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      12-08-2019, 02:40 PM   #1
RL18
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Battery draining overnight

Hey everyone,

My x5 just left me stranded. It's a 2011 x5 35d. It's been and on going issue but I have yet to figure the issue out. So I will often get a high battery drain message when my x5 sits overnight. I don't have comfort access and It'll do it whether I lock it of not. In the summer It never drained to the point of a no start condition. But now it's winter in Maine and gets well below freezing at night.

Battery is brand new. It was registered to the car. When I bought the x5 the dealership did tell me that they replaced the egr cooler, supposedly reset adaptions, ran a test on it and they noticed that the erg valve will constantly cycle overnight. And it didn't do it before they replaced it. So I'm thinking that maybe the egr valve is bad?

I have an egr valve from my 335d that's deleted now that I can try swapping over. But I'm out of ideas after that. Anyways that's my issues! Hopefully someone can help me.
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      12-08-2019, 11:26 PM   #2
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Thats weird, I have a hard wired dash cam thats on 24/7 and while I constantly get high battery drain warning it hasn't drained the battery fully. I've had it parked outside in low 10s overnight outside and it had no issues. Seems like it has to be an issue with Something is pulling power thats not supposed to overnight. I would say try the egr but I doubt it drains it fully from just one night. Do you have any accessories connected to the car?
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      12-09-2019, 05:10 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lviv777 View Post
Thats weird, I have a hard wired dash cam thats on 24/7 and while I constantly get high battery drain warning it hasn't drained the battery fully. I've had it parked outside in low 10s overnight outside and it had no issues. Seems like it has to be an issue with Something is pulling power thats not supposed to overnight. I would say try the egr but I doubt it drains it fully from just one night. Do you have any accessories connected to the car?
Yes. Ive been making sure there's nothing plugged in when I shut it off. I've even been putting it on my ctek charger and charging it every couple days so I don't completely kill the battery on this thing so I can find this battery drain issue.

I left it on my ctek 5.0 all day yesterday though went to start it up this morning, headlights come on. Go to put the windows down, nope. So I got a fried FRM module now. So I'm gonna have the dealership take a look at it when they replaced the FRM module. I'll report back when it comes back from the dealership.
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      12-09-2019, 06:11 AM   #4
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If yours has air suspension it could be a leaky air spring making the pump come on throughout the night. If its not that or the EGR, I would reccomend picking up one of the seek thermal imaging cameras for smart phones. They are excellent for hunting electrical problems, anything pulling that much current is going to be warmer then ambient temps and will stick out on the camera, helping to point you in the right direction of what is causing the battery drain.

Don't forget FRM modules have an extended warranty through BMW to 10 years 125k miles. I had mine replaced right at 120k free of charge
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      12-09-2019, 09:29 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sophisticated Redneck View Post
If yours has air suspension it could be a leaky air spring making the pump come on throughout the night. If its not that or the EGR, I would reccomend picking up one of the seek thermal imaging cameras for smart phones. They are excellent for hunting electrical problems, anything pulling that much current is going to be warmer then ambient temps and will stick out on the camera, helping to point you in the right direction of what is causing the battery drain.

Don't forget FRM modules have an extended warranty through BMW to 10 years 125k miles. I had mine replaced right at 120k free of charge
Nope no air suspension. The thermal imaging is a great idea though, I got one of those handy. My x5 is going in tomorrow at the dealership ship and they'll diagnose the electrical draw first then replace my FRM under warranty.

And my service tech told me my x5 is covered for 156k or 15 years. Either way I'm covered though since I'm only at 91k. I'm hoping the electrical draw doesn't cost me too much or maybe it's the fault of the FRM going bad which will be covered. If they do find the egr valve is bad I'll see if I can get them to replace it with my 335ds egr valve which was functioning before I deleted it.

But anyways. I get to play the waiting game while the dealership figures it out. So thankful that they can get me in tomorrow. Can't wait to see what I get for a loaner for my warranty work. Last time was an x3 m340i
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      12-12-2019, 10:24 AM   #6
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Edit: The dealership apparently had the wrong wiring diagram for my x5d. They said it was a fuse for the TCU that was drawing 200-300 milliamps constantly. They tried unplugging the TCU and the draw was still present, so they followed the wiring downstream and found a splice connector at the left rear of the trunk had water in it, they removed the wiring and found a large amount of dielectric grease that was apparently shorting out and creating a draw. So they cleaned out the connector and the draw went away. So glad it was an easy fix! Thanks everyone for the help!
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      12-14-2019, 12:23 PM   #7
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Okay problem is still there. High battery drain this morning. I took some pictures of codes that I'm getting, I'll attach them.

