XSeries-forum

Hi

As you may have read my Sat Nav has been changing colour on and off recently and this morning a call came through on Bluetooth and when I answered it it would not come through speakers. When i finished the call I could manually end it using my hanset but it appeared to leave the car in a sate of thinking I was still on a call as I had no radio or tv sound and no voice rec or phone capabilities. Also you could hear that almost static noise like the Bluetooth was still on. I left the car for 2 hours and now all back to normal bar the screen colour.

I've read loads about the battery so popped into Halfords to get it checked out. The read came back as unserviceable on test and he said it sounded like I had an electrical fault and should get it diagnosed but the battery could be shagged due to this.

So question is do I just buy a Bosch silver and get it in or do I go and have diagnosed first?

Penny

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How old is the battery Penny? This one threw me for a minute as it's in the E70 slot, and I was thinking iDrive, and all the whizzy bits they have in them.

Richard

PS you got the honour of my 600th post too..........

Halfrauds.....

Uh oh. I wrote it quickly on the iPhone so must have chosen wrong area . Maybe the mods can move it.

I've had the car for 2 years in May from BMW and of course it's the E53 2004. I don't know when or if it has been replaced. I've since done some digging on the net and as far as I understand the test the likes of Halfords it not reliable. On the hidden OBC it's reading 13.9 so I'm not sure it's needs replacing but I'm looking for reasons for sat nav issue


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If it's still the OE battery then it might be approaching end of life, but to be honest I would expect difficult starting, computer resets, and other odd things occurring too if the battery was dying. We certainly didn't see any colour changes in the Nav or phone systems when ours was failing. I'd go for the diagnostics first as it's still cheaper (about £60 ISTR) than a new battery (we used the bosch Silver in ours too as it comes with a 5yr warranty).

If you can get hold of a meter then a fully charged battery should show 14.4 - 14.6V on charge and around 12.6 - 12.8V off charge. 13.9V with the engine running sounds pretty good given there are demands on the system. If the battery volts fall below 11.8 then there may well be an issue, and certainly there is if they're at around 10.5V

Hi

Thanks for your reply Diagnostics it is then

Penny


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Green screen often attributed to poor ribbon connection on back of screen - I believe Sanj has posted re this before though I cant recal whether it was here or on old site.

With a few revs the alternator should provide enough power to run nav & bluetooth without significant issues.

Main job of battery is to start engine and run things when engine off not run the show when engine on.

BMW battery has it's own colour changing condition indicator.

I would aonly replace a battery if I was satisfied that same wasnt being drained by something. Worth checking FSR.

Oh & I will move the thread for you

Hi thanks for moving this for me. I went out two days ago to check ribbon cable but I have the right head on my screw driver (interchangeable heads) but it was too wide for the gap on the bottom ones so I've popped out today to get another so will check that anyway tomorrow. Never thought of FSR but will keep that in mind. Like I said the guy from Halfords said it may well be something else at play.

Penny


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Hi Penny,
Your car is at that age for a battery failure so it could well be that.Mine packed in on the other day and the indication light was saying 'shaged' as the halfords guy put it i was also having sat nav issues with the screen freezing and changing colour to the old brown version and the clock being on the right of the screen instead of left etc, but since the new battery no probs so far .My last x battery knackered at similar mileage/age aswell .
Hope you get it sorted soon

I was gonna go down the root of recharging the original battery and testing this and that and in the end thought for £136 at least i know mrs x555 and the kids wont be stuck on the side of the road with a dead battery

Here's the one i got (from halfords as it happen to die on a Sunday ) a bosch s5.....expensive but has more than enough power for any extra mods/load on the battery

hi guys
sound like the battery need to be "drop tested" this test puts a load on the battery which can show ok the first or second test but you will see the battery voltage drop off fast on the third/fourth test. this shows if the battery has a dead cell in it, and it is this that can send errors cascading through can bus systems such as in our beloved x's. best move is to find a specialist battery centre who should be able to confirm this. x555 please let me know if you ever need another battery as can get bosch at special prices and more so varta blue with 3 year warranty. good luck penny and hope it all gets sorted soon its a real pain in the butt something like this

Cheers phiggy but it happened on a Sunday with the missus needing the car for Monday so i just paid the extra to get it sotred
But i know where to come next time fella
We need to catch up some time aswell mate so's i can wreck the electrics on your car mate

No buggering about Penny - get the battery changed. Go to GSF or Euro Car Parts and get a Bosch S4 for under £100 - x555 is just being posh with his S5 battery!

Amps should be around the 85 ah mark, think the S4 is 95. Reckon you have the OEM BMW battery in there and 6 years is plenty for these. I had the slow, lethargic starts, like it had a hangover! No other electrical goings on. Changed the battery and all has been well...

Will transform the car.

[quote=""bullethead""]Halfrauds..... [/quote]

Is me but I'm sick of people continually having a pop at Halfords, I have always found them convenient and fair priced....

Occasionally they have good deals on random stuff such as 3 for 2 deals on cleaning kit, (fine if they have 3 things you actually need & which were reasonably priced in first place). Some tool kits can be reaonable value when discounted. They also have good sale prices on bikes occasionally.

Despite this I have not always found them competitive in some other areas such as paint, wiper blades, bulbs & various consumeable items. I have, on occasion, been disgusted at some prices & left certain items on the shelf.

Folk can look & decide themselves by comparing prices to motorfactors & other part retailers.

I cant recall meeting an intelligent, friendly & polite member of staff on the parts counter at Halfords, however, I could easily say the same for various motor factors.

[quote=""Philb""][quote=""bullethead""]Halfrauds..... [/quote]

Is me but I'm sick of people continually having a pop at Halfords, I have always found them convenient and fair priced....[/quote]

Unfortunately, Halfords are the cause of their own bad reputation - they pay minimum wages, get spotty-faced youths and lasses with typical toss-of-the-head teenage attitudes and a desire to do nothing in particular other than hang around in a little gang up in the corner of the shop with with grunge blue lights and horrible, epitome of bad taste, mods that Halfords seem to stock for local chavs to spend their benefit giros on if there's any left after the new plasma tellies and gaming gear. Most of their stock is horrendously overpriced and only drops to decent prices once the "sale" starts, which is generally the only time I ever go there unless I need something really urgently and they are convenient / open. The staff I have encountered at Halfords are generally lurking out of the way, trying to avoid doing anything useful, answer in grunts when asked a question, and generally have no idea what the answer is. I have also heard some of them giving other customers completely erroneus and inaccurate info......... so, I don't know how your local Halfords has "fair priced" goods, unless you visit during sales or are minted somewhat more than most. No-one would "have a pop" at them if they gave good service - clearly they don't!!!