[danblan]

Hi all.
Apologies if this has been discussed previously...
Will try and keep a long story short as this first bit may have a bearing on thought processes, but, essentially, had a few gremlins with the car over the last month and turns out I needed new coils. Mechanic seems to think it was dodgy fuel (I have used supermarket stuff - teach me for being a tight b*stard) but he believes both high pressure pump and injectors are all ok, yet only time will tell.
Anyway, couple of weeks ago, just before the coil replacement, the halos/tailights stopped coming on when locking/unlocking the car and, despite the gremlins with the engine appearing to be sorted I still have the light issue. Its only the halo/tailights, everything else is fine so can't see it being a separate issue? Btw, settings in car are all set to 'on' still.
HELP!! It's driving me insane.
As a footnote, I ordered an OBD reader today but can't wait...

[Thermobaric]

Probably low battery. That kills the halos at unlock.

OBD reader will show low voltage I imagine.

[danblan]

Thanks! I did consider that as it's the time of year where everything electrical's on. Just seemed weird it happened at the same time so thought it may be some power switch as had other electrical components switch themselves off in the past when the alternator failed. Been driving around in Sport all week knowing that the battery only recharges over 2k rpm. Still nothing...

[Thewrench86]

hi having a similar issue, but i did some very short journeys recently, with my heated seats on and then i got the low battery charge message in the idrive. then after my third short journey, i got the date reset and the yellow car icon on the ramp. i took the car for a 40 minute drive and it seemed to get rid of the low charge error, but my halos and tail lights dont come on off when unlocking the car.

did op manage to figure this out? i called Williams who said charge the battery and see how it goes. will try taking the car out tomorrow for a long run.

[ndj]

The battery is the reason for the lack of "greeting" lights when you unlock. Buy a CTEK battery charger/conditioner for £50 first before considering a battery change which will require coding to your car and be way more expensive. The next thing to go will be your heated rear window if you don't address the battery.

On your other point, your mechanic reckons supermarket fuel caused a problem with your coil packs? Forgive me if I misunderstood but that's BS.

And as regards supermarket fuel, I have run my M3 on Sainsbury's Super UL for 5 years, and my Honda CR-V for 13 years on their standard UL without any issues.

He's talking garbage.

[danblan]

Hi all,
Thanks for all the advice. Turns out it was the battery. Car was being a temperamental b*tch even with the new battery. Been working fine for a few weeks now.
As for the fuel, I was running 95 not 98 so probably of my own doing. Now running on Shell Nitro. Noticeable difference...
Thanks again!