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Thread: Overnight battery drain on 2003 540i6

  1. #1
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    Overnight battery drain on 2003 540i6

    I drove my car on Wednesday night and everything was normal. Thursday night I was gonna run to the store and the car was completly dead electrically. The voltage at the battery terminals was 2VDC. I unhooked the negative cable and charged the battery at a 2 amp setting for a couple days. When I reconnected the negative cable, the car came to life and started like nothing was ever wrong.
    I'm assuming it is related to the FSU and that's the parts cannon I'm lighting. The FSU was replaced under warranty about 10 years ago so I suppose it's about time anyway. The battery is about 2 years old and I replaced the alternator last summer. I know it was charging normally when I parked it.
    I'm fixing to dig into the forums to see what else could have drained the battery overnight without showing any signs or symptoms but if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears ish...
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  2. #2
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    Take new voltage readings, engine off-engine on.
    Test for parasitic drain with multimeter.
    Post back with readings displayed.

  3. #3
    geargrinder's Avatar
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    Had any rain? Water and rot in the passenger foot-washing-basin is always a good suspect. Although that usually manifests in random other malfunctions and odd behaviors around the same time. Ignition switch?
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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  4. #4
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    Other than going through the car wash a week ago, it's been dry and I park it indoors. Vapor barriers in the rear doors are new and sealed with silicone. Ignition switch was replaced about 3 years ago. I haven't yet lifted up the passenger seat to see if it's wet under the carpet. The battery is topping off under the trickle charge right now. Later this afternoon I'll take Mikyzz suggestion and look for parasitic drain.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  5. #5
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    Finding parasitic current drain

    An article in Motor magazine suggests this approach: measure the voltage drop across the fuse. It s/b zero. If you measure several (or more) millivolts, you can consider that circuit suspicious.

    Some modules do not take kindly to pulling fuses, and you may encounter a lockup or damage. This approach avoids that, as well as the hassle of pulling fuses.

    Also, this can identify blown fuses, where you will measure the battery voltage.

    Here’s a table that relates current drain to voltage drop across fuses:

    http://www.autonerdz.com/yabbfiles/A...crossfuses.pdf


    Ed in San Jose '97 540i 6 speed aspensilber over aubergine leather. Build date 3/97. Golden Gate Chapter BMW CCA Nr 62319.

  6. #6
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    Check out this informative vid:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRso1A0VScw

  7. #7
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by MIKYZZ4 View Post
    Check out this informative vid:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRso1A0VScw
    Do you need an Olds Bravada, and, to remove the coolant cap, in order to do this test?

    (Ok I hate vids but srsly it’s a good un for a noober)
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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    2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
    2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)

    Former:

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    1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)


  8. #8
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    LOL,
    yes the vids I link are more geared to be helpful to newbies,
    not experts such as yourself, and I just hope they are useful
    to the forum members attempting to learn something new.

  9. #9
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    The video and the link to the PDF were great! It never occurred to me to use the fuse as a shunt to check current draw. Unfortunately, the guy in the video was right, once the battery was drained and in my case also disconnected, what ever caused the drain hasn't come back. With the trunk open, once the car "went to sleep", I checked and didn't find any parasitic drain. Even across the main 200 amp fuse from the battery, the residual was zero according to my inexpensive multimeter. I'm gonna let the car sit in the garage with the battery connected for a few days and see what happens. This weekend I'll start driving it again and periodically check for parasites eating my battery volts. In the mean time, I ordered a new FSU from FCPEuro, just in case.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  10. #10
    JimLev's Avatar
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    Another quick test......
    Measure the battery voltage, leave the meter connected to the battery, then turn the key to position 2, don't start the engine. Turn the headlights on and note how long it takes for the voltage to drop below 12 volts.
    If it's less than 2 min and continues to drop like a rock the battery is not holding a charge.

  11. #11
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    +1 geargrinder

    My sunroof drains were clogged. This wreaked havoc on me for at least 6 months until I figured it out. Water in the passenger side foot basin is absolutely a good sign of clogged sunroof drains.
    I had them cleaned out and had the seal replaced while they're in there and everything is fine now. You might want to also check the hood sensor switch although when I had that problem and I thought it might be that switch, everybody on here told me that it drains nowhere near enough amperage to kill a car overnight... A trick Quiksilver taught me was you can jump that switch to see if the car goes to sleep after 16 minutes I think is the time it takes to go to sleep. Certainly let us all know what the culprit turned out to be. Good luck.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

  12. #12
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    It's been sitting for a few days now with the battery connected and the voltage is holding at about 12.7. I woke the car up and turned on the lights for a little while. The voltage dropped to 12.1 without going lower. When I powered it down and after it went back to sleep the volts increased back to about 12.6.
    This weekend I'll drive it and park it with the trunk and hood open so I can check for parasitic draw without disturbing it's "sleep" cycle.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by geargrinder View Post
    Do you need an Olds Bravada, and, to remove the coolant cap, in order to do this test?

