[zhangyi17]

Hello all, new G05 m50i owner here. I. have a (silly)question about the battery for the car. I live close to my work. So for me, daily one way commute is only about 6km (4miles). So as much as I take every opportunity to drive the car, I am afraid my battery isn't been charged properly. I am especially more worried about up coming winter season. Do I need a battery tender to charge my battery once a week? If so, where are the charging points for the positive and negative terminals? When I picked up the car, dealer showed me under the hood, there's the positive terminal (red), but I don't remember I saw the negative terminals. Also, any suggestion on the charger?

[TurtleBoy]

You should be fine attaching the positive to the red covered terminal and the negative to any good grounding point.

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by zhangyi17

Hello all, new G05 m50i owner here. I. have a (silly)question about the battery for the car. I live close to my work. So for me, daily one way commute is only about 6km (4miles). So as much as I take every opportunity to drive the car, I am afraid my battery isn't been charged properly. I am especially more worried about up coming winter season. Do I need a battery tender to charge my battery once a week? If so, where are the charging points for the positive and negative terminals? When I picked up the car, dealer showed me under the hood, there's the positive terminal (red), but I don't remember I saw the negative terminals. Also, any suggestion on the charger?

Using a battery tender never hurts, I've used one for years on all the BMW's, and other, cars and motorcycles I've owned. I've been able to get 14yrs of battery life! Here is where I have it connected on my X3, you can do the same.

.

[zhangyi17]

Originally Posted by Marty in NY

Using a battery tender never hurts, I've used one for years on all the BMW's, and other, cars and motorcycles I've owned. I've been able to get 14yrs of battery life! Here is where I have it connected on my X3, you can do the same.

.

Does anybody have a recommended battery tender?

[Alan l.]

In your second pic you can see the negative terminal with the minus sign near your washer filler cap.

I just finished charging up my X5M with the ctek 5.0 trickle charger and it took almost 2 days to get it all the way to full. I plan to charge it once every quarter to keep the battery topped off since I don't drive my car that often. I usually do it right before the weather gets cold since that's when the batteries struggles the most.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Alan

[eagle_bmw]

Originally Posted by zhangyi17

Hello all, new G05 m50i owner here. I. have a (silly)question about the battery for the car. I live close to my work. So for me, daily one way commute is only about 6km (4miles). So as much as I take every opportunity to drive the car, I am afraid my battery isn't been charged properly. I am especially more worried about up coming winter season. Do I need a battery tender to charge my battery once a week? If so, where are the charging points for the positive and negative terminals? When I picked up the car, dealer showed me under the hood, there's the positive terminal (red), but I don't remember I saw the negative terminals. Also, any suggestion on the charger?

+1 to a battery tender. The negative terminal shows in your bottom picture, close to upper left, just at the bottom of the (-) sign there is a metal post.

[TurtleBoy]

From your pic:

[zhangyi17]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

From your pic:

Thanks. I missed the negative sign. Was looking for a terminal like the positive one. I guess any exposed metal part will do

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by zhangyi17

Thanks. I missed the negative sign. Was looking for a terminal like the positive one. I guess any exposed metal part will do

Yeah, TurtleBoy is right, its the exposed metal cylinder, that same type of cylinder is what I have my negative terminal of my battery tender connected to, sorry it was just not all quite in the pic I posted but that terminal is physically connected to the cars ground.

I have been using the Battery Tender Jr for years and years, I had two and one just failed a couple days ago so I ordered the CTEK 40-206 MXS 5.0-12 Volt Battery Charger, should arrive this week.

CTEK 40-206 MXS 5.0-12 Volt Battery Charger

.

[Paladin1]

Just as an observation, there seem to be more parasitic draws on the battery in the G05 than any car I've owned, including other BMWs. All the tech comes at a price, so a periodic top-up is a really good idea with these cars. I use the BMW tenders, but any good, modern third party tender will work just as well.

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by zhangyi17

Thanks. I missed the negative sign. Was looking for a terminal like the positive one. I guess any exposed metal part will do

Maybe/probably/possibly...but personally I would use the dedicated negative charging/jump start terminal designed to do so.