Yesterday night it rained a lot, flood warnings in Maine. It seems that dry days I get no high battery drain, then on rainy days water is getting into connectors and shorting out causing my battery drain. Anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening?
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      12-15-2019, 02:01 PM   #8
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The DSC/VTG codes are normal when the battery gets drained, so I would ignore them. They are likely a symptom of your problem and not the cause. You'll get similar faults if you leave the battery disconnected for a bit. They'll clear after you calibrate the steering angle sensor.

The foglight codes are weird. I'd start by looking at those connectors.
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      12-15-2019, 04:29 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aligoodn View Post
The DSC/VTG codes are normal when the battery gets drained, so I would ignore them. They are likely a symptom of your problem and not the cause. You'll get similar faults if you leave the battery disconnected for a bit. They'll clear after you calibrate the steering angle sensor.

The foglight codes are weird. I'd start by looking at those connectors.
I'm thinking the dcs/vtg codes are because I have the xdelete on my x5 and I got my frm module replaced. Maybe not though. The fog light codes are from my led fog lights though and the problem was the same when my x5 had halogens.

The dealership I bought it from said it was the egr valve. My dealership in Maine said it was a connector for the TCU that had water damage in it that was shorting pulling 300 milliamps.
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      12-15-2019, 10:46 PM   #10
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I had the same issue a few months ago. Turns out my auxiliary water pump was leaking and causing a short. Ill double check for any leaks.
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      12-16-2019, 05:24 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snowild View Post
I had the same issue a few months ago. Turns out my auxiliary water pump was leaking and causing a short. Ill double check for any leaks.
I don't have any leaks in that area, but I will be changing the water pump when I get my new harmonic dampener in.

I do think it could be related to water getting in a connector and shorting though. It seems the first night I got it back it was fine no high battery drain message and no rain, then as soon as I drove it in the rain their was a high battery drain message the next morning. It could be coincidental though
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      12-16-2019, 07:08 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RL18 View Post
I don't have any leaks in that area, but I will be changing the water pump when I get my new harmonic dampener in.

I do think it could be related to water getting in a connector and shorting though. It seems the first night I got it back it was fine no high battery drain message and no rain, then as soon as I drove it in the rain their was a high battery drain message the next morning. It could be coincidental though
The short he was talking about is in the small auxiliary water pump to the turbos in the N63 and S63 engines, it's actually a recall item. Not sure if they use this same pump on any other engines but worth checking your VIN against the BMW recall website.
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      12-16-2019, 07:53 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sophisticated Redneck View Post
The short he was talking about is in the small auxiliary water pump to the turbos in the N63 and S63 engines, it's actually a recall item. Not sure if they use this same pump on any other engines but worth checking your VIN against the BMW recall website.
As far as I know we just have one water pump on the belt system on the m57. I could be wrong though.

I called the dealership back to let them know that the problem persists and seems related to wet days. Since two days it ran fine without the battery drain issue. Then as soon as I drove it in the rain I got a high battery drain the next morning. So they told me that the sunroof drain might be clogged and could be leaking into that area and specifically onto that fuse. Sounds logical that water doesn't just appear in that area so I'm not sure why they didn't check this before changing the fuse.

So once I charge my dead battery I'm gonna open the sunroof and pour some water down the drain and make sure it's not clogged and dripping in that area.
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      12-16-2019, 08:30 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RL18 View Post
As far as I know we just have one water pump on the belt system on the m57. I could be wrong though.

.
I would be surprise if you only have one water pump. BMW LOVES water pumps. The 50i has 4 water pumps, the M has 5! (main, turbo, two intercooler, 1 aux!!!)
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      12-16-2019, 09:58 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sophisticated Redneck View Post

I would be surprise if you only have one water pump. BMW LOVES water pumps. The 50i has 4 water pumps, the M has 5! (main, turbo, two intercooler, 1 aux!!!)
That's a lot of pumps lol! I know my 35d runs considerably cooler then the 50i and x5m though. So cool that I need an aux heater for the heat because of how long it takes to get up to temp! My intercooler is air to air exchange. Turbos are cooled by oil. Only pump I've ever changed is the coolant water pump that's for the engine and egr cooler, which is belt driven.

