[Lotus99]

Stupid me... Left the angel eye lights on for like 5 hours (for some reason the switch was to the right of middle), and when I saw it, she was going crazy... The wipers had started by themselves! Poor thing!

I quickly hooked it up to a 6 amp battery charger and it was only showing 8 volts. I'm going to leave it on overnight and hopefully it'll start in the morning.

My question is this: My car's a 2008, though with only 25,000 miles on it, and on the original battery. I think this is the first time I've F'd up this bad and ran the battery down this much. Do you think I'll have damaged it such that I should get it load tested and possibly need to get a new one?

I thought that once you drain a battery almost completely, it'll never go back to its full charge again... I don't want to be paranoid going forward that every time I leave the car for a few days, it might not start...

[#Tee]

This normally needs to happen at least 3-5 times before battery acid level goes bad. Youll be fine.

[N55]

Should be fine, when I had my 08 335 I used to leave the angels on for 3-6 hours at a time. (Young Me)

[Lotus99]

Thx guys for the quick replies. Good to hear. I'll go for a nice 15 minute highway drive too when I start it up tomorrow, just in case.

[Speedwagon]

You will know soon enough if it's going to hold a charge, good luck!

[fbose]

I just dropped $370 for a new battery as I left my angel eyes on as well overnight. I got my insurance roadside assistance to start it for me in the morning. Scared the s@#$ out of me coz when the guy connected his charging cables, that thing was sparking like crazy. I thought he fried something. Anyways, it did start and I drove 50 miles back home and another 50 miles coming to work the next day. After work I tried to unlock the door??? Silence, no clicks, no nothing. Another call to roadside assistance then straight to dealership. Bam, cha-ching! My pockets are lighter!

[GChase]

How do you leave your angel eyes on? Does it have something to do with CA because mine shut off automatically once I turn the car off..

[Otruba_843]

Originally Posted by GChase

How do you leave your angel eyes on? Does it have something to do with CA because mine shut off automatically once I turn the car off..

He said he had the switch in the parking lights position, not the auto position

[GChase]

Originally Posted by Otruba_843

He said he had the switch in the parking lights position, not the auto position

ahh my bad. I have a habit of skipping sentences in parenthesis

[username604]

Originally Posted by GChase

ahh my bad. I have a habit of skipping sentences in parenthesis

that's hilarious

[TheeGovernor]

If you hit the stalk, it turns on the left or right angel eyes. They are used as parking lights in Europe.

[John 070]

Just get a battery tender and let it fully charge, should be just fine. imho a 15-min highway cruise will not charge the battery fully.

I was in the habit of driving my car once every 3 wks., on a good battery. It ended up being discharged even after having driven it for 30 min on the highway. That lead me to believe the battery was bad, but it was load tested and it was fine.

[Otruba_843]

Originally Posted by GChase

ahh my bad. I have a habit of skipping sentences in parenthesis

I can relate

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by TheeGovernor

If you hit the stalk, it turns on the left or right angel eyes. They are used as parking lights in Europe.

I know how to turn on the parking lights (they work on our cars too), but it's not just a hit of the stalk. You have to hold the stalk for like a second. In my case, as I said above, the headlight switch was one setting to the right of middle, which is the parking lights. Maybe my knee hit it somehow.

Originally Posted by John 070

Just get a battery tender and let it fully charge, should be just fine. imho a 15-min highway cruise will not charge the battery fully.

I was in the habit of driving my car once every 3 wks., on a good battery. It ended up being discharged even after having driven it for 30 min on the highway. That lead me to believe the battery was bad, but it was load tested and it was fine.

I agree. I wasn't suggesting to just do that, though I guess if you just get a jump and drive off, it's better than nothing hopefully (but 15 mins wouldn't be enough in that case). Luckily I have a charger at home (more than a tender, as it's 6 amp), so I left it on ovrenight and it started up instantly this morning.

Will leave it on charge at the office too, as luckily, I park it in a garage here!

Hopefully I won't have issues with it. I called a battery place, and he said that a load test wouldn't really reveal whether it's going to die on me or not. An electrolyte test or something like that would. He said just charge it and see how it goes.

PS In case I ever get a new battery, and not do it at the dealer (this guy quoted me just $150 for a new battery - non OEM I presume), do our cars need reprogramming for a new battery? I'm pretty sure I've read for the 5 series you do have to, so the computer knows it's a new battery, due to the monitoring/charging it does.

[John 070]

I prefer to get the battery at the dealer.....and yes I paid $280. You have to clip a coupon and probably call 2 or 3 dealers....I've seen here some people have paid over $300 and even over $500, for the same thing!

Yes, they have to register...I asked about AGM and the part was only $80 more, but the labor was like $180 or something crazy, so I stuck with original. I still have my old one which was not actually bad, and I charge it at least once per month with the tender.

[cn555ic]

just go for a long drive on the highway and the battery will be fine and charged back up

[VMRWheels]

If you end up getting a new battery, be sure to reprogram it.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by VMRWheels

If you end up getting a new battery, be sure to reprogram it.

So if I need to do that, then unless the dealer's going to charge me a ridiculous amount like $500 all in, I'll probably just end up going with them for a new one to save the hassle of going to two places since I'll have to pay an hour's labour probably anyway on top of the battery, it'll come close to $300.

[F104]

I've a 2007, battery damaged during warranty but let's not go there. Still same battery, battery warning will come on with radio on much less than a minute after switching off, and has been like that for the last year. Car starts fine though after being parked for two weeks at airport (that was last week).. I'm just seeing if it will last till F32 comes out

[CruzS4e92]

Originally Posted by Verbatim

that's hilarious

this.

OP I did the exact same thing today but for 4 hours, co-worker came back from lunch telling me my lights were on. Started up just fine.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by CruzS4e92

this.

OP I did the exact same thing today but for 4 hours, co-worker came back from lunch telling me my lights were on. Started up just fine.

You're lucky. In my case, my battery was almost dead. As I said, it made the ECU go screwy even - the wipers had started on their own!

At nights, I'll leave it on charge a few more times to be totally safe, then I'll see over a few days after it how it goes.

[Saintor]

Don't worry. I had a current drain in its first 3 months and had to jump-start that thing TENS of time. The problem was elsewhere but I claimed a new battery, it was denied and I am now in its 6th year...