Battery Drain on X5 4.4 2001

[turquise1]

This has been going on for a couple of years now. Everything is ok during summer when the weather is hot (in Chicago) but when weather gets colder, the battery is drained and dead in a couple of days or so. I killed 2 batteries so far and I am not sure Interstate will honour another warranty claim.

I already did the drain test and could not find the source. I have been reading about the GM3 not working properly because of its old capacitors especially when it is cold but replacing them did not seem to help either.

Right now, my X5 seems to go to sleep around 32 mins as shift light and IHKA fan turning off but the battery is almost dead again the next day as the car hardly starts.

Obviously, the alternator is checked and working fine.

I will do more drain testing but meanwhile I would appreciate any advise I can get..

Thanks for your help in advance..

Ozzie..

X5 2001 4.4

[M3rocket]

I feel for ya -- I've been dealing with same issue on my 2005 X5 3.0i since June. Mine isn't affected by temperature/season (it's always mild here), and I garage it. After running diagnostics, a couple mechs thought it's either the instrument cluster or radio/MID, but couldn't be 100% sure.

My multi-meter settles down to .02 amp after the car goes to sleep (16 minutes), so it's still a mystery. I recently swapped-out the AAA battery (new in June) with an Interstate Megatron 85 Plus -- because the problem started right after installing the AAA battery. Fingers crossed. It's my wife's car, but she won't drive it anymore, so I lost my M3 vert to her!

If yours isn't going to sleep for 32 minutes, that seems like twice the usual time (unless the 4.4 is different)

[peter2772000]

For whatever it's worth, I had an aftermarket car starter in my 97' Safari which started having dead battery issues every so often.
Turned out to be a loose connection under the dash (thanks to the slob who installed the system initially) was causing the truck to prepare to start intermittently. This would start the fuel pump in preparation, then everything would shut off. The again, over and over again...

I had the van in my garage for a week with an ammeter in series with the battery terminal and the hood up. It finally did the above after a week, I only caught it by chance.
Oh, and I ripped that damn thing out of there.