I think I might be on to something with the sunroof drains though
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      12-16-2019, 12:24 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RL18 View Post
That's a lot of pumps lol! I know my 35d runs considerably cooler then the 50i and x5m though. So cool that I need an aux heater for the heat because of how long it takes to get up to temp! My intercooler is air to air exchange. Turbos are cooled by oil. Only pump I've ever changed is the coolant water pump that's for the engine and egr cooler, which is belt driven.

I think I might be on to something with the sunroof drains though
Throwing it out there, I do believe we have an auxiliary pump inour 35d's. Aux water pumps are how bmw does the "rest" heat function. I can hear mine running when it's in "rest" mode.
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      12-16-2019, 02:54 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyro235 View Post
Throwing it out there, I do believe we have an auxiliary pump inour 35d's. Aux water pumps are how bmw does the "rest" heat function. I can hear mine running when it's in "rest" mode.
Good to know! Like I said I only knew of that one.

I think I've narrowed the issue to the TCU. The roof drains drain perfectly. Sent some compress air through them anyways and I'll probably do it annually just for preventative maintenance. I'm gonna hook up an ampmeter pull the TCU fuse and see if the draw goes away like the dealership did then go from there

Is it common for a TCU to go bad? My Bluetooth works great, except for the occasional weird distortion thing it does through the speakers while playing music... it's like an electrical noise and it'll go like this: music playing->zzzt->music continues to play->zzzt-> then on and on. It seems to do it consistently too like every 10-15 seconds. But if I disconnect Bluetooth and reconnect it goes away.
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      12-17-2019, 09:50 AM   #18
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Hello,

This happened to me a few months ago and the mechanic targeted the rear window defroster. He pulled the fuse and the draining stopped. Has not been an issue since only I don't have rear wipers or a defroster.

My X5 is very basic and does not have the power assist on the rear gate. I believe there are a few wires that have been severed due to the hard closing of the rear gate. The first thing to go was the wiper, just stopped working. then the battery draining followed. Changed the negative battery terminal (expensive) and finally pinpointed to the rear defrost.

Does anyone know how where to start looking for a damaged harness on the rear gate?
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      12-17-2019, 12:01 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RAM911 View Post
Hello,

This happened to me a few months ago and the mechanic targeted the rear window defroster. He pulled the fuse and the draining stopped. Has not been an issue since only I don't have rear wipers or a defroster.

My X5 is very basic and does not have the power assist on the rear gate. I believe there are a few wires that have been severed due to the hard closing of the rear gate. The first thing to go was the wiper, just stopped working. then the battery draining followed. Changed the negative battery terminal (expensive) and finally pinpointed to the rear defrost.

Does anyone know how where to start looking for a damaged harness on the rear gate?
I had a rear gate issue and looked up the wiring diagram. It'll help make sense of things. Within the diagram you can click on the connectors and fuse for more information. Usually it specifies the location including a picture.
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...ation/q-X19618
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      12-17-2019, 12:29 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RL18 View Post
I don't have any leaks in that area, but I will be changing the water pump when I get my new harmonic dampener in.

I do think it could be related to water getting in a connector and shorting though. It seems the first night I got it back it was fine no high battery drain message and no rain, then as soon as I drove it in the rain their was a high battery drain message the next morning. It could be coincidental though
Electrical is not my forte, but it seems ISTA has a diagnostic built-in to evaluate closed circuits while the car is off. If interested, I can take pics of the next few steps from this service function.
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      12-17-2019, 12:42 PM   #21
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If helpful, here's what's in the other service function.
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      12-17-2019, 01:33 PM   #22
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Yeah I figured out my issue it was I had 2" of water on the left side in where you can pull that panel out. Found both my front and rear roof drains are blocked with debris/ice cause it's cold out. I'll be drying everything out that's wet, checking all connectors in that area, check my fuses just to be sure. Then I should be good to go. I'm also gonna change the battery because it's the factory battery and the dealership I bought it from said it was "brand new" but they just re-registered it.
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