If the battery died the alternator will never bring it back to full charge , you can burn up the alternator doing this over time

I would charge it overnight with a real charger but I agree with Schpenxel sounds like a bad connection or a solenoid. I had the same problem on my Expedition , bad battery clamp on the positive cable , i would get out twist the cable and it would start .

With your situation where you try several times and it finally starts points to the solenoid or a dead spot on the starter

Dave

 

It wasn't completely dead (as in 0 volts). It did seem to bring it to a full charge though. I regular read 12.6v when shutting the car off from the multimeter. Of course, I don't plan to ever do this again as I don't want to harm the alternator. Should I still buy a battery charger to charge it overnight? Seems to be a bit late for that since it happened 3 months ago and does read 12.6 V. I will if it may help though.

The only issue now is this draining over time which I mentioned. If I replace the solenoid, but the battery still drains overnight it will likely be an issue. Again, battery has been load tested and cranking amps were checked with no problems at all. I just need to determine if a faulty solenoid connection could cause a battery drain overnight.

Thanks for your help guys! Much appreciated.

 

Frankie , there is a certain amount of draw on the battery at all times , thats why you need a battery tender if you store the car for an extended period of time . 12.6 is good but the question is how long does it hold 12.6 and is the voltage drop caused by normal draw or is because of a weak cell .

When a battery drains that much that you need to jump it , it really puts a strain on the alternator and the electronics inside it ( diode trio etc) as an alternator was never designed to charge a dead battery

After you get the car fixed have someone "load" test the battery as that will tell you for sure if you hurt it when it ran down or if maybe it just needs a charge ... or maybe that nothing is wrong at all as the battery recovered

Dave

 

Thanks David! I do get that batteries always have a draw which is why so many use battery tenders when storing the car. The car is only sitting for 24 hours at the most (usually). Definitely no more than 2 days. Would a C6 really drain nearly .5 volts in 24 hours of sitting? That definitely can't be right. I was curious if it was possible for this solenoid to be causing this drain. It might be a combination of the battery being unable to hold a charge and a faulty solenoid.

My shop wasn't able to look into it today, but hopefully tomorrow. It started up first try when I left work, but voltage showed 12.4v or so for about thirty seconds before shooting to 14+ (first time this has happened in a while. Normally instantly shows 14+ V).

The battery has been load tested as I thought this was the issue to begin with and it was fine. There were no problems with the load test. I'm tempted to just replace the battery first, but I don't know if the issue with persist. Really need to get the solenoid checked out. Is it possible for a battery to pass a load test, but still be faulty?

 

So I believe I found what was causing my battery to drain .5 volts in 24 hours of sitting. I did a parasitic load test and saw that my car was using about 140 milliamps when everything was powered off. Did some checking to see most common culprits and I heard about the BATT5 fuse. I pulled this and I got between 0 and 10 milliamps which is much more acceptable. Tomorrow (when there is more daylight), I will try to determine which connection from the BATT5 fuse is actually causing the drain.

It seems like the OnStar fuse is the most common one to cause this problem. I really don't want to have to pull this fuse because I like having bluetooth functionality. I actually bought a BT enabled VCIM to get bluetooth functionality. Would the only solution be to get rid of the OnStar fuse if this is the cause for my drain?

 

Frankie did you wait to take the readings for all systems to go to sleep before you took your readings It could take anywhere form 15 to 30 minutes .

You also might have an alternator problem ...if the readings are still high disconnect the alternator positive and take another reading

I have the exact same bluetooth setup as you do and i dont have a problem , i can take a reading over the weekend ...

Dave

 

Remove the Bt enabled VCIM first. I bet that was your battery drain issue.

 

If you pulled Bat 5 and the draw went aways it is not the VCM


Plus your blue tooth has been installed for a while , you would have had problems before this
Here is a post from a forum member that tells us what batt 5 is .. looks like dash lites , courtesy lites etc .could the draw you were seeing come from the systems that were not completely asleep yet ?



Quote:
Originally Posted by ByByBMW View Post
The light for the buttons on the A/C control panel and the lights for the Transmission indicator (what gear) are not working. The A/C panel works fine as does the tranny. I can't find a fuse that seems to be for these lights.
Does anyone know where/how they are powered and what the problem may be
Thanks for any help.

