[raagnihi]

Hello:

Michigan weather in the range -15 C to 0 C cold weather recent few days.

We left the car in garage and travelled for 4 weeks. Upon return today, the battery appears dead. I was able to open the door with key fob, But engine would nor start.

I see 3 lights flickering...the push button/auto start stop button and the parking triangle button..the flickering is countinous along with clicking noise in the storage area. I am unable to stop the clicking noise or the flickering in the push buttions

How do it turn this flickering buttons and the clicking noise. its been like this for almost 45 minutes now.

I have ordered a CTK trickle charger a few weeks back.

I assume the clicking noise and flickering buttons would stop only after battery is completely dead with no juice.

is it safe to use a jump start with this clicking noise...?

OR alternatively, Can I use the trickle charger now or shud I wait ?

Spouse drives the car and has only 40K miles for school dropoff pickups. Original OEM battery still in

DOnt want to unintentionally mess with Elec system as such

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[BIG_KID]

Disconnect battery.
Charge battery with smart charger.

[raagnihi]

i notice that the clicking noise is coming from the Fuse panel area behind the fuel cap in the luggage compartment area. I could not open the tailgate. So had to enter from the rear doors and pull out the covers to reach the battery.

DIsconnected the negative terminal and the clicking stopped.

Question: the battery is the original OEM battery (from 2014 !). Should i reconnect the negative terminal back and use the engine bay area terminals to connect the smart charger ?

or charge the battery by hooking up the smart charger directly on the battery terminals ?

the OEM battery has AGM sticker. So, I assume it has to be set in the AGM mode on the CTEK charger...

[tom2021]

Originally Posted by raagnihi

Question: the battery is the original OEM battery (from 2014 !). Should i reconnect the negative terminal back and use the engine bay area terminals to connect the smart charger ?

or charge the battery by hooking up the smart charger directly on the battery terminals ?

I charge the battery using the engine bay area terminals (under the hood).

[BIG_KID]

If the battery is still disconnected just charge from the battery directly
Set charger on AGM

[raagnihi]

I disconnected only the negative terminal on the battery to get the clicking noise to stop.

Can I just charge the battery directly to CTEK charger with the positive terminal still connected on the battery on the car... and hook up the two CTEK Clamps to the two terminals red/black respectively ?

OR

Should I disconnect the postive terminal as well on vehicle and isolate the battery from vehicle circuit and keep the CTEK charging independent from vehicle circuit ?

[raagnihi]

I did not do the trickel charging yet.

I reconnected the negative terminal this moring and the clicking noise resumes back. its coming from the fuse panel area in the luggage compartment behind the fuel cap (picture attached)

is there a starter relay ? thats trying the turn ON or reset once the battery is connected...

[BIG_KID]

Disconnect either one or both cables from the battery.
Install smart charger until indicator on charger says battery is fully charged. (Smart charger will confirm if the battery is still good)
Cross fingers (say a small prayer even) and reinstall battery cable.

[raagnihi]

Thnnks for the inputs

Disconnected both the terminals from the battery. Hooked up the CTEK MXS 5.0 charger with AGM Mode setting.

Steps 1 and 2 were completed within a few seconds and its on STEP 3 now. Next update again after 24 hrs I guess.

Not sure if the clicking noise for 1 hr ...has introduced any wear and tear in the relay...

[raagnihi]

Questiom:

is that a relay ?

That little square box in the green elliptical highlighted section in the picture attached

[383vett]

Your battery is ten years old. Get a new one. If you are still intent on using this battery, you need a real charger, not a battery maintainer or trickle charger.

[BIG_KID]

Originally Posted by 383vett

Your battery is ten years old. Get a new one. If you are still intent on using this battery, you need a real charger, not a battery maintainer or trickle charger.

He bought the CTEK 5.0
Perfectly adequate

[raagnihi]

Yes. CTEK MXS 5.0 it is.

its been on charge setting since 7PM last night and its 1:30 PM now.

Not sure how long it takes before the STEP 7 LED goes active. It still shows STEP 4 LED now.

