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-   -   Battery drain experienced in my BMW 630d, and the reason behind it (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/258122-battery-drain-experienced-my-bmw-630d-reason-behind.html)

Hey BHPians,

It is indeed true that lesser the electronics inside the car, less would be the worry you would be having. Either they stop working or they might be the reason for something else to stop working :) .

My car happened to experience a battery drain a few days back. Learned 1 or 2 things out of it. Wanted to share the whole experience with you all. Felt like this is something everybody with a tech laden car should keep in mind. Made a video of the same as well.

https://youtu.be/gMw4dZ-luTI

Post getting back from my native , around 10 days back, I did not really start the car at all . And two days back I wanted to give the car a wash.
So I started the car and at that time it started with a jerk which was unusual, but it did start . So I thought it might just be me who was thinking too much. After washing the car and when I tried to start it, it just wont start. The instrument console showed a low battery.
There were a couple of doors open and sadly I was not even able to close the door. Problem with soft closing doors I guess, if opened , then it won't close when the battery has drained out.

Then I had to call the road side assistance to come and jumpstart the car. They took almost an hour to reach.
And they were not able to jumpstart my car using the car they came in.




They also tried with an external battery source but that too did not work.



So we had to use my friend's car and finally we were able to jumpstart the car.



After the jump start I then took the car for a spin for about 2 -3 hours. And now everyday I take it for a spin during the night and I have not seen any battery issues after that. It has been almost a week now after the incident.

I tried to think through what might possibly be the reason for this battery drain to happen. This was not the first time I had left the car for more than 10 days without even starting and nothing like this has happened before. I know that there is the BMW dashcam which continuously will draw power during the parking mode to record as I have enabled the parking mode recording. But the way the BMW dashcam works is, the device will be switched off after consuming a defined power in the parking mode to save enough battery to power up the car. This I am very well aware of and that is how it was functioning, hence I was not worried at all about the possibility of not being able to start the car.

Then it came to me. Even though I did not start the car, I had spent a good amount of time exploring stuff inside the car.
Every single thing that's inside this car needs power. There is nothing manual in here. So the battery discharge was continuous and I was not starting the engine for charging to happen. What I did not think of is that the dashcam has already stopped functioning after drawing enough power. So there will be only that much charge left in the battery which can power up the car. Instead I ended up draining what was left in it by using the car for exploring stuff inside without keeping the engine running.

So if you have a car that is loaded with tech , and if you are not using it for a while, also if you think you are spending a good amount of time inside the car, make sure you start the car and keep the engine running . It would be ideal if you take the car for a spin every now and then so that proper charge and discharge happens in the battery. It will help keep the battery healthy.
This is something we all will have to keep in mind because all cars nowadays come with lots of electronics. And these do consume lots of charge from the battery.

And when the battery runs out of charge, you have to call technicians to jumpstart the car. A visit by the technicians to do that will cost you around 1.5k . That's what they charge. Even though I had availed BMW's Elite pack + BMW secure insurance package which covers roadside assistance , the jump start is not covered.

So to prevent this, you can either use your car every day and take good care of the battery. Or if you cannot do that for some reason, you can even get a jump start kit for yourselves so that it comes handy when situations like this. Especially when you have a car which has lots of tech inside you know when a jump start kit will come handy.

I have learnt my lesson and will not make the same mistake again.

Hope this helps.

Consider getting yourself a trickle charger; a favourite amongst German car owners.

Eg: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...y-charger.html

PS: I'm amused a Tiago (with its puny 43 Ah battery) could jump start a 630d, which I assume requires a much higher charge!

Alternatively you can also consider keeping a portable battery jumper device like this one, which can also double up as a power bank to charge phones and laptops. Have personally used it and is very useful!

A new fully charged battery discharges @ 1% or so a day. With a one year old battery, this figure goes up to around 2~2.5% and nearly 5% or so once the battery reaches 2+ years of age. With modern cars, especially Germans these figures are higher as the parasitic draw [from accessories that use power even when the car is switched off] is on the heavier side.

Most people think using the car for a short spin once a week or so will charge up the battery. It doesn't. The alternator is designed to top up a charged battery to required levels compensating the draw only. It cannot charge up a discharged battery.

With every instance of battery discharge to 70 or 80% levels after a few weeks of disuse, the battery loses some of its potential to retain charge, even if charged later.