    (Ok I hate vids but srsly it’s a good un for a noober)
    Appears so.


    Ed in San Jose '97 540i 6 speed aspensilber over aubergine leather. Build date 3/97. Golden Gate Chapter BMW CCA Nr 62319.

  14. #14
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    This is driving me nuts. I can't find anything causing the parasitic battery drain. It's been just over a week and I can't find anything drawing current after it's "gone to sleep". Battery didn't go below 12.5VDC all week (it sat for about 5 days) and didn't go below 12.1VDC with the lights and some accessories on (engine off).
    The only thing I did differently on the last day I drove it before the battery went dead last week was run it through the car wash and drive around with the air conditioning on (it was a very hot day).
    I haven't (yet) removed the passenger front seat to check for evidence of moisture, present or past.
    In the form of a small parts cannon, I have a new FSU on its way from FCPEuro.
    The one thing that's eating at me is on the day I found it dead, I connected my battery charger to it and it wouldn't even attempt to charge it until I disconnected the battery cable. In the past with other cars, if the battery is dead, connecting a battery charger will let you power the car (interior lights, gauges, etc) but not start it. In this case, nothing would happen. No lights or anything. The battery charger would immediately turn itself off. Once I unhooked the negative cable, it charged the battery normally. I ignored that at fist but something is telling me that was an important clue.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  15. #15
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    Parasitic drain is measured in amps not volts. You're hoping for a reading of ~ 50mA=0.050 or less displayed on meter.
    Place meter in line with negative battery cable - observe before and after sleep readings - post results.

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    I tried connecting it inline between the negative battery cable and the battery terminal with the lead plugged into the 10 amp position. It didn't like it. All I got were numbers rolling up and down and they didn't make sense. I want to say it was showing in volts and not amps (it was set to the amp position). It's a pretty cheap (HF) multimeter. My good one got damaged. I'll have to go get a nicer one or use the nice Fluke at work.
    When I use the main (200 amp) fuse in the trunk as a shunt, as soon as the car goes to sleep I get 0 mv. I'm not sure how sensitive my meter is however. When the car is awake, I do get mv's showing across the same fuse. I didn't write them down unfortunately so I can't remember what it was. I figured as soon as I was getting current draw during "sleep mode", I would start checking across fuses.
    I realize it doesn't look like I'm being very "methodical" in my troubleshooting but I'm hampered by what appears to be an intermittent fault and distracted by other things keeping me busy.
    I actually hate to replace a part (FSU) without being more certain it's the culprit. Without verification, I'll never know if it's "fixed". At least at work (I work on aircraft), if we replace an electronic part as part of troubleshooting, we can make a note on the part that it was only replaced as a precaution.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  17. #17
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    Yes, unfortunately the rolling nonsensical numbers indicates to me that,
    your HF meter may be damaged. If you watched that video link I posted,
    he indicates a safer use of the meter.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Santaclaus4 View Post
    I tried connecting it inline between the negative battery cable and the battery terminal with the lead plugged into the 10 amp position. It didn't like it. All I got were numbers rolling up and down and they didn't make sense.
    I have a HFT meter thats honestly not terrible, its as good as any of the 'decent' imports, but, they also have absolute super cheapo junkers too... I'm gonna guess your cheap HFT isn't sensitive enough for the fuse-shunt method?

    Are you sure you had it connected correctly? Swap cable, change to amp-mode, then connect. There will be an internal fuse (normally 2 - one for each amperage range) on the meter, that very well may be blown. Floating readings like that are often from an open circuit with some stray capacitive coupling that has the meter trying to provide a reading when its really not connected.

    But the battery charger story tells me something was really wrong, voltage was too low and/or current drain too high and the charger didnt' like it or most likely didn't think a battery was even there.

    All that said... the report that maybe it started draining after a hard session of running the AC could point in the FSU direction... running the FSU hard maybe that made it act up on shutdown.
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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    2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
    2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)

    Former:

    1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
    1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)


  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Santaclaus4 View Post
    I tried connecting it inline between the negative battery cable and the battery terminal with the lead plugged into the 10 amp position. It didn't like it. All I got were numbers rolling up and down and they didn't make sense. I want to say it was showing in volts and not amps (it was set to the amp position).

    It's a pretty cheap (HF) multimeter.
    You mean like the FREE one?

    You probably blew the meter fuse as the car will draw more than 10 amps after you shut the engine off. It will then taper off as the various modules shut down.
    If your meter doesn't have a current setting higher than 10 amps you can do this.
    If you want to connect the meter in series with the negative battery cable and not blow the fuse use a jumper connected to both meter leads, then connect the meter negative lead to the negative battery cable. Then the positive meter lead to the battery neg post, keep the jumper between both meter leads connected until the trunk light goes out. Then remove the jumper between meter leads. The meter will now show the current drawn when in "sleep mode", should be less than 30ma.

