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      05-20-2012, 08:49 PM   #1
oygen
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Keyless - will leaving key in car drain battery?

I asked this of the dealership's service guy, and he said yes. We are talking about keyless with comfort access.

Our practice with our '06 530 xi sportwagon, which needed to have its key inserted into the stalk ignition switch to turn the car on and start, was to leave a key in the door pocket, when parked in our secure garage.

We found out the hard way that leaving it in the ignition prevented the system from going into full "sleep" mode and drained the battery. I know the same is true for an '01 Porsche Boxster.

But what about the keyless new '12 X3 35i we have now? If the key can be sensed by the system, does having it in the door pocket in the car, certainly within sensing range for an ignition "on" and start engine operation, drain the battery when the car is just sitting there?

And what about approaching the car in the garage to open a door and get in? If you have no key on your person, but the one you have is the one you left in the door pocket, can you inadvertently lock yourself out of the vehicle by touching the ribbed part of the handle top?

Last edited by oygen; 05-20-2012 at 09:44 PM..
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      05-20-2012, 09:17 PM   #2
April1
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I have keyless FOB and I see that X3 can go to full sleep with the key in the car. I don't k ow if car is draining extra. But it's sure that you can't lock the car with the key inside the car if you had opened it with that key.
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      05-20-2012, 09:23 PM   #3
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sorry I don't have an answer to leaving the key in the car and draining the battery.

When I took delivery of my car the delivery guy told my it is virtually impossible to lock the key inside the car.... he said it was possible though
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      05-20-2012, 09:23 PM   #4
oygen
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Thanks, April1. I should have explained better that we have the Comfort Access touch-to-lock and grab-to-unlock option.

But is it your experience that the battery will not drain if you regularly leave the key in the car for periods of time such as overnight and longer?

We would prefer to do this because that was our practice with the previous 530 xi.
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      05-20-2012, 10:43 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oygen View Post
Thanks, April1. I should have explained better that we have the Comfort Access touch-to-lock and grab-to-unlock option.

But is it your experience that the battery will not drain if you regularly leave the key in the car for periods of time such as overnight and longer?

We would prefer to do this because that was our practice with the previous 530 xi.
I have the same comfort access to touch lock and grab open. I usually don't leave the key in the car but once I had left it in the car but didn't observe any issue.
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      05-20-2012, 11:23 PM   #6
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If you can not leave the key in the car and lock with the pull out steel key as can be done in current X3 without "comfit key", how do you go for a swim? Do you have to leave the electronic key on the beach or river bank?

KF
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      05-21-2012, 05:20 AM   #7
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I don't think it makes any difference. I believe the car is always broadcasting looking for the key's response regardless of where the key is. That's how it's prepared to open the door when you grab the handle with comfort access. If the key was always broadcasting the battery wouldn't last.
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