[tdizzle]

I think the cold is only part of the issue, as I'm seeing it in far warmer temperatures than others who are blaming it on the cold. It's also a fairly common thing, it seems, on recent BMWs as I saw in in various forums over the past 2 years.

I had my comfort access not work this morning and then get the message (car probably saw a low of 28 degrees at worst over night). Thankfully the car started. I've only not had this warning once this week when I've seen it a few times over the past few months and never in the year prior.

SA said bring it in and (obviously) suspects the battery isn't reaching near full charge. Seems the most often issue was 1)Bad cell in the battery or 2) something with the CA door handle sucking juice when it shouldn't.

We shall see, but cold weather doesn't seem to play a factor in my situation as I've seen the warning in 40 degree weather.

Also oddly enough, my ASS kicked in about 5 mins into my drive in to work. Surely the car is smart enough to keep the engine on if the battery is almost dead right? Something is fishy with my car. I'm thinking I may have the CA problem.

[Bassthe1st]

Originally Posted by samej

Speaking from personal experience from Ottawa Canada - I've had a low battery issue just twice - both times after a 4-5 day cold soak at the airport - daytime highs bvelow -18C/0F, lows in the -20s C (-4F to -20F) kind of weather.

The first time (the longer, colder soak) the message cleared after 2 days of weekend driving. The car started every time. The second time it cleared after the car warmed up in my unheated garage after just the 12-15 mile drive home from the airport.

We've had stretches of winter this year where we've not seen the warm side of -18C/0F as daytime highs for over a week. I drive considerably less than 50km a day, and often not every day.

The car's started every time.

Don't get me wrong, the car always starts. It's just that the battery sometimes gets discharged with my 32km per day commute. An sometimes it cuts the heater.

[Bassthe1st]

Originally Posted by tdizzle

I think the cold is only part of the issue, as I'm seeing it in far warmer temperatures than others who are blaming it on the cold. It's also a fairly common thing, it seems, on recent BMWs as I saw in in various forums over the past 2 years.

I had my comfort access not work this morning and then get the message (car probably saw a low of 28 degrees at worst over night). Thankfully the car started. I've only not had this warning once this week when I've seen it a few times over the past few months and never in the year prior.

SA said bring it in and (obviously) suspects the battery isn't reaching near full charge. Seems the most often issue was 1)Bad cell in the battery or 2) something with the CA door handle sucking juice when it shouldn't.

We shall see, but cold weather doesn't seem to play a factor in my situation as I've seen the warning in 40 degree weather.

Also oddly enough, my ASS kicked in about 5 mins into my drive in to work. Surely the car is smart enough to keep the engine on if the battery is almost dead right? Something is fishy with my car. I'm thinking I may have the CA problem.

Please keep posting about what was done on your car. I've started having issues ever since it was around 28°F too so it's not all temp related. Now my dealer won't do any more tests on the car because the computer says everything is fine.

[samej]

Originally Posted by Bassthe1st

Don't get me wrong, the car always starts. It's just that the battery sometimes gets discharged with my 32km per day commute. An sometimes it cuts the heater.

I hear you. I don't recall my heat not working either time, but then again I was it a Canada grade winter layers with heated seats and steering wheel. My CA definitely didn't work.

Notes from the thread suggest a check of the battery and charging system are in order regardless - something to do on my firs/next service visit when/if I ever get my recall notice for the brakes.

Still, I'm loving the car now it's winter for the traction vs my old and dearly missed 335 RWD E90.

[Want the thrill]

This issue is happening on the 5 series and X3 boards as well. Someone on the X3 board said their dealer had found it is an issue with the PDM. BMW is aware of it and needs to redesign the part. For now, there is not a fix. It's amazing how many BMW's across the boards are having this issue. Wish they would issue a recall. I've lost faith in my X3 anytime it is cold out now.

[BavarianFanatic]

Has anyone actually had a situation where the car wouldn't start or is everyone just getting the warning? I can't say that I agree that an aggressive warning strategy is a major defect. They probably just need to tweak the software.

[Bassthe1st]

Originally Posted by BavarianFanatic

Has anyone actually had a situation where the car wouldn't start or is everyone just getting the warning? I can't say that I agree that an aggressive warning strategy is a major defect. They probably just need to tweak the software.

The warning is not the problem , the battery discharging for no reason is. Add to that the very slow recharging of the battery and no heat when discharged too much.

[BavarianFanatic]

Originally Posted by Bassthe1st

The warning is not the problem , the battery discharging for no reason is. Add to that the very slow recharging of the battery and no heat when discharged too much.

Has anyone confirmed that the battery is indeed discharged or does the car just THINK it is? This is the point I was making. The algorithm may just be too aggressive or thrown off by cold temps and short drive cycles.