I have read many times where owners have hooked the negative cable to what they thought was something grounded...and came back to a dead battery. Sometimes what you "think" may be grounded may not be. Recent memory on the f06/f12/f13 forum...a member used one of the hex shaped bolts in the engine bay (either on the shock tower or one of the braces) which they thought was grounded...and it didn't work. It was then pointed out that they were very close to the negative terminal...they tried that and it worked.

You can see a pic of the f06 650ix engine bay below where there are multiple hex bolts that appear they would be grounded...but some of them are not...it could be the same in the G05 engine bay so I would recommend using the dedicated jump start terminals to avoid any charging failures.

[zhangyi17]

Bought CTEK 40-206 MXS 5.0 on Amazon.
Start charging around 8:30pm. 3 LED on now (bulk charge). Will check tomorrow morning

[Alan l.]

mine took almost two days to get to the last stage. Same charger.

[eagle_bmw]

I have the same CTEK on mine. Not sure if it matters but I setup mine with the hood closed and car fully locked. There is enough space to route the charger wire at the bottom of the windshield (left side) and by the intersection of the rubber seal.

[Caramel]

While CTEK disagrees because it would put them out of business, you do not need to charge your battery on modern cars (anything built in Europe in the last 20 years) - unless you do not move it at all for more than 3 months.

[zhangyi17]

Originally Posted by Alan l.

mine took almost two days to get to the last stage. Same charger.

After one night (8:30pm - 7:00am), it reached stage 7. I think I will do this once a week.
Thanks for all the info...

[teefive]

Originally Posted by Caramel

While CTEK disagrees because it would put them out of business, you do not need to charge your battery on modern cars (anything built in Europe in the last 20 years) - unless you do not move it at all for more than 3 months.

I'm not saying you're wrong (*need* being your operative word), but you'll likely double your battery life if you maintain it with a charger.

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by teefive

I'm not saying you're wrong (*need* being your operative word), but you'll likely double your battery life if you maintain it with a charger.

Right...14 yrs on the same battery, what else can I say?

[Caramel]

The longest time span for which I have owned a car was 10 years and I never had any issues with its battery. I also had a 16 year old preowned car that was still running with the original battery.

Should a battery deteriorate significantly or die after 17 years, then I would just get a new one instead of "maintaining" it by charging it to the brim once a week (or even only once a month) for 17 years ... simply does not seem to be worth the effort.

[zhangyi17]

Originally Posted by Caramel

The longest time span for which I have owned a car was 10 years and I never had any issues with its battery. I also had a 16 year old preowned car that was still running with the original battery.

Should a battery deteriorate significantly or die after 17 years, then I would just get a new one instead of "maintaining" it by charging it to the brim once a week (or even only once a month) for 17 years ... simply does not seem to be worth the effort.

My concern about battery life:
1). I don't drive it much (~6km daily one way commute to work, all of it city).
2). I've read it somewhere that G05 only charge its battery when coasting and breaking to save gas..
3). On top of that, the car doesn't turn off immediate after I shut it down. Its fan keep running for another few mins, some interior illumination keeps on upto about 10mins or so.

All my previous cars don't have these fancy stuff and I never needed to charge it even I leave it for weeks in freezing cold Quebec winter.

But for G05, all point to the conclusion that battery needs to be charged from time to time. Last thing I want is Monday morning on my way to work with kids at the back only to realize battery is dead...

[sailvi767]

The battery will be just fine with the driving you are doing. Keeping a battery on trickle charge has been shown to decrease battery life in many cases.

[Caramel]

1). 6 km / day is sufficient to keep the battery charged.
2). That refers to the PHEV battery of the X5 45e. Your 12V battery will be charged whenever your engine is running and the car thinks that the battery needs charging.
3). Power consumption from that is minimal. If the car detects that your battery power is not sufficient, it will turn off the illumination as soon as you turn off the engine.

12V battery power management in modern cars has "being able to start the engine" as the first priority. It will reduce power output for less critical functions as needed - and it would give you a warning that the your battery power is low wayyyy before your battery actually is too weak to start your engine.