I believe STEP 5 LED determines the pass/fail criteria for the battery capability to hold the the charge (no rapid drop in voltage) ...

IF the battery is found good today,
then
I can use the engine bay jump terminals to hook up the CTEK to do smart charging with CTEK.

Am I correct ?

PICS attached for ref

[383vett]

I've got the CTEK MXS 5.0 also. Great charger. I still don't understand why you are trying to squeeze the last bit of life out of a 10 year old battery. For less than $200 you will be good for another 10 years.

[raagnihi]

you r right.

The battery does need replacement. Since the battery is dead with 4-5 weeks of parking in garage, I am trying to get the vehicle up and running as such.

I am currious abt the 200$ figure you mentioned. Can we get an AGM battery 105 AH for that price range and then the install and coding batt costs ? I am not too much into electronics...hence the Q

[raagnihi]

CTEK smart charging finally thru.

It took about 23h and 30 min to fully charge and reach step 7

the portable alexa camera is easy to monitor by placing it in front of the ctek LED panel...

Its too late in the evening. I will hook the battery up and update tomorrow

[pungo]

Originally Posted by raagnihi

CTEK smart charging finally thru.

It took about 23h and 30 min to fully charge and reach step 7

the portable alexa camera is easy to monitor by placing it in front of the ctek LED panel...

Its too late in the evening. I will hook the battery up and update tomorrow

To accurately determine the health of the battery, once properly charged, disconnected the charger and vehicle, let it rest overnight. Then measure the voltage in the morning to determine the state of charge following this chart.

[raagnihi]

As suggested, I turned off the smart charger this morning and left the battery at rest (disconnected from smart charger and vehicle)

Battery at rest or Leisure --> Multimeter reading
at 0 Hrs rest was 13.02 volts
at 6 hrs rest was 12.77 volts
at 9 hrs rest was 12.74 volts

Is this wait time sufficient ?

Or
Shud I wait for 24 Hrs and see the depletion or Hold capacity of this battery

I am surprised that its still holding 90% of the State of Charge SoC after 10 years.

[pungo]

Originally Posted by raagnihi

As suggested, I turned off the smart charger this morning and left the battery at rest (disconnected from smart charger and vehicle)

Battery at rest or Leisure --> Multimeter reading
at 0 Hrs rest was 13.02 volts
at 6 hrs rest was 12.77 volts
at 9 hrs rest was 12.74 volts

Is this wait time sufficient ?

Or
Shud I wait for 24 Hrs and see the depletion or Hold capacity of this battery

I am surprised that its still holding 90% of the State of Charge SoC after 10 years.

I'd say that's damn good for a 10 yr old batt. I had a freak optima batt that went ~20 years, which is astonishing.
Unfortunately, the voltage test doesn't tell the complete health, there's also a load test (large resistive tester) to verify it can provide sufficient amperage for a short period of time, but if you don't have one of those, you really don't know the complete health.
If it were my vehicle, especially with it being winter, I'd replace the 10 year old battery to reduce the chance of getting stranded somewhere.
You could buy an OBD interface and bimmerlink(phone app) to register the new batt.

[raagnihi]

Fair enough.

I will plan to replace the battery and use the bimmerlink app.

what would be the simplest and least risky way to connect to the OBD Port.



If anyone can confirm that the bimmerlink app with a particular adaptor for the OBD r port works for the F25 (2014 X3 28i) version vehicle.

PL advise on the verified working oBD adaptor on F25 platform that works with Bimmerlink app

Just for info:

I took the voltmeter reading after 24 hrs resting

24Hrs resting - measured value 12.71 volts.

I think the AGM aged battery drops slowly with reduced slope over time (say 10 days maybe and is a function of ambient temp around the batt)

[BIG_KID]

So I dying to know, have you tried starting the car yet…

[raagnihi]

I am at work today and hopefully will connect tonight after reaching home.

I focussed on looking at the voltage behavior.

I left it connected back to CTK this morning before I left (after checking the SoC w/Battery at rest for 24 hours) and it went to full charge in a few min

Will Keep you posted...