[raleedy]

You all should study what BMW dealers do to maintain battery health in their inventory of new cars, even in warmer climates.

[ir0nmanx]

I live in southern California. I got this warning a couple days ago after sitting a day an a half in the garage while I was off work. I took it to BMW, after 2 days they said it was a programming issue, they did "test plans" that BMW told them to do and fixed it. I came the next morning to pick it up and when I started the car the warning came on again. I also noticed the car struggled a bit to start. I went back in to notify the service advisor and they said that they've getting a lot of these lately. They gave me a loaner unitl this gets fixed. Still no update since they're close today.

[tdizzle]

Originally Posted by ir0nmanx

I live in southern California. I got this warning a couple days ago after sitting a day an a half in the garage while I was off work. I took it to BMW, after 2 days they said it was a programming issue, they did "test plans" that BMW told them to do and fixed it. I came the next morning to pick it up and when I started the car the warning came on again. I also noticed the car struggled a bit to start. I went back in to notify the service advisor and they said that they've getting a lot of these lately. They gave me a loaner unitl this gets fixed. Still no update since they're close today.

Taking mine in Wed. Saw it almost every day last week. I made the appt Thursday and haven't seen it since naturally.

[anelson524]

Just had this happen to me this morning. Nothing crazy as far as weather temperatures. Everything seems to be working fine except I have no music or tones from open door/back up sensors.

I have an appointment to take it in on Tuesday but is there a way to get the music and alert tones back on?

[TreborDrolet]

Originally Posted by Bassthe1st

Funny, I signed up on this forum especially to ask if anybody else have that problem.

During the christmas vacation my car stayed unused for 3 days at very cold temperatures. This was on a 450km trip, so the battery should be fully charged. Well, when I left it was -38°C and the car had a hard time starting but did anyway. The real problem is I had High battery discharge alert with the accessories deactivation message. When that happens, some unessential equipment like the main heater are unavailable and the essential ones like the defroster and the seat warmers(yes, you read that right. Completely stupid) are. So I had to do the whole 450km back with frozen feet because the heater would not work. Back in Montreal it was -28°C and after stopping at starting the car it was still showing a discharged battery. Then I put the car in the garage and the alert went away.

I had problems prior to those low temps. In November I started to get a low battery charge alert in -3°C weather so I brought the car in. They checked everything, recharged the battery and sent me home. I was told that I would always get a battery discharged alert in cold weather, that my 55min a day of driving is not enough to recharge the battery and that I should either charge the battery once in a while or go make a 30min run on the highway.

This is simply unacceptable and I'm actually thinking about returning my less then 3 months old car because of that.

Anybody else had issues with the heater not working? It's just a fan damn it.

Yes. Had it on my 2010 323, they recalled and installed a heavier battery. My 2013 328 is doing it presently. I simply bought a smart battery tender at Canadian Tire. It's plugged in right now. Didn't drive it for a few days and when I put the tender on it showed 25% battery capacity left, I doubt it's that low. The heater wasn't supplying heat and the heater screen showed hashed lines, I knew I had no choice.
BMW has to do some reprogramming and maybe install battery tenders for their Canadian cars. I know it's a pain. But if you want heat to your feet we haven't much choice. BTW my wife's TDI is a freezer in this cold weather even with the ceramic heater!

[TreborDrolet]

Originally Posted by Bassthe1st

Well, I'm still trying to fix my problems. This week I left my house (garage) without a problem one day. When I left work the battery was discharged below 40% at -9°C. No heating of course. It slowly got back up the following days.

So to summerize what I've been told, if you live in cold weathers you must do at least 50km per day in order to keep the battery charged. If you don't, you need a battery charger. This is how the car is build and how it is meant to work. If you don't like it or won't accept it, well suck it up because they won't do anything except selling you a charger. Of course they don't say all of this when they sell you the car, which is illegal and could probably easily be brought to court, but who will do it...

You are correct.

[Buzzman]

I cannot prove it, but I think it has more to do with a detection issues of some sort, than a low battery. If the battery is cold, it disables a bunch of stuff (note the technical term).

I have had the warning on a few occasions throughout this winter. To test my theory, I never charged the battery, and as soon as the temps go up, the warning goes away and everything is good again. To note, I have never had an issue starting the car even when the temp went down to -35C. The limit temp seems to be around -20C.

When the temp was around -30C, I drove at least 900km in a day and the warning remained. I would assume the battery had enough time to recharge on such a long trip. Then when the temp went up, whaddayya know: Gone.

