Battery Is Dead All The Time

[rlegrant]

I've had my Z4 less than 60 days. It has been in the shop 3 times. One for the stereo amp blowing a fuse and 2 for dead battery.

Has anyone else had this problem with the battery? Dealer swears they can find nothing wrong.

Each time, the car is driven at night then backed into the garage. Next day, the battery is dead. I put a charge to it for a half hour, take it out and it never fails. If I use it at night, the battery goes dead.

I'm taking it in again on Friday for yet another check. At this rate it is so unreliable, I really don't know what steps next to take.

Any thoughts would really be appreciated.

 

[Tom]

Could be a defective battery, if it is then it wont take a charge. I would have them replace the battery before doing anything else.

 

[grc]

sounds like a lemon law candidate? seach for the law in your state and see if you qualify. then go pick out a new one!

 

[Big Daddy]

The battery should be 100% under warranty during the first year. I would have it checked at some independent shop, Les Schwab, Goodyear, etc, then if they get a defective reading take it back to BMW and have them test it.

 

[wileycoyote]

I second the lemon law suggestion. You may have a bad wiring harness (a short that drains the battery), bad battery, bad alternater (generator), voltage regulator, etc. A failure in one of these components could easily damage, and lead to premature failure, of many other components. Typically, 3 trips for the the same problem withing 30 days qualifies. Check your state laws. I think you are in MA:

http://www.state.ma.us/consumer/Pubs/lemon.htm

Maybe if you send a letter to BMW per the template at the site above, and CC the dealer, you might get them more motivated.

 

[cea]

Could it be the alternator?

 

[grc]

could be anything, down to the clock or the radio preset memory. quick way to check for current draw is to disconnect the negative battery cable and put a 12v test light between the cable and battery terminal. if the light lights up strong and normal, there is a drain. the bulb might barely glow from the clock and memory stuff. if there is an under hood light you have to remove the bulb during the test. hopefully the under hood light is not the short! and don't forget to close the doors.

 

[rlegrant]

You guys have been great.

The car goes back to the dealer on Friday a.m. and I'll certainly report back on what is found.

I took 2 suggestions from here today:

1. I had the alternator and battery checked with an independent garage I trust. They told me the alternator is just fine but the battery is dead. They put just a little drain on the battery and it went from 12 volts to 3 volts. They said a strong battery should never go below 9 volts with a heavy drain (headlamps, heather, etc. at the same time.) They recommend BMW Dealer to replace the battery.

Dealer says they will check everything top to bottom this time. I'll sit there and wait tomorrow.

2. I looked up the MA lemmon law. You have 1 year or 15,000 miles on a new car. If the problem cannot be fixed in 3 visits, you send a registered letter to BMW USA (for me that is in NJ) and let them know of the problem, the 3 visits and they have 15 days to fix the issue or by MA law you can return the car and pick up a new one. (The problem has to be safety related OR it has to be a problem that would decrease the value of the car by 10%.) Either way, this qualifies.

This is my first BMW and while I absolutely love driving this car and frankly look for reasons to drive it...the thing has been in the dealer's garage as much as mine...or so it seems. I hope this visit is the magic one and that I don't have to see them for quite sometime.

Thanks you ALL for being so helpful. What a great group of people. More tomorrow...

 

[grc]

how can you miss a dead battery? should have been the first thing they checked, takes less than a minute! just for kicks i would ask the service writer and manager exactly what was checked on all previous visits. and if you had to pay for the private diagnosis, i would request that they reimburse you for what should have been found and taken care of on the first visit. batteries do go dead while sitting on the dealers lot, and many times don't come back with a jump or even after being charged. it's not uncommon at all, but the service you have been subjected to is unexcusable IMHO. good luck with this dealers service dept, sounds like they prefer the cars to heal by themselves?

 

[bonzo]

When doing the LEMON LAW make sure they right down the exact same problem everytime you bring the car in such as DEAD BATTERY or Electrical Short. If they write down something different each time you can not Lemon Law the car. Please beaware that the dealer does not want you to lemon law so they tend to play games to beat the system. I had this problem with a 2000 VW Jetta VR6. The battery kept dying on my wife. We brought it back to the dealer several times (at least 5 or 6) and they would charge the battery and send us on our way. After the 4th or 5th time and the dealership actually replaced the battery twice inside a month. When we had enough and tried to lemon law the car we found out we had not paid enough attention to what the service people were writing down on the paperwork at each visit. It ranged from Tire rotations to battery check to electrical system check to general diagnosis. If each time it had said dead battery we would not have had a problem. Unfortunately we were unable to lemon law the car. It ended up being a front seat motor that would run all night. It was one of those seats that moves back when the key is removed so you can exit the car. Unfortunately you don't pay attention to the seat after exiting the car. It seems that the motor would stop only 75% of the time and the other times it would run for hours and kill the battery.

Oh well no more VW's for us.[fake]

 

[Gib-McFragger]

It is most likely the battery. BMW batteries are shite. I have replace countless batteries under warranty, in fact I did one today on a 2003 330xi that had 500kms on it.

They usually TAKE a charge but won't hold it for long, which is what yours sounds like. Take it back to the dealer and have them test it and do a draw test on the car. You can do that yourself if you want, just unhook the neg battery terminal and use a DVOM set to milliamps between the neg wire and neg battery terminal. The draw shouldn't be much higher than 25ma, approx.

 

[rlegrant]

Thank you ALL for the comments. I can't begin to tell you how they helped.

After the independent garage detected that the problem was the battery, I returned to the dealer on Friday morning. In less than an hour, they took in the car, ALSO detected that the problem was the battery, and replaced it. Sent me on my way.

Yesterday was my son's birthday, so I met him for lunch, and as it was 90 degrees yesterday and no shade, I pressed the button to put up the top to protect the interrior (and my legs when I returned to the car) and the top would not go up. It would barely start, and just stop. The red lights would blink.

I called the dealer from my cell, told them I'd be there in an hour and to have the sales manager ready.

I returned to the dealer and they put the car immediately into the shop. I had a very heated meeting with the service manager and the sales manager of the dealership. In the meantime, they had the Z4 in the shop 2 hours repairing the top.

In the end, they checked out the cargo tray micro switch (OK) and also discovered that someone, when putting in the new battery, had (for whatever reason) pulled the red override handle. After they reinstalled that, they connected up to the onboard computer system to discover my Z4 was thinking the windows were UP instead of down. So, the top would not go up. They reset the computer and synced the top and windows. Tried it a dozen times without fail. And sent me on my way.

Now, the interesting thing here , is that as I was startup up the car to leave, the sales manager came out with a long tube. He apologized all over himself, handed me a tube and said maybe since my birthday lunch with my son was ruined and I had now visited service 4 times in 52 days...a gift inside the tube would begin to make me happy. Gave me his card.

I got home and he had placed a brand new "Land Shark" poster and that 6 foot long, 2.5 foot wide cloth Z4 banner from their showroom inside the tube.

It was a nice gesture to a VERY frustrating day. What I would really like is to go a month without having to visit my dealer.

Thanks to you all again for your wise advice and your own stories. I look forward to learning a lot more from you.

 

[Big Daddy]

Have to disagree with "BMW battries are shit". I just replaced the ones in both my 91 318is last year and the one in my 91 750il this year. That is unusal and maybe I am the exception. I have read that the average battery lasts five years. I'll bet once the battery is replaced the car will be fine, although I agree the dealer should have found it the first time.

 

[Gib-McFragger]

That's the thing, they either last several years, or they crap out almost instantly. Coin toss really.