[inc235]

Originally Posted by Invisiblename

So are you suggesting that you can’t leave a G42 parked up for 2 weeks while away on vacation? That’s rubbish & scaremongering!

He says his car is hooked up to a dash cam 24/7...so yeah, after 2 wks, you'll have a dead battery lol. Normally, no problem leaving it for 2 wks.

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by inc235

He says his car is hooked up to a dash cam 24/7...so yeah, after 2 wks, you'll have a dead battery lol. Normally, no problem leaving it for 2 wks.

Thank you.

[Invisiblename]

Originally Posted by inc235

He says his car is hooked up to a dash cam 24/7...so yeah, after 2 wks, you'll have a dead battery lol. Normally, no problem leaving it for 2 wks.

Why would you wire up a dash cam that would be on all the time? Normally they are powered to only record if they detect motion - that shouldn’t drain a battery in 2 weeks. In fact my Garmin dash cam monitors the car’s ability to power even that, and will shutdown if there is a danger of draining the battery

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by Invisiblename

So are you suggesting that you can’t leave a G42 parked up for 2 weeks while away on vacation? That’s rubbish & scaremongering!

Thats not what I'm saying. Specially if your not in the same situation as the OP (original poster).


The OP was mentioning that he is currently and possibly getting an issue with the battery. He is in an environment that is very cold. There could already be a parasitic drain on his battery (whatever component is doing it)

Our cars 100% have parasitic drains already brand new. Car alarm, car system to keeps time & monitoring the car’s systems around the clock with GPS on ID7 & ID8 hence we are able to monitor our cars through BMW App. Add very cold weather where the OP lives which will affect battery life you may only get a few weeks if not starting ones car and driving around to surface charge the battery.

https://rxmechanic.com/how-long-does...thout-driving/

[Invisiblename]

Originally Posted by Saturns

Thats not what I'm saying. Specially if your not in the same situation as the OP (original poster).


The OP was mentioning that he is currently and possibly getting an issue with the battery. He is in an environment that is very cold. There could already be a parasitic drain on his battery (whatever component is doing it)

Our cars 100% have parasitic drains already brand new. Car alarm, car system to keeps time & monitoring the car’s systems around the clock with GPS on ID7 & ID8 hence we are able to monitor our cars through BMW App. Add very cold weather where the OP lives which will affect battery life you may only get a few weeks if not starting ones car and driving around to surface charge the battery.

https://rxmechanic.com/how-long-does-a-car-battery-last-without-driving/

Ahh, I agree you statement would be relevant to the OP’s specific scenario, but made my point so that anyone reading your reply in isolation didn’t take it as a generic response.

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by Invisiblename

Why would you wire up a dash cam that would be on all the time? Normally they are powered to only record if they detect motion - that shouldn’t drain a battery in 2 weeks. In fact my Garmin dash cam monitors the car’s ability to power even that, and will shutdown if there is a danger of draining the battery

Dash cams offer night vision, GPS tracking, 24-hour parked-car monitoring.
Sure your Garmin will shut down prior to draining the battery but you car components will continue to drain the battery. The car battery is considered drained when it is below 11.75volts or lower. It does not have enough CCA (Cold Crank Amps) to start up the car specially in cold weather.

https://www.yourmechanic.com/article...ry%20is%20dead.

This is except from one of the Garmin Dash cam which does offer 24-hour parked car monitoring
"If you prefer a dash cam that people aren’t likely to notice, we recommend the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2, which is one of the smallest and most discreet models we’ve tested. About the size of a key fob, the Mini 2 virtually disappears on the windshield. Still, it provides surprisingly good video quality for a 1080p single-camera model, and its windshield mount is one of the best we’ve seen—it sticks firmly to the windshield with adhesive, but magnets allow you to easily remove everything but a small plastic circle when you want to throw the camera in the glovebox or move it to another vehicle. It has many of the same features you get with the bigger (and, in most cases, pricier) models, including night vision, 24-hour parked-car monitoring, built-in Wi-Fi, and voice control. Because the Mini 2 has only two physical buttons and no display, though, you have to use Garmin’s smartphone app to view video, to adjust settings, and even to aim the camera properly."

