[rdub315]

i left my key in the ignition, without leaving anything on. i go out to my car an hour or so later, and the car is completely dead. nothing working whatsoever. i'm getting the clicking sound from the glovebox area, and my headlights are continually flickering. and can't remove the key.

prior to this, i had some codes come up and indy shop said i needed a new battery, etc. i held off and hooked up the Ctek and all was well for a month or so. but now this.

should i hook up my Ctek charger again, or just go out and buy a new battery?

[TheTal0n]

Buy a new battery, and then code/program it.

[E90_boostjunky]

yeah id get a new battery for sure, ive left my keys in the ignition and had music playing while i was cleaning my car for 2+ hours and it started right up. GL

[Bamaben]

If battery is less than 4 years old it should still hold a charge so jump it off and run for 20 minutes to recharge

[shata]

Charge it...Start engine and check the voltage is 14.2 then if it is just get new battery. Ive kept my doors unlocked overnight and also detailed the car for 2+ hrs with music on like other guy and no problems on the start.

[grabbat]

I posted this on bimmer forums, so here you go again, my story:
Back to December 2011, on a one cold night, driving back from work, the instrument panel freaked out, Christmas tree… everything is flashing, speedometer and rpm goes to zero and back to normal…
Then I stopped the car for winter, parked with a trickle charger on it.
Now, I started driving the car in March, and a week ago, started to do the same thing, did it twice Wednesday afternoon after my come back from work.
I put the battery on charge Wednesday night, thinking it need some charge, since my trips are only half an hour to 45 mn…
Thursday morning, all seems good, until I stopped the car and then going to a client, the car freaked out like a mad dog, non-stop Christmas tree and same symptoms, rpm and speedometer goes to zero while driving back from the client…
I took it straight to a bmw specialist, and on my way there, the car start unlocking and locking doors also, instruments panel freaking out, mirrors retracting… I turned off all electric gadgets, it stopped that a bit. As soon as I use any electric thing, such as ac, open windows, radio, the car would freak out……
So, put the car on scanner, engine off, battery shows 12.2v (already low), all the codes you can imagine are there, abs, tpm, brake, o2 sensors… the car is showing everything is wrong with it. Start the engine while scanner still on, battery drops to 9.8 volts, and then back to 11.40 volts, and then to 13.15 after a couple of seconds when charge system kicks in. Definitely the battery is bad. Ordered one from dealer, exact same match, 176$. Ask for the registration of the battery, both a tech at bmw and the bmw specialist said it is not a must since you have the same one, bmw tech said (while I was at dealer buying it)leave it for 10mn with battery disconnected before installing the new one.
Now the car is driving normal for 2 days. One thing I noticed also, that during warm start, the engine would shake a couple of seconds, rpm drops to 500, kind of going to stall, before the charge system kicks in and the engine would idle to normal. It is not doing this anymore with the new battery in.
With all this being said, don’t understand how the engine start, and the starter shows no sign of weak battery, even when it was dropping to 9.8 volts. Battery is the original, installed on 04-06, week 4, 2006.
How hard it is, for a freaking company like BMW and a spaceship e90 to put a warning that the battery is going bad, without having us ******* in our pants. Let me tell you, I had a hell of a drive just to arrive to the mechanic with all these issues!