Is something wrong with my car? HELP ME!

[SlammedR8]

I've never had any real problems with my car until now, but it is starting to annoy me at this point. I was away for 7 days and left my car sitting inside my garage for about 9 days total. I got into the car and everything was reset, the time/date was erased and needed to be put in again, my trip meter had reset to 0.0km and the fuel range had reset to a ridiculously high number, like 700 km, (I think it showed around 300km when I parked it 9 days prior). Since I’ve been back, the low battery symbol and warning has come up on the idrive about 2-3 times this past week.

Now the worst part is that yesterday morning, I parked my car outside my sisters house at about 12pm, and I went back to pick up the car around midnight and the comfort access didn’t work, I had to unlock by pressing the unlock on the key fob and then I got into the car and once again everything had reset (trip meter, fuel range, date/time and who knows what else).

Finally, for those outside of Ontario or Canada for that matter, it is very cold here right now (about -25c) and when I first turn on the car, the entire idrive screen is a different color, its almost a purple color and its VERY slow at switching screens. This may be normal, but I never had this problem last winter and we had similar cold weather.

Sooo…anyone else have these issues?

[southlight]

Doesn't sound that bad to me. Your car most likely is just on a low battery. If necessary, the electronics shut every power sapping device down to prevent the battery from being too low to start the engine. Once you put enough miles on the car to charge the battery again, these issues should be gone either. If not, bring it in.

LCD use to behave strange when the temperatures are that low. In my opinion, this is nothing to worry, either.

Best regards,
south

[kmac1980]

just sounds like your battery is running low, i had something like this happen last year. Apparently the alternator/charging system isnt all that great in this car, and because i was mainly driving downtown at low speeds for very short trips, it doesnt charge up all that well. I also let the car sit for a while...

once I went on a couple 100km+ round trips on the highway, it charged back up

[calintexas]

Your car uses quite a bit of power when you aren't driving it. In addition, cold weather reduces your battery's capacity. You may just have low battery charge (from the days it sat), and you haven't been driving enough since you've been back to charge it up. A BMW Advanced Charging System (or Deltran battery tender plus) works very well to maintain your battery's charge or to slowly bring it up to full charge. You want the model with aligator clips. Attach it to the jumper terminals under the hood. There's a discussion on the use of maintenance chargers here: http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129161&highlight=battery+charger

You should have your dealer check out what is going on (I'm going to guess low battery voltage). A battery maintenance charger can help prevent future problems and extend battery service life.

[SlammedR8]

Thanks for the quick replies guys, I forgot to mention one more VERY important thing that doesn't work. The residual heat doesn't work, I push the button upon exitting my car and nothing happens, no heat comes out. And yes I am doing this at normal operating temps
It used to work all the time until now, could this be related to the low battery charge?

[Mark's M]

Originally Posted by calintexas

Your car uses quite a bit of power when you aren't driving it. In addition, cold weather reduces your battery's capacity. You may just have low battery charge (from the days it sat), and you haven't been driving enough since you've been back to charge it up. A BMW Advanced Charging System (or Deltran battery tender plus) works very well to maintain your battery's charge or to slowly bring it up to full charge. You want the model with aligator clips. Attach it to the jumper terminals under the hood. There's a discussion on the use of maintenance chargers here: http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129161&highlight=battery+charger

You should have your dealer check out what is going on (I'm going to guess low battery voltage). A battery maintenance charger can help prevent future problems and extend battery service life.

Exactly as he said, same issues with the 135 until I got the Deltran trickle charger. All was better thereafter. Just wasn't driving it enough (at all for the most part) in the winter. Trickle charging fixed everything.

[footie]

Get your battery checked out as well as the alternator, the garade should be able to test if you have somethings draining the battery when the car is off and trace what I may been.

Volkswagens are well known for this problem which only shows occasionally when they are left for days, usually holiday times.

But like South said it probably isn't something to worry about.

[Crydaddy]

Got the same prob. Ended up just charging it.

[SlammedR8]

drove the car quite a bit yesterday and everything seems to be fine now, the REST finally worked too.
Perhaps the REST feature won't work unless the battery had a FULL charge.

[foosh]

Originally Posted by southlight

Doesn't sound that bad to me. Your car most likely is just on a low battery. If necessary, the electronics shut every power sapping device down to prevent the battery from being too low to start the engine. Once you put enough miles on the car to charge the battery again, these issues should be gone either. If not, bring it in.

LCD use to behave strange when the temperatures are that low. In my opinion, this is nothing to worry, either.

Best regards,
south

Correct on LCDs. Those liquid crystals freeze too, and aren't reliable below about 20F. The good news is when they warm up, there is no permanent damage done.

This is a frequent topic in RV forums, where vehicles are often stored in winter and often contain big screen LCDs these days. In my MH, I have 3 cameras aimed backwards, and when I was leaving for points south in 15 degree weather a couple of weeks ago, it took a good 15 minutes for the screen to warm up enough to display a normal image.

[J08M3]

hmmm.... wonder if the under drive pulley is having a negative effect on keeping your battery charged?

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by J08M3

hmmm.... wonder if the under drive pulley is having a negative effect on keeping your battery charged?

I would place money on that as well.Also if you are doing shorter low speed runs it is a very good idea to offload your heated seats & rear window defroster as they are a large draw.An underdrive pulley is only a good idea if you do not tax the electrical system load wise like you do in the winter.

[BCA]

Originally Posted by slammedm3

Perhaps the REST feature won't work unless the battery had a FULL charge.

That would make sense, since it probably draws a decent amount of power.

[Donbona]

Glad to hear its working, I have been having a problem with my Idrive when it gets cold here... I keep getting "SOS" message and nothing else works..
I found a way to reset the Idrive by pushing and holding the Volume and 2 eject buttons for a few seconds. You might have already known this but I thought I would share just incase.