Dead battery

[SCHMOUPE]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

I totally agreed! I also doubt that a 2007 BMW has anymore sensors than a 2009 Honda Accord. It is definitely some kind of flaw in the design. Furthermore, German's cars are not know for great electrical design and/or reliable. Have you ever noticed many BMW, Audi/VW with no lights on ONE side.

U mean the optional wink? My dealer sells that option for 1299

[ANUSTART]

Sears has a Diehard "International" version that works fine in our cars. Cost is around $160 installed.

[esqu1re]

My dealer replaced mine at 20k due to sulfating. You should check another dealer.

[Z4her]

It's unfortunate that this is my 1st or 2nd post, but my wife and I are really questioning purchasing a 2007 Z4 for her.
She went to leave for work this morning and her battery is DEAD! No warning, no clicks, just dead.
What's sad is that we bought the car with just over 18K miles not even 3 months ago and it's already had a battery replaced since we bought it. Since then we vacationed in Florida for 3 weeks and drove the 800+ miles each way with no problems. It's her daily driver but this car has definite issues.

I was surprised when we got it back from the dealership the 2ND time that we were informed that although it's garaged every night it MUST be locked or the battery could suffer. This is not our first luxury/sporty car, but it is our first BMW. Is the night locking a standard bimmer thing?
Also, I notice that when one of us is talking on the phone via bluetooth, it continues to run even AFTER the car is turned off, parked in the garage and we're in the house. Never timed it to see how long the BT stays on, but..............should it still be on?
My car also has bluetooth, but when I shut my car off, the BT shuts down right away and kicks the call back to the phone.

Anyone got any ideas? We sure could use some advice from experienced owners right about now.

[Pheonix]

Originally Posted by Z4her

I was surprised when we got it back from the dealership the 2ND time that we were informed that although it's garaged every night it MUST be locked or the battery could suffer. This is not our first luxury/sporty car, but it is our first BMW. Is the night locking a standard bimmer thing?
Also, I notice that when one of us is talking on the phone via bluetooth, it continues to run even AFTER the car is turned off, parked in the garage and we're in the house. Never timed it to see how long the BT stays on, but..............should it still be on?
My car also has bluetooth, but when I shut my car off, the BT shuts down right away and kicks the call back to the phone.

Anyone got any ideas? We sure could use some advice from experienced owners right about now.

I had similar problems with my 2007 Z4MC last year! It was the faulty Telecomunication Unit (TCU). It kept waking up every 2 hours or so and searched for bluetooth device or something. It was drawing 2A for about 15 minutes. The dealer replaced it under warranty.
The car will stay "awake" for 15-16 minute after the key removed! The SA told me the same thing about locking the car. I try to make it a routine thing and lock the car even it is parking in my own garage.

[Hawkeye]

That locking crap is... well.. crap.

I have had my car for nearly 4 years now as a daily driver and I have never locked my car at night since it is in a secure garage.


Never had a battery issue to date.

[Twisted Six]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

That locking crap is... well.. crap.

I have had my car for nearly 4 years now as a daily driver and I have never locked my car at night since it is in a secure garage.


Never had a battery issue to date.

Agreed.

Although my warranty recently covered my battery when I found it having slower energy starting power a few times and finally dead.

They installed a slightly larger Exide/BMW battery...no charge.

[Z4her]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

I had similar problems with my 2007 Z4MC last year! It was the faulty Telecomunication Unit (TCU). It kept waking up every 2 hours or so and searched for bluetooth device or something. It was drawing 2A for about 15 minutes. The dealer replaced it under warranty.
The car will stay "awake" for 15-16 minute after the key removed! The SA told me the same thing about locking the car. I try to make it a routine thing and lock the car even it is parking in my own garage.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

That locking crap is... well.. crap.

I have had my car for nearly 4 years now as a daily driver and I have never locked my car at night since it is in a secure garage.


Never had a battery issue to date.

Originally Posted by Dark Schnitzer

Agreed.

Although my warranty recently covered my battery when I found it having slower energy starting power a few times and finally dead.

They installed a slightly larger Exide/BMW battery...no charge.

Thanks for the heads-up. My wife will be bringing the Z to the dealership tomorrow morning. I am going to request that they do a thorough search of the electrical system and hopefully they will actually do a check of the TCU since it is not the first that I have heard of this part causing a problem. Maybe since this will be the 3RD time for a same or similar issue they will not give us the same or similar repair. Hopefully they can get to the bottom of it once and for all.

[Pheonix]

Hope they will figure things out for you guys! They kept my car over night so be prepared. Let me know if you need more detail and i could scan the service records for you (actually the first dealer i could not figure out what wrong with the car when i took it in)

[ebruder]

This is just such nonsense. When my car was about 2 years old the battery went bad. I put it on a charger at home to get enough power into it to start the car. I drove out to the dealer with no appointment and left 30 minutes later with a new battery covered under warranty.

Some dealers are good and some are thieves.

EB

[FerRrari]

I called all 3 dealers in my area, they both gave me the same speech, the owner's manual also says to drive the car regularly or the battery will die (the warranty booklet) so I gave up and shelled the $400

[Finnegan]

Totally agree with today's posts. I'd also add if you have an alarm, and lock the car, the alarm does draw some level of charge to run. Hence not locking the doors when the car is in a safe location (such as a locked garage) is less draw on the battery....Some dealers and their explanations .

A three year old car with 18K may mean that the car saw little use and probably a lot of short trips. That can adversely affect battery life.

If the car will see weekend use only and isn't a daily driver a battery maintainer is a good investment (see the first page of this thread). A CTEK or similar battery maintainer costs around 60 bucks of less and will keep a battery that sees infrequent use alive. Also note on page 1 there are cheaper alternatives to a "BMW" battery and you can get the same thing for a fraction of the cost if needed.