These lamps are driven by Voltage 4, a dimmer voltage generated by the HVAC module and controlled by the dimmer control on the left instrument panel. (Make sure you haven't dimmed these lamps all the way down with the control.) The power to the lamp dimmer comes from the BCM fuse labeled CRTSY/Lamp via a relay in the BCM that switches the voltage depending on whether it is day or night (basically headlights are off or headlights are on, make sure headlights are on or these lamps won't have power). This in turn is powered by the fuse labeled BAT5 in the under-hood fuse block.

 

It initially showed a 4 amp draw which I knew was outrageously high. After being connected for a minute it calmed down to .14 amps. I would say a minute or two after being connected. It did this every time I tried to test. Then once I disconnected the BATT5 fuse it went from 4 amps all the way to 0.00 to 0.01 amps.

Anyways, I couldn't let it go so I decided to head outside with a flashlight and pull the OnStar fuse. I still got a .14 amp reading so it has to be something else . I'm just glad its not the OnStar fuse. I will check the other 4 or 5 fuses tomorrow.

EDIT: Just saw your edit. I did wait about 30 minutes after unhooking the negative post on the battery before I did my testing. Just now, I waited just over 20 minutes.

Here are the fuses controlled by BATT5 which are located in the passenger footwell. BATT5 also controls the BCM but I am unsure where that fuse is. Is that within the BATT5 fuse? (also check out page 13 on this document):

http://www.costartech.com/pb/Vehicle...02005-fuse.pdf

Ignition fuse is interesting for my situation....




Looks like it isn't. I was shocked. I was ready for that to be the culprit as well.

 

Keep us posted , I will try to measure mine for you the first chance I get

Dave

 

I will definitely post an update tomorrow when I can get back to it.

Thank you to everybody in this thread who has been helping me. Really love these forums and you guys are the reason why I stick around.

 

Here is an update. There does NOT appear to be any parasitic battery drains.

When I first connect the multimeter, it reads 4 amps. After a minute it will calm down and go to .14 amps. I decided to wait even longer because with the BATT5 fuse pulled, I would read 0 amps. Absolutely no drain doesn't seem normal. I pulled all the fuses and it continued to read .14 amps. I put all the fuses back in and I decided to wait a little longer after connecting the multimeter. After about three more minutes (of the multimeter connected), it went back up to 4 amps, but then calmed down and went between .00 and .03 amps which is totally acceptable. I let the car sit for an hour before doing this. Apparently, connecting the multimeter wakes it up and you have to give it around 5 minutes to fully go back to rest.

The shop will be checking my starter/solenoid tomorrow. If it all checks out, then I am simply going to just get a new battery. Its still draining a bit overnight and there is nothing causing the drain so it must be unable to hold the charge.

I will update this again tomorrow. Thanks guys!

 

Took the car to a shop today. They told me they believe its the starter solenoid. They didn't get the car up on a lift or inspect it, but they did some kind of test that caused my car to die. It even reset my settings for my seat, side view mirrors, etc. They said that this means the solenoid is usually bad.

He told me that they can replace it with a solenoid from a used starter that they have lying around. They could do this on Friday. I am leaning towards buying a brand new solenoid. It is going to cost me $200 to get the solenoid replaced (just labor) and he would throw in the solenoid at no charge. I feel a bit more comfortable replacing with a brand new solenoid if I am going to pay $200. What do you guys think?

I was thinking about just picking up this starter from O'Reillys:

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...1920&ppt=C0330

What do you guys think? I am really interested in the lifetime warranty.

 

that's your best bet.




I did the B&M for 200 off ebay but you do have to solder the wire going to start the stater, not the 12v power lead.

 

Go with the new solenoid

Dave

 

Thanks for your opinions guys! Tough decision as it was 50/50 haha. I was leaning towards the solenoid, but nobody could guarantee delivery by Friday which is understandable. I really don't want to be without the car for the entire weekend along with Monday so I decided to go with the re-manufactured starter from O'Reillys. They will have it available tomorrow morning. If they didn't have the lifetime warranty, I probably would have just dealt with not having the car for the weekend.

I am really hoping this will resolve this issue and I can finally get my mind off of it. I want to get back to buying the fun stuff like headers! :P

I will update you guys after this gets swapped out.

 

It was definitely the starter/starter solenoid. New starter is installed. He told me the lug was nearly completely torn off. I will get a picture of it when I get home. Leaving now to go pick her up.

Again, thank you to everyone in this thread who helped me. I really do appreciate it. I can't wait to get back and starting properly.

 

Here is that beautiful solenoid. Just like all the other pictures:

 

I'd say that might have been the problem

 

Wow cant believe that it started ....glad that you have it fixed

Dave