Question: I just tried to start my BMW but I see a battery error message saying it is discharged. What does that mean, and what do I do about it?
Answer: You enter your car one day and notice a warning on your dashboard or infotainment system saying “Battery discharged. Start engine.” or “Battery charge very low, start engine immediately…”. What do you do now?
“Battery discharged, start engine”
In day-to-day operation, you should not see this issue because a new and serviceable battery should give you a lot of leeway. For example, you should be able to play music for a while, leave the car parked for a few days and drive short distances a few times without getting this warning.
However, if the engine is off, your batteries can’t charge and will suffer from passive drain. If you only drive short distances, you could spend much more energy cranking the engine than what you recharge over the short driving period. In fact, the BMW X1’s manual highlights that frequent short-distance driving and stationary periods over a month negatively affect the battery. Finally, playing music or leaving a dome light on overnight will actively drain the battery.
So BMW is telling you that you need to charge the battery. The most straightforward way is to let the engine run for a while. Try 15-30 minutes and see if the error goes away. If it doesn’t, your battery might need replacement.
Deep Sleep Mode to reduce battery drain in newer BMWs
By the way, newer BMWs have a deep sleep mode that will reduce your battery drain if you are parking your car for a long time. Access it via the infotainment system: Apps menu > Vehicle apps > System settings > Deep sleep mode. Once you activate this mode, you’ll need to press the trunk button to access the vehicle in deep sleep, and you can disable it by going through the infotainment menu or by driving the vehicle.
BMW won’t start
If your BMW won’t start and you suspect it’s because the battery has been drained, you can jumpstart the car by getting a donor car and connecting its charged battery to your BMW. The following steps reflect the recommendations from the 2014 BMW X1 manual, but starting any car follows a similar procedure:
Preparation stage
Before you start:
- Check that the other vehicle uses a 12-volt system and has approximately the same battery capacity (measured in ampere-hour, or Ah).
- Switch off the engine of the donor vehicle (the vehicle providing power) and all electronics in both cars.
- Make sure there’s no bodywork contact between both vehicles.
Connection stage
The BMW X1 has a “starting aid” terminal which acts like a positive terminal, near the washer fluid intake. Pull the cover upwards and remove it. A special nut also serves as the body ground, the negative terminal for jump starting. Once you have located these, follow these steps.
- Connect the positive jumper cable to the positive terminal of the donor car. Then, attach the other end to your starting aid terminal or the battery’s positive terminal.
- Do the same for the negative terminal – attach the negative jumper cable first to your donor car’s negative terminal, engine/body ground. Then, attach the negative lead to your car’s negative battery terminal or body ground nut.
- Start the engine of the donor car and let it run for a few minutes. Then, start your car. If the first attempt fails, give it a few more minutes to allow your BMW’s battery to recharge.
- Once started, let both engines run for a few minutes, then disconnect the jumper cables in reverse order.
Xuyun Zeng is a content strategist with a wide-ranging content background including tech, journalism, cars and health care. After graduating with highest honors in journalism, Xuyun led a newspaper to win eight awards, helped start an award-winning film industry podcast and has written over a hundred articles about cars repair, state laws and insurance. Prior to joining Jerry, Xuyun worked as a freelance SEO consultant with a mission to create the best content that will help readers and grow organic traffic.
Giselle Gomez is an editor with over a decade of experience editing content across personal finance, education, travel, and sports. In editing for Jerry, Giselle’s focus is on making sure content is consumer and SEO-friendly and helping readers understand all things car ownership. In prior roles, she worked as a content strategist, syndication editor, and writer. Her work is featured in AP, NerdWallet.com, BestColleges.com, and more. Giselle holds a master’s degree from Arizona State University.