As others have said there could be a current drain from various modules as well. The dealer should be able to trace that.

Let us know how this goes.

[03BeastCharmer]

Originally Posted by FerRrari

I called all 3 dealers in my area, they both gave me the same speech, the owner's manual also says to drive the car regularly or the battery will die (the warranty booklet) so I gave up and shelled the $400

Might want to check to see what type of battery you got. I had a similar discussion with my dealer and was just going to buy the battery and install myself since the $400 was $200+ for the battery plus $100+ for install. With the BMW CCA discount I was going to get the battery for just under $200. When I went to get the battery the replacement battery for our car was a bigger unit, but with a lower CCA. They said the one I had was the original factory battery, and they can't get factory batteries. I ended up going to O'Reily and getting the battery pictured on the previous page with the same CCA and specs as the factory battery.

[chickdr]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

That locking crap is... well.. crap.

I have had my car for nearly 4 years now as a daily driver and I have never locked my car at night since it is in a secure garage.


Never had a battery issue to date.

I have an 07 Audi Q7. The battery died exactly one week after we took delivery(brand new car). The battery checked out fine, was charged and we went on our way. It has happened once more in the 4 yrs we have had the car. I leave my keys in the car when it is in the garage. The car has smart keys and I was told the keys have to be taken out and the car locked to truly shut down the electrical system. I don't always follow this guideline and just run a charger about 1x a month to make sure it is topped off. In my experience, German cars have many more issues with dead batteries.

[Z4her]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

Hope they will figure things out for you guys! They kept my car over night so be prepared. Let me know if you need more detail and i could scan the service records for you (actually the first dealer i could not figure out what wrong with the car when i took it in)

Thanks, Pheonix. I hope they can finally solve this issue once and for all. I appreciate the help and I'll post what they find tomorrow. They give BMW's for loaner cars so if they'd need to keep the Z longer.........we don't exactly mind.

[esqu1re]

I top off my battery every two weeks or so (put it on the charger), since most of my trips are under 5 miles. Will topping off the battery every two/three weeks weaken the battery's longevity?

[Hawkeye]

I just run a tender on it during storage in the winter about every 2 weeks or so and they may have th same effect. I have a 20-20 minute commute to and from work every day, plus whatever errands I run before/after.

My car gets a lot of use when it is not winter so that may have helped me I guess.

[Z4her]

Ok, so we got an update.
My wife took the car in today on the way to work and I had her get a loaner car just in case it wasn't a quick fix..................good thing too!
Right now the word from the dealership is that they have NO idea why the batterIES (this is the 2nd new battery since we got the car late last year) will not hold a charge. They told her that not only will the car "probably not be done today" but there is a chance it may not be done tomorrow either. They told her they are currently rewiring the entire electrical system since they cannot find the charging issue.
Now I'm wondering if the car needs to go back to the original purchase locale (Volvo dealership) so they can find us a car that doesn't have this issue.

BTW: My friend's wife has a non-Z4 bimmer as well that had and still has the same issue. Is this more common than I think?

[ebruder]

Originally Posted by Z4her

...They told her they are currently rewiring the entire electrical system ...

I don't mean to be a cynic, but really! The entire electrical system, wow!

EB

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by Z4her

They told her they are currently rewiring the entire electrical system since they cannot find the charging issue.

The things some of these dealers say--it never ceases to floor me. "[R]ewiring the entire electrical system"...uh, I'm calling . Man, I don't believe that one for one minute! I'd ask to see the old wiring harness and all the old wires in that case--I'm pretty sure they'll give you a blank stare or tell you "it's already been picked up out of the trash".

Now, if they said they were check for a current drain and trying to find the culprit (probably a module--like you said, maybe the Bluetooth, could be something else that isn't letting the car go to "sleep") sure, that would be plausible. In fact, that's the right operating procedure given how BMW operates relative to warranty. But rewiring the entire electrical system?

I mean, does it make any sense to start replacing parts when there's no diagnosis? The dealer is saying, "well, we have no idea of the what the cause is, so we'll just start replacing parts--starting with the wiring harness--unless we hit one one that fixes the problem".

Warranty work has very tightly controlled requirements and procedures at BMW. They're German after all! (This is warranty work, correct, given that it's a 2007--I sure hope so since I wouldn't want to pay for it.) To do warranty work BMW corporate must approve the work. Otherwise the dealer does not get paid. Period. That's how it works. That means the dealer must have a definitive diagnosis, and evidence, which is submitted to BMW. If it meets requirements then BMW gives approval.

BMW does not give approval for work where Zeeke and Cletus start randomly pulling and replacing parts when they have no clue what the hell is wrong with the car. If they do, the dealer won't be paid for parts/labor. So they can't be doing what they say they're doing.

If I were hearing this story it would raise some serious questions about the dealership. Sorry this is turning into such a mess.

[Z4her]

I understand what you are both saying, but that's what she told me. I'll be heading up there myself when the work is finally done and hopefully I can talk to the tech(s) about what really went wrong. I've already risen a flag myself once I heard what they told her they were going to actually do.
What I think is going to happen is that they are going to install yet another battery and call it fixed. I hope that is not the case, though. For now, she's driving around in a little 328i courtesy car and I'm tempted to get rid of the Z for it if this continues to be a problem. Probably get vetoed on that one, but I've already brought it up.
Right now we just want the dealership to take their time and get it right. No hurry as these cars are not exactly made for what she's been driving through.
More to come................!

[Pheonix]

Hope they will figure it out! Maybe they mispoke and meant "retracing". That what they did with my car and isolated the problem to the TCU.