On my BMW 5GT, the car started showing weird fault codes when the battery started to get weak after a year and half of minimal use. These cars heavily rely on battery health. A strong battery is an absolute prerequisite.

Solution? Use a high quality charger once a week to fully recharge your battery.

Cheers to many miles of smiles 😃 :thumbs up

I think your BMW dash-cam is not connected properly. Get it checked. I had similar issue on then a 4 month car.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...-resolved.html

Dealership had connected the power wrongly. If you are driving once in a week or two weeks, it’s fine. Can invest in trickle charger as suggested by others if it’s a normal for you (extended parking)

Wise words, brother. I also use the Bosch C7 charger for my German cars and recommend it to anyone who owns a less-driven European car. Get a 15A socket installed in your parking spot. You will definitely need it tomorrow for your EV :D

Lets say we have zero ability to install a charging point in our parking. Is there any other way to deal with this for a less driven European car? I’m guessing not but still want to check how to safeguard if there is anything else that’s an option.

For now, I’m trying to make sure I at least drive my BMW 2 - 3 times a week but its still short distances for most part.


EDIT: Apologies I think Maverick’s post a few posts above the quoted ones probably addresses this. Thanks.

OP's issue was because of the dashcam too, which is draining power from the battery when parked (similar to the rat repellent device in my car). I think you should be okay as I don't think you have any such accessories. But be sure to take her for a good spin at least once a week.

Start your car and run it on idle for 20-25 minutes once every 5 days or 10 minutes every 2-3 days. This works well if you can’t take the car out. Most manufacturers recommended this during the lockdown when cars couldn’t be driven.

Well, you might have fewer battery problems, but you will wear your engine down quicker. Idling a cold engine is never recommended let along for prolonged periods!

As the engine is still cold, below normal operating temperature, the lub oil doesn’t adhere to the cylinder walls, which means additional wear of the cylinder and piston rings. Also, because the exhaust system doesn’t heat up properly you are going to see a lot of condensation and thus rust in the system.

Modern engines, especially diesels are so efficient they hardly warm up during idle. It is also very polluting. As suggested the best solution is a good trickle charger. I have all my cars on a trickle charge permanently.

Jeroen

What you’ve indicated is probably true of earlier oils that needed to reach operating temperature for proper lubrication to take place.

Tribology has progressed to a level where there is hardly any wear and tear during idle, especially the multigrade synthetic oils that are designed to provide complete lubrication in very cold weather.

Check out VW’s official advice to customers on measures to be following during the lockdown when the car is not used:

https://www.volkswagen.co.in/en/meas...-covid-19.html

Additionally, while a trickle charger helps charge the battery, that alone is not enough. Most german diesels need the engine to run at least once a week to avoid injector failure (an expensive item) - a common issue with some diesel engines.

Surprising that such a luxury brand has not provided feature to auto switch off the car battery completely when engine is off for few minutes. My humble Creta has this feature which prevents such cases of inadvertently fiddling with features draining the battery while engine is off.

One thing I used to do when I didn't drive the car for weeks together was disconnect and remove the battery, take it home and keep the car secure with cover with one wheel chained to my bike's wheel. I have a trickle charger at home and used to keep the battery connected to it. Since I park my car in society premises, safety/security is not an issue.

Not sure how practical the above solution is for high end cars, but even normal cars with mild hybrid systems are recommended to be driven at least once in two weeks to keep the battery health in check. Slight variation in current drawn at it starts showing up unrelated errors. Happened with our Linea few years back before I became wiser.

Very interesting thread but has also gotten me worried. I road park my car. It is used once a week but when it is, it does at least about 30 km at the very minimum.

What concerns me is that I also run a small 25-liter washing system off the 12V socket in the car as I clean the car myself. Initially I used to turn on the car while the socket was in use but now I don't.

I had thought about this earlier and hence had invested in a battery jump starter (70mai) and now also have an Ancel Battery Tester (BA201).

While I am not fastidious about checking the charge weekly, but now I am wondering what my battery should be reading to keep the Taigun 1.5 electronics happy.

Surprising to see a relatively new luxury car have this problem. If this is a common problem wouldn't this be a design defect? I remember during Covid I left my Ciaz (with a 4+ year old battery) standing for 3-4 months. It started on the first try when I returned.