Whooops, I missed the 35mA draw number. I got side tracked...

Anyway, the standard rule of thumb is 35mA is considered normal.

On almost all of the cars that I've had draw issues, almost all are less than 10mA. I don't doubt what-so-ever that this BMW draws 35mA.

The best course of action may be to unhook the battery and have the car reset every 6 months.

Bob and I agree on a technical car issue!!!!

Sounds to me like my suggestion is best.

Bob;

Are there more issues than just the battery if the car sits for 6 months?

Seems to me in reality, its a commissioning-decommisioning issue; you know, oil change for storage, and so on.

troop,

I see you blew the whistle and got my first reply poofed....

Surely you meant only the last 2 hours replies.

I AM A GERMAN ENGINEER!!!!! Just giving you American advice. I designed for Airfone, Fermilab, IBM, W.E. (AT&T) etc. Design assists for Microsoft, MAC(Apple), HP, Compaq etc...etc... I even gave MGD and DQ some "suggestions" to forward their products. (Oh, and Scott's...the lawn crap people)

I agree Al, even more reason to drop it off at the dealer after the battery hook up, just like you would your boat. Have a complete "recommissioning service" done on it.

Unfortunately, when the guy comes into town from Mexico for a two week vacation, his idea of a fun first day is not spending it at the dealership.

Ps, I blew no whistles.

one of the reasons i bought my truck where i did was they gave me free oil for 100,000 miles , it kept me going to their service bays on a regular basis and they ended up doing other paying work for me then too, it worked out well for both of us

but part of troop's original post contained this:


maybe you need to toss this guy some sort loss leader like i got, for what will probably be a long time relationship


on edit: oops, while i typed my long winded response you shot my idea down with your previous post

Are there essential and non-essential draws on the battery?

What I mean is are some of the things drawing juice not critical to the long term storage?

What one item that goes dead causes the Christmas light operation? If that can be isolated then put the other things on a switch that can be turned off during storage. Maybe that way you can trim the 35mA draw down more to the range of the 10mA draw.

I am of German heritage and work in the electrical engineering field but when asked for help in my area of expertise (ex=has been, pert=drip under pressure so an expert is a has been under pressure)I freely give it instead of unwarranted personal advice that some would find offensive.

It is evident this customer has deep pockets.

How about another approach?

Contact the Condo Owner's Association to inquire about having some power outlets installed in the garage. Seems like the obvious solution to me. Tell them that Mr. Deep Pockets will cover the cost. What's a couple grand to this guy compared to the convenience of having the battery at full charge when he arrives?

Who knows? Others at this same complex may have the same issue and might chip in.

The next obvious solution is to schedule a service call and have a mobile tech come install the new fully charged battery and re-initialized the car's systems two or three days before Deep Pocket's planned vacation.

The tech can start up it up and then check all fluids, tire pressure and such.

Then the car is ready to go with some degree of confidence of having reliable transport.

And there ya go.

Send me a PM and I will let you know where to send the check.

This guy's name isn't Arellano Felix, is it?

Maybe with reduced sales the dealership could throw in the recommendations above to make the sale? Figure in the cost of this up front also you won't be needing to do the factory supplied services on this low milage vehicle in the first 4 years so it might be a wash. You could send out the lot boy to start it up and run it 'til warm once a month and still make out okay.

I know this, Crevier BMW/MINI in Santa Ana came out to our house to replace a broken running light on the admiral's MINI becuase I told them that I wasn't going to drive 60 miles round trip and waste a good part of a day to have them replace it and they could just UPS it to me and I would do it. They said that they had to do it under warranty so they sent out a lot boy to do it (under my supervision of course).

OK, I was in the underground garage today, after delivering the 535i to the customer. Nice guy, BTW, he is CEO of a company that builds roads in Mexico.

His parking spot is near a window that gets southern sun, so his car stays well-lit during the day, but due to an overhang no direct sunlight comes into the garage.

Would a solar trickle charger work in the shade? Sheesh, that sounds like an awfully dumb question, doesn't it...

The only thing (besides the battery issue) that I would be concerned with with long term storage is how the brake rotors hold up to corrosion. I have no idea of the climate where the car is stored.

One other thing to consider is how "dead" does the battery have to be in order to necessitate a reset. Troop, you may have to do some experimenting. Perhaps before trying to crank the engine, a booster pack should be attached.

Bones, since you are a German engineer, surely you can explain to us why VW engineers use the brake sensor logic that they do. Do tell.

wireless electricity???

Could you provide service to go by every so often and run a small inverter type generator to re-charge battery? One of the Honda 1000i's?