A warning indicator in my wife's 2008 X5 last week indicated that there was a "high battery drain." The car started ok and seemed to be running fine. According to the dealership, the battery had a bad cell and needed to be replaced. The dealership informed me that I could not replace it with an aftermarket battery, b/c that would negate the warranty if the vehicle ever had electrical problems, so I had to eat the $580 for the dealership to replace the battery. I am disappointed that BMW would use a poor quality battery in there vehicles and (even though I am a loyal customer and have the X5 warrantied out the wazoo with extended warranties) they would not replace the battery for free. Has anyone else had issues with their X5 batteries?
Not with an X5, but I did replace the battery in my wife's 05 MINI convertible with an aftermarket battery....absolutely no problems. And, its the very same battery size/class that is in my 2007 Z4. The dealer wanted $250 or so to replace it, but I ended up spending about $90 on the aftermarket battery and installed it myself. Its my understanding that newer BMW's must have the battery "registered" with the car's electronics, so there may have been no alternative for your case (other than a different dealer). My question here is, however...Did they pro-rate the battery? If so, what would have been the costs with no adjustment? As far as BMW batteries, I haven't heard of any complaints, but then again, ithe topic really hasn't come up much in any of my conversations.
Yes, I had a battery failure in a 2008 X5 4.8. It happened under warranty in Pubelo, CO about 1300 miles from home. Had driven X5 for 2 days and left motel on 3rd day and drove 1 block to a gas station. Went to re-start & everything dead. I checked typical things, called home BMW Center & talked to tech. Finally, called BMW Assist, which sent a flat-bed truck. Then came the nightmare. Couldn't get the electrically operated transmission out of Park & into neutral. You need the operator's manual, unless you've memorized it, to find out how to get transmission out of Park. Can't get the electrically operated glove box open to get the manual--and I forgot to memorize how to open the electrically operated glove box in case of a power failure. Once I got to the manual and got the vehicle out of Park the next trick was to get the elctrically operated Emergency Brake to release. After emptying the cargo area to access the trip cable, I couldn't pull hard enough to release the brake. The flat-bed driver tried and also failed. Option was to pull the 5,000 lb. X5 on to the flat bed with brake on and with only a tow hook for one side of the vehicle (BMW only supplies 1 hook). Greased the truck bed well and watched the SAV slide on crooked. Placed large rolls of paper towels between side of bed and expensive 20 inch wheels. It worked. My wife and I rode 70 miles north to Colorado Springs with truck driver in snow storm. At Winslow BMW the next trick was to off-load the SAV with the Emergency Brake on. The asst. service manager tried to pull the release cable to no avail. He then got a tech who tried--nothing. Then a 3rd really big tech tried and with all his strength was finally successful. After about 45 minutes of work a technician did get the SAV started. Then, after connecting the X5 to the test equipment & running fault codes for 1 1/2 hrs. all systems shut down. The technicians decided the battery had a dead short. Battery replaced under warranty & yes, newer BMWs require battery replacement my the dealer because of needed programing. Winslow BMW folks were great.