  20. #20
    geargrinder's Avatar
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    Good technique. To absolutely pick inconsequential nits, I'd maybe do it this way - jumper the battery neg to ground cable first, then connect meter to both terminals in parallel with that, then remove jumper when sleeping... (i.e. put the jumper between terminals and not on the meter leads...)
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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  21. #21
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    I think I paid about $5 for it years ago. Almost free and probably about the same quality.
    I tried jumpering the negative cable while the car went to sleep but I did it that way AFTER I cooked my multimeter. Lol
    I noticed it had a warning on the 10A plug that it was limited to something like 3 seconds only. I didn't notice the warning untill it was too late.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  22. #22
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    Nothing to delay our testing over, toss it.
    Run over to HFTools and pick up another one!

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by MIKYZZ4 View Post
    Nothing to delay our testing over, toss it.
    Run over to HFTools and pick up another one!
    It's on my list for tomorrow morning after work (I work grave shift).
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

  24. #24
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    Instructions

    BMW Vehicle Parasitic Draw Testing
    When your car battery goes dead overnight, usually either the battery is at the end of its life span, or you left something on, such as a light. Occasionally something is drawing power that's not of your doing. This is a parasitic draw, and it can cause the same result as leaving the headlights on: a dead battery in the morning.



    1. Remove the negative side battery cable from the negative battery terminal.
    2. Connect the black wire to the com input on the multimeter and the red wire to the 10A or 20A input on the multimeter. The meter needs to be able to read at least a 2 or 3 amps for this test to work. Connecting the red wire to the mA input on the multimeter won't work and could damage the meter.
    3. Attach a multimeter (set the dial on the multimeter to measure Amps as per multimeter’s instructions) between the negative cable and the negative battery post. Wait a few seconds to several minutes for the car to go into sleep mode - i.e. when you make the contact with the ammeter, the cars computer systems "wake up". After a bit of time they will go back to "sleep".
    4. If the ammeter is reading over 25-50 milliamps, something is using too much battery power.
    5. Go to the fuse panel(s) and remove fuses, one at a time. Pull the main fuses (higher amp ratings) last. Perform the same steps for relays found in the fuse panel. Sometimes relay contacts can fail to release causing a drain. Be sure to observe the ammeter after pulling each fuse or relay.
    6. Watch for the ammeter to drop to acceptable drain. The fuse that reduces the drain is the draw. Consult the owners' manual or service manual to find what circuits are on that fuse.
    7. Check each device (circuit) on that fuse. Stop each lamp, heater, etc. to find the drain.
    8. Repeat steps 1 & 2 to test your repair. The ammeter will tell you the exact numbers.



    BMW Battery Draw Testing
    If your Shifter light is on, the car is definitely staying awake.
    Your Battery will go down within days. If the light is not on
    you can have a parasitic draw, while the car is in sleep mode.
    The only difference, is the second draw is from a module
    witch can’t wake the system (not mission critical), and it will
    take a lot longer to discharge the battery.
    Shifter light NOT on: (battery fully charged)
    Find the ground cable on the battery, but do not disconnect.
    (the cable end connected to the body not the battery, is easier to handle.)
    Connect the Positive lead from the “Fluke” to the body of the car (good ground)
    Connect the Negative lead to the (brown) ground cable (you can puncture it)
    Make sure it’s easy to disconnect the (brown) cable from the body, but don’t
    take it off yet.
    Open the glove box and remove and disable the switch so the light will not turn on, locate the fuse box.
    Start the car and run at idle, turn EVERYTHING on, and activate all the components (sunroof, windows, a/c, lights …..) run 5 min.
    turn the car off and remove the key. Open all doors and trunk, and with a screw driver,
    close the door locks so the system thinks all doors and the trunk is closed.
    Now lock the vehicle with the remote.
    The “Fluke” must be set up to “A” not “mA” otherwise you will blow the
    fuse in the meter. Remove the nut from the ground cable and remove the cable from the stud. You meter will indicate around (300mA).
    Let the car go to sleep. (16 min) minimum, if this is not happening start over.
    After the sleep mode is on the draw should not be more then 50mA, if it’s more
    go to the glove box and start puling fuses one by one and check the draw after each one, but do NOT re-install the fuse. Pull the fuse and leave it out
    There are some fuses under the right cover in the trunk. If you pull a fuse and car wakes up start over (next time ignore this fuse). If you pull a fuse and the draw drops to around 50mA, read the label on the fuse, you will know witch circuit is faulty.
    Current Garage Highlights
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    Former Garage Highlights
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    1973 Pantera L
    1971 Dodge Dart Swinger "Lite Package"
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack Alpine White
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  25. #25
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    It's just not failing now. I really dislike intermittent problems. No dead or draining batterys, no nothing. I have a new FSU but I really hate to install it if I'm not sure it's the problem.
    I guess I could replace it "as a precautionary measure". I do think it's the culprit but I can't be sure.
    The only thing I haven't duplicated from the night it discharged the battery is wash the car. I still need to pull the passenger seat and look for signs of moisture.
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

    If you put cheap parts on your car, you will soon have a cheap parts car.

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