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...best-dash-cam/

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by Invisiblename

Ahh, I agree you statement would be relevant to the OP’s specific scenario, but made my point so that anyone reading your reply in isolation didn’t take it as a generic response.

But in general, if you have a car parked more than 2.5 months without starting up .. like in most cases exotic car owners who store their cars during winter/cold months between November and March it 100% has to be on trickle charge or you will have a dead battery come spring. This is the same case with the m240i.

[danallxt]

Originally Posted by Saturns

But in general, if you have a car parked more than 2.5 months without starting up .. like in most cases exotic car owners who store their cars during winter/cold months between November and March it 100% has to be on trickle charge or you will have a dead battery come spring. This is the same case with the m240i.

yup.
The biggie is parasitic draw and then in winter cold temps reduce starting power of a battery, 32degrees F can reduce it by 30 percent, and zero degree temps can reduce it by up to 50 percent. The thin oils we use nowadays help starting in cold temps a lot.

Generally parasitic draw of cars historically was kept around no more than 50 milliamps (.05 amps), which was kinda the standard. Newer cars with the sensors for remote start etc may be around 85 milliamps. Then if you add other stuff like cameras etc, well you can really add to the parasitic draw depending upon what is active at rest.

If you know the parasitic draw and the amp hours of the battery you can calculate the 100 percent discharge time. I think our BMW batteries are 90 amp hour (850 CCA) batteries. A 50 milliamp draw would 100 percent discharge in 75 days, you may not be able to actually start the car with say more than 50 percent discharge, so it would be less than 75 days.
If the car has a 85 milliamp draw then the 100 percent discharge is like 45 days....add in cold weather and it may not take long to get to a no start situation.
I have not tested the at rest milliamp draw of the m240 as i really don't want to disconnect the battery cable to test it.

Note: i had a car with a parasitic draw of 1.5 amps and i could not let is set longer than 2-3 days or it would drain the battery, I installed a kill switch to cut off all power when not in use...a classic that was used infrequently.

[Fahfoofnik]

Thank you everyone, I feel a lot better now about the state of the battery.

Yes -- that Drive Mode error message is still a head-scratcher. I'll mark part of it up to this crazy arctic cold snap & the fact that this is the longest I'd NOT driven the 230i since I've owned it -- being stuck at home in not-realistically-safe driving conditions for 4-5 days.

I like that idea of a standalone battery charger. Pricey, but if this weather continues I might do it. Thanks again for the help here.

[Fahfoofnik]

Originally Posted by danallxt

re: your post #1
That message is very confusing, i cannot quite figure out its meaning, as i don't know the conditions that activated it.
BMW has 3 modes, look em up in your manual.

Idle state- This is the normal shut down state...what we would have been used to in older days as the key off state. After exiting and locking car will go into this state...least amount of power used from parasitic draw.
Stand by State-activated when front doors opened, most functions can be used while car is stationary. (this is like the old "key on" state but not started....ie ya turn the key on to listen to radio)
Drive ready state....hey here you have started the car...it is ready to drive. This corresponds to starting the engine via foot on brake and pressing start button.

so no way was you car in Drive ready state while just sitting not running.

Yes, your repeated starting and short drives are making any battery charge worse. These cars are not like our cars of old.

Thank you so much for this -- I too am still a little confused by that Drive Ready State message. ???

Yep, I have learned that short trips are bad for engines (and in these cars, the battery).

It figures…after 23 years of a minimum of at least 15 miles each way/35 minutes for my work, I have a job now that's 3 miles/8 minutes away from home. While I do take my car to other office locations that are 25+ miles away at least once per week, I am actively trying to supplement the initial short trips with other errands that are farther away a couple times per week.

Grateful my job is finally so close to home & afforded me to buy this car. Now scrambling a little to find ways to keep it running top shape and ditching old habits.

[danallxt]

fahfooknik:
I totally sympathize with your situation, I lived in the cold climes of northern Wis for 30 years. Winters are tough on cars/starting em.
You have the dilemma of not having a handy place to plug it in if you wanted to keep a trickle charger on it. Plus I don't know your local situation but i would be concerned with theft of a charger/and cord.

At temps of 32 degrees F a battery can lose on-third of its starting power, and at 0 degrees F up to 50 percent.

