message.
That was about a month ago now and still no message. So it seems to be the solution.

Just thought I'd share this cos out of all the message boards I looked up (which was a lot) not one of them said anything about glow plugs being the problem.

Hope this helps out someone else havin the same problem.

M.

[ian_cab28]

Random...but you dont have a bluetooth dongle in the OBD socket do you? On my e61 it keeps car awake and high drain warning comes on. On e39 I could leave it no problems.