Hi Guys,
After my battery woes at the beginning of the year and all the system errors I received on my 745i while fiddling with the diagnostic software I had to go to the States for work. What was supposed to be a 6 to 8 week trip turned into an 8 month trip! I diligently put the battery onto power save mode inside the boot before I left. Missed my new acquisition terribly during my time in the USA.
I returned to find a completely dead battery - yes the brand new one installed in January was now flatter than flat! So much so that I couldn't even open the boot with the remote and for reasons best known to the BMW Gods the spare key thingy in the fob wouldn't manually open the boot either. Manually opened the drivers door and checked inside the centre console to see that the boot switch was unlocked and it was but still no luck manually opening the boot itself. :argh: So I popped the hood and tried attaching my standard battery charger tot he jump start terminals to see if I could get some sort of a charge into the system - at least enough to open the boot. Left it to do it's thing for several hours.
It must have done something because despite not having sufficient juice to unlock the boot it provided enough to set the alarm off and just enough to allow me to disarm it with the remote. Internet research revealed my charger was too weak so off to Midas I went to source something better and bigger. Ended up buying a fancy 21A charger designed for bigger batteries, as well as a trickle charger in case I ever go away again for an extended period and I also bought a jump start power pack. Tried the battery charger first on the jump start terminals only for it to show an error code that wasn't covered in the user manual?? So I put the jump start pack on charge overnight to try it in the morning.
The next morning I connected the jump start pack to the jump start terminals and it provided enough power to unlock the doors with the remote and also to pop the boot lid. Wouldn't allow me to start the car though. I removed the battery from the boot and tried it on the battery charger again only to get the same unknown error code. Off to Battery Centre I went with my dead battery. The guy at Battery Centre remembered me from when he installed the battery back in January at my premises. He checked the water levels of the battery and found them dry - the steady usage by the car while I was away even though it was on "power save" mode had drained the battery completely. He tried charging the battery overnight only to find it wouldn't hold it's charge and that is why the battery charger I bought kept throwing out an error as it was below 0.3V or something to that effect. This meant buying a new battery again which I duly did and took it back, installed it and brought my baby back to life. Took her for a cautious drive to see that everything was still working okay. Absolutely fine - not a problem at all :joy: apart from a shudder around 110 to 120km/h. Having stood for 8 months the tyres were probably out of shape with flat spots and the more I drove her the less the shudder became but it was still there.
And this brings me to the point of my entire story - I took the plunge and forked out for 4 brand new Pirelli P-Zero 245/50/R18 Run Flat tyres that had to be ordered by my local Tiger Wheel & Tyre. They also had a damaged mag repaired at a place called Wheel Collision in Briardene as one of my 18" mags had a ding in it from when I bought the car. They did a phenomenal job, can't even see where it was repaired and the tyres look superb. Took her for a test drive after fitment and all I can say is WOW! Not a shudder or a shake and she feels even smoother than when I drove her down from Pretoria after buying her! So happy with my tyre purchase even if it was a bit steep all at one go!
After my battery woes at the beginning of the year and all the system errors I received on my 745i while fiddling with the diagnostic software I had to go to the States for work. What was supposed to be a 6 to 8 week trip turned into an 8 month trip! I diligently put the battery onto power save mode inside the boot before I left. Missed my new acquisition terribly during my time in the USA.
I returned to find a completely dead battery - yes the brand new one installed in January was now flatter than flat! So much so that I couldn't even open the boot with the remote and for reasons best known to the BMW Gods the spare key thingy in the fob wouldn't manually open the boot either. Manually opened the drivers door and checked inside the centre console to see that the boot switch was unlocked and it was but still no luck manually opening the boot itself. :argh: So I popped the hood and tried attaching my standard battery charger tot he jump start terminals to see if I could get some sort of a charge into the system - at least enough to open the boot. Left it to do it's thing for several hours.
It must have done something because despite not having sufficient juice to unlock the boot it provided enough to set the alarm off and just enough to allow me to disarm it with the remote. Internet research revealed my charger was too weak so off to Midas I went to source something better and bigger. Ended up buying a fancy 21A charger designed for bigger batteries, as well as a trickle charger in case I ever go away again for an extended period and I also bought a jump start power pack. Tried the battery charger first on the jump start terminals only for it to show an error code that wasn't covered in the user manual?? So I put the jump start pack on charge overnight to try it in the morning.
The next morning I connected the jump start pack to the jump start terminals and it provided enough power to unlock the doors with the remote and also to pop the boot lid. Wouldn't allow me to start the car though. I removed the battery from the boot and tried it on the battery charger again only to get the same unknown error code. Off to Battery Centre I went with my dead battery. The guy at Battery Centre remembered me from when he installed the battery back in January at my premises. He checked the water levels of the battery and found them dry - the steady usage by the car while I was away even though it was on "power save" mode had drained the battery completely. He tried charging the battery overnight only to find it wouldn't hold it's charge and that is why the battery charger I bought kept throwing out an error as it was below 0.3V or something to that effect. This meant buying a new battery again which I duly did and took it back, installed it and brought my baby back to life. Took her for a cautious drive to see that everything was still working okay. Absolutely fine - not a problem at all :joy: apart from a shudder around 110 to 120km/h. Having stood for 8 months the tyres were probably out of shape with flat spots and the more I drove her the less the shudder became but it was still there.
And this brings me to the point of my entire story - I took the plunge and forked out for 4 brand new Pirelli P-Zero 245/50/R18 Run Flat tyres that had to be ordered by my local Tiger Wheel & Tyre. They also had a damaged mag repaired at a place called Wheel Collision in Briardene as one of my 18" mags had a ding in it from when I bought the car. They did a phenomenal job, can't even see where it was repaired and the tyres look superb. Took her for a test drive after fitment and all I can say is WOW! Not a shudder or a shake and she feels even smoother than when I drove her down from Pretoria after buying her! So happy with my tyre purchase even if it was a bit steep all at one go!
