Advice on used 2012 740i, Carfax shows many Battery/charging system repairs

[Maico]

New to the forum. I was looking to purchase a 2012 BMW 740i with about 63K miles. After looking at the Carfax on it, there are approx. 11 reports of "Battery/charging system checked", "Battery Serviced" and "Battery replaced" over the last 3 years. The battery replacement was approx. 1-1/2 years ago.

It's pretty obvious that the second owner got tired of going to the dealer for this problem over the 2 years they owned it.

I have researched this subject and found everything from "try cleaning your battery terminals" to "the electric water pump runs excessively" to "one of my door handles was waking the cars computer" to "you might have a bad IBS (intelligent battery sensor)".

It's obvious that the two different BMW dealers that worked on this car have no clue how to fix it.

Have any experts out there found the real underlying cause of the battery/charging system problem? And, the long term fix.

Also, with the car having 63K miles, at about what mileage would high dollar parts (struts, suspension components, electric water pump, etc) need replacement?

Thanks, in advance.

[White94RX]

There's no way for anyone to diagnose the concern without knowing the specific issues the car is exhibiting, and also any relevant fault codes. So any speculation would be exactly that.

If you know this car has issues, why would you want to take on someone else's headache problem car?

[Adfundum]

Read This:
http://gotaclassaction.com/bmw-named-in-class-action-lawsuit-over-excessive-oil-consumption-that-leads-to-battery-failure/

[SGs54MC]

If the car had been only driven sporadically or for short distances, that could have been the cause of the battery issues. Given that the car has 63k miles, I am going to assume that it could be out of warranty. If that's the case, an independent shop not familiar with the registering the battery may have not done so when installing a new battery. This can lead to premature battery failure. As with all BMWs, a "low" battery can also lead to a plethora of other problems.

The good thing is that you are looking at a 740, which has a pretty rock solid engine. The N63 in the 750 does have some issues (which are sometimes overblown), is the one to more wary of when buying used.