These BMWs actually have an oversize battery with a lot of cold cranking amps. (BMW's weird charging system normally keeps that battery only at 80 percent charged which I won't go into here as to why). I suspect what is happening (as others have mentioned) is that the SOC (state of charge) monitoring system detects the lower battery SOC and shuts down some things (like remote start) in order to preserve enough charge to enable you to start the car "normally", thus hopefully not leaving you stranded.

It's unfortunate that the remote start will not (or often not) work when its really cold. I know i would have loved to have that feature on a car in those cold climes you live in. I am assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that the mostly non-function of remote start is due to cold temps and reduced battery SOC.

[danallxt]

fahfooknik:
check the posts under the thread "remote start inconsistent"
always try it a second time.

[Saturns]

My car is about 1.5 weeks old. Brand new from delivery. I just hooked it up to my trickle charger tonight and it has less than 25% charge on the battery. 1 bar ion trickle charger is less than 25%. I have driven this car daily since pickup and put on 376miles (606km)
So perfect example that I plan to go on vacation next month for 2 weeks it would most likely be dead or not enough charge to crank the engine.
Keep in mind a lot of these new cars have been in transit for 15 days. A few days in between on trailers and rail. And when I got news it arrived the car was available for pickup in 2 days. The dealership did not have enough time to charge the car.

[tahoeacr]

Thanks Saturns for posting that. I went out to the garage to check the battery. We picked up the car Monday and it has been sitting in the garage since(been snowing). I checked the battery voltage in the trunk at 12.6v. Then out of curiosity, I checked the posts under the hood. They were at 12.42v. Since I had to open the door to get to the hood release, everything turned on. It's going to be sitting for at least 2 weeks because of it snowing so I put a 1.5 amp trickle charger on it.

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by tahoeacr

Thanks Saturns for posting that. I went out to the garage to check the battery. We picked up the car Monday and it has been sitting in the garage since(been snowing). I checked the battery voltage in the trunk at 12.6v. Then out of curiosity, I checked the posts under the hood. They were at 12.42v. Since I had to open the door to get to the hood release, everything turned on. It's going to be sitting for at least 2 weeks because of it snowing so I put a 1.5 amp trickle charger on it.

Yes I didn't realize that our new cars weren't charged up. I would presume this is for some. Mine was showing around 12.1v something too which makes sense why my trickle charger was showing 25% charged. Charged it overnight and now 100%. I disconnect it since I wont be travelling until a few weeks. But even going for 2 weeks should be fine now as fully charged. If the car is not charged for over month Ill put a trickle on it.

cheers
Saturn

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by Fahfoofnik

Thank you everyone, I feel a lot better now about the state of the battery.

Yes -- that Drive Mode error message is still a head-scratcher. I'll mark part of it up to this crazy arctic cold snap & the fact that this is the longest I'd NOT driven the 230i since I've owned it -- being stuck at home in not-realistically-safe driving conditions for 4-5 days.

I like that idea of a standalone battery charger. Pricey, but if this weather continues I might do it. Thanks again for the help here.

Your battery is all good. Maybe once in a while while at work or friends hook up a trickle charger to the car for a few hours to get it up to 100%. Once your battery is 100% driving around/surface charging is good enough to keep it close to 100%.
enjoy the car.
cheers

[danallxt]

Originally Posted by Saturns

Your battery is all good. Maybe once in a while while at work or friends hook up a trickle charger to the car for a few hours to get it up to 100%. Once your battery is 100% driving around/surface charging is good enough to keep it close to 100%.
enjoy the car.
cheers

nope, under "normal" conditions and driving BMWs system will keep your battery at only 80 percent charged. I will post more on this later.

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by danallxt

nope, under "normal" conditions and driving BMWs system will keep your battery at only 80 percent charged. I will post more on this later.

100% on my charger but yes 80% on BMW bms system to prolong the life of the battery. Charge from hood terminals and not not from trunk.

[danallxt]

Originally Posted by Saturns

100% on my charger but yes 80% on BMW bms system to prolong the life of the battery. Charge from hood terminals and not not from trunk.

yes, you can manually charge it to 100%
Driving your BMW will normally maintain it at 70-80 percent by design (Intelligent Alternator Control).
One can get it potentially above 80 percent driving only under overrun (no engine load, no fueling occurring) and braking....assuming it is already close to the 80 percent level.