Battery Problem?

[haventahybrid]

Hi PHer's

Can someone in the know give me a heads up. Roughly every third time on start up my dash comes up with a red symbol showing a ramp under the car. Then on the iDrive screen it says something like "Increased battery discharge". Do you think this is just a replacement battery needed or something else?

Thanks,

[Smuler]

haventahybrid said:

Hi PHer's

Can someone in the know give me a heads up. Roughly every third time on start up my dash comes up with a red symbol showing a ramp under the car. Then on the iDrive screen it says something like "Increased battery discharge". Do you think this is just a replacement battery needed or something else?

Thanks,

I get those words, can't recall what symbol, if I leave my dash-cam on, say between 12-24hrs. I'll do this if car's parked out on the road.
I'm confident there's still plenty of life in battery, as dash-cams can run for longer and my car's always driven. But obviously the car knows the battery is being abnormally run down.


Point being, there could be something electrical in your car that's unwittingly draining the battery, so you're right to consider that as opposed to it being the battery reaching end of life.

You don't say what car, or how old, so it's hard to gauge life expectancy of battery.

I'd also say in my experience, when battery is dying things can go wrong e.g. my M3 lost it's radio and then soon after the battery just died!!

Look up you tube videos to see if via Idrive etc. you can test the battery, was easy on old cars.

[haventahybrid]

Smuler said:

I get those words, can't recall what symbol, if I leave my dash-cam on, say between 12-24hrs. I'll do this if car's parked out on the road.
I'm confident there's still plenty of life in battery, as dash-cams can run for longer and my car's always driven. But obviously the car knows the battery is being abnormally run down.


Point being, there could be something electrical in your car that's unwittingly draining the battery, so you're right to consider that as opposed to it being the battery reaching end of life.

You don't say what car, or how old, so it's hard to gauge life expectancy of battery.

I'd also say in my experience, when battery is dying things can go wrong e.g. my M3 lost it's radio and then soon after the battery just died!!

Look up you tube videos to see if via Idrive etc. you can test the battery, was easy on old cars.

Hi, thanks for the above. The car is a 2011 320D M Sport Edition. It has only ever been serviced at BMW and never missed an inspection... But not sure if it is still on original battery or how I would try and diagnose any fault. Any thoughts ?

[Phateuk]

I had that one mine (MY10 M3), took it to the dealer to try and get a new battery under warranty but they said it was due to sub-optimatal driving conditions (basically i used it a few times a week for a 2-3 mile commute). They tested it and charged it and it was fine for a few weeks.

Once it started warming up I never got it again, now we're entering the colder months the warning occurs if i don't go on any longer drives.

I plan to just buy a ctek charger to keep it topped up.

[haventahybrid]

Phateuk said:

I had that one mine (MY10 M3), took it to the dealer to try and get a new battery under warranty but they said it was due to sub-optimatal driving conditions (basically i used it a few times a week for a 2-3 mile commute). They tested it and charged it and it was fine for a few weeks.

Once it started warming up I never got it again, now we're entering the colder months the warning occurs if i don't go on any longer drives.

I plan to just buy a ctek charger to keep it topped up.

Great! This ties in to what I suspected as if I do some longer distances it tends to disappear. It only appeared when the cold snap came last week and only came back after three days of 3-4 mile drives. I will just give it some long journeys and forget about it.... Thanks for saving me from getting my pants pulled down unnecessarily

[Prinny]

Yeah... basically, you’re not using it enough!

I used to get it when leaving a car at the airport every week.

Bought one of these and had no further problems: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AA-Solar-Powered-Car-Batt...

However, at the end of the day, your battery is coming up on 7/8 years old, if you’ve no plans to sell the car in the near future, I’d go buy a new one.

[Fox-]

I used to get this on my old F10 530d if I'd sat in the car playing with the iDrive for 30-45 minutes updating maps the day before, or if I'd left it a week or two when on holiday.

I've never had it in my current one but my first one was older so presumably it's a product of the battery as it ages.