Battery Codition Question

[Road Ruler]

Good day all.

My battery is 4 years old. After sitting for 24 hours I checked the voltage of the battery with a Volt meter. It was 11.9 Volts. I'm thinking this is kinda low. Any thoughts? Thnxs.

[AlphaBetaX5]

Good day all.

My battery is 4 years old. After sitting for 24 hours I checked the voltage of the battery with a Volt meter. It was 11.9 Volts. I'm thinking this is kinda low. Any thoughts? Thnxs.

Voltage isn’t everything on a BMW battery.

As Doug Huffman always says, a BMW never charges your battery fully. Therefore you need to inspect your battery the way your IBS module in your BMW does.


State of charge and state of health are two measures your car uses to assess a battery’s condition.

You will need a specific BMW scanner to read those measures.


if you don’t have a BMW scanner, use your OBD hidden menus (#9 shows your voltage as your IBS measures it).

Turn on ignition, check the voltage on your OBD menu, it should be 12.4 -12.6V. Turn on the engine, it should go to 13.4 to up to 14.4V.

That is the correct way to read your voltage.

Now, if it is less than 12V, it means your driving style is not “favorable”. As per BMW’s literature.

Means your trips are short, and not long enough for the IBS to allow your battery to get charged.

Drive her longer!

HTH.





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[jclausen]

Or get a battery tender

[peter2772000]

Good day all.

My battery is 4 years old. After sitting for 24 hours I checked the voltage of the battery with a Volt meter. It was 11.9 Volts. I'm thinking this is kinda low. Any thoughts? Thnxs.

I'm curious as to why you checked to begin with. Are you having issues, or were you simply curious?

[Road Ruler]

Thnxs all. Good tips and responses. Peter, To basicly monitor water temp I installed a scan gauge. I noticed when first starting the x5 the voltage readings were in the mid 11's and then within 15 sec they would climb in the 13 to 14 range. This made me wonder if the battery was at a low charge state after sitting for 1 day. As a test I let it sit for 48 hours and it's voltage was still at 11.95 so that indicated that there was no parasitic drain issue.

As a comparison our 2010 Toyota Sienna has a new battery and after 1 day of sitting the battery voltage at rest is 13.55 volts which is correct for a healthy, new , battery.

If possible can anyone out there put a do a voltage test on their X5 after sitting for one day. I would be curious to see what readings other folks are getting. Thnxs all. Luv the techy discussions and learning experiences.

[peter2772000]

When we get back down to FL, I'll test the battery and let you know. I am curious as to why hshakarmi seems to say to disregard your voltmeter and go by the on-board voltage reading.

FYI, the X6 is on a Battery Minder when in storage, be it for a week or 5 months. As is our Canadian ML350 when we're down south