Finally, in the past week, when I left home in the AM, temp was at -25C and as soon as I reached work, the warning showed up. The temp went up throughout the day to -8C and when I left in the afternoon, the warning was gone, everything worked with the car staying in the parking lot for 12 hours. I doubt it recharged itself...
This is puzzling as hell to me. And my dealer installs trickle charger on every car they deliver, so they know there is an issue somehow. But even when I had the warning last year and I used the charger overnight, it would remove the warning, but it would always come back on cold days as soon as I reached work. So that didn't work either.

[Want the thrill]

This same issue is happening on the X3 boards. BMW claims it is the PDM that is causing all of the issues. They are aware of the problem and are currently redesigning the part.

It's a long thread, but if you read through it you will come to the posts about the PDM. If you want to read more, head over to the X3 board here:

http://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=931162

[Bassthe1st]

Originally Posted by Buzzman

I cannot prove it, but I think it has more to do with a detection issues of some sort, than a low battery. If the battery is cold, it disables a bunch of stuff (note the technical term).

I have had the warning on a few occasions throughout this winter. To test my theory, I never charged the battery, and as soon as the temps go up, the warning goes away and everything is good again. To note, I have never had an issue starting the car even when the temp went down to -35C. The limit temp seems to be around -20C.

When the temp was around -30C, I drove at least 900km in a day and the warning remained. I would assume the battery had enough time to recharge on such a long trip. Then when the temp went up, whaddayya know: Gone.

Finally, in the past week, when I left home in the AM, temp was at -25C and as soon as I reached work, the warning showed up. The temp went up throughout the day to -8C and when I left in the afternoon, the warning was gone, everything worked with the car staying in the parking lot for 12 hours. I doubt it recharged itself...
This is puzzling as hell to me. And my dealer installs trickle charger on every car they deliver, so they know there is an issue somehow. But even when I had the warning last year and I used the charger overnight, it would remove the warning, but it would always come back on cold days as soon as I reached work. So that didn't work either.

Even if you drive a long distance and the battery recharged, you need to stop and lock the car for 4 to 6 hours for the computer to remove the warning. Also, as it was mentionned early in that thread, a fully charged battery at 20°C will show as discharged at low temp. My experience is below -22°C, the battery will probably always show as discharged.

[Buzzman]

Originally Posted by Bassthe1st

Even if you drive a long distance and the battery recharged, you need to stop and lock the car for 4 to 6 hours for the computer to remove the warning. Also, as it was mentionned early in that thread, a fully charged battery at 20°C will show as discharged at low temp. My experience is below -22°C, the battery will probably always show as discharged.

Yes the car was locked overnight after the trip and yes the warning was still there in the AM (-28C). And as another member mentioned, has anyone done a real charge test and not just used a graph to look at the conceptual charge/discharge of the battery according to temp? As I said, my car has never refused to start even when I had the warning, and it started right away without issue, so one would have to assume the battery was not as depleted as the warning lets us believe.
Again, this is my take on it based on my experience, nothing more...

[Lost Horizon]

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Yes the car was locked overnight after the trip and yes the warning was still there in the AM (-28C). And as another member mentioned, has anyone done a real charge test and not just used a graph to look at the conceptual charge/discharge of the battery according to temp? As I said, my car has never refused to start even when I had the warning, and it started right away without issue, so one would have to assume the battery was not as depleted as the warning lets us believe.
Again, this is my take on it based on my experience, nothing more...

I'd agree.. it looks much more like a Chicken Little problem in the management systems, either software, transducers or the controller logic ...

[kent11202]

FWIW. Ours may sit for a week without use and we have not experienced a "low battery" issue so I'm betting it's some sort of a "technical issue" of no real consequence.

That said, we aren't located in a really cold climate like many of you so.......

[Want the thrill]

As said before, its the PDM causing the issue. BMW knows about it and is working on a fix.

[tdizzle]

Took it to the dealer last week. Naturally, the days preceding my visit it didn't give me this notice once in 7 days, while it did it 4 times the previous 7 days. Go figure.

They tested it, said the battery was fine and couldn't replicate the issue. Had it sitting for hours and did various tests over 2 days and nothing. They said maybe try not leaving my ipod plugged in and to keep an eye on it and they'll revisit if it starts happening again.

Naturally, nothing for a couple days (hadn't had it go off in over a week). This morning boom, back again. Didn't dip below 40 last night and was in the low 50s this morning. Think it has nothing to do with the cold (or my ipod as it was disconnected).

They said my battery was at 70% when I brought it in and held a charge after with no issue. Did mention my short trips (95% of my normal trips are under 15 miles each way) could be an issue. No clue why it would pop up after a year of not changing my driving behavior or stop with nothing changing then start up again.

Basically, I've got nothing solved and hate taking it to the dealer.