I'm not refusing to use a tender; I have one. Just thought that a new battery, 90-100F outside temps, and a two week absence would be OK. I hope the tender doesn't present new problems as my car is almost out of factory warranty and I wonder what the after-market warranty will cover.

Complaining? Yea, I guess I'm surprised and frustrated to be required to use such a band-aid, especially with the high price of admission for a "flawed" vehicle from a maker with a such a long history.

 

I thought that might be what he was referring to. On all three 997 I have owned, including my 2012 GTS, all you have to do to "reactivate" the remote function is to unlock the door as you said, then with the key still in the lock, push the lock/unlock button on the remote, and the remote function is reset. No need to put key in ignition.

I just came back off of a 2 week vacation and left my car in "sleep" mode (well after about 7 days it goes into sleep mode), and it started right up, no hesitation or indication of a weak battery at all.

 

I'll have to try this way next time. Thanks.

 

Batteries are "consumables" like tires and wiper blades - doubt the aftermarket warranty will cover. BWM's have similar battery issues and their owners complain too.

 

Went away for a week with trickle charger on (attached directly to battery terminals) and came back to dead battery. Mechanic told me it was probably because light inside trunk was on and to be sure to switch that off while charging.

 

Lately I have had extended business travel lasting months at a time. I completely unplugged my battery because my car sits in a storage unit that has no electrical hookups. Last time I came home I reconnected the battery and it started up just fine. Once I drove about 100 meters the PASM and other alerts went away.

 

A trickle charger will supply about the same current as your trunk light needs, so your battery will become depleted if it remains on.
I feed the cable through the gap at the back of the lid between the wipers so the lid can be closed.
A higher amp charger 3 or more Amps (such as Porsche or CTeK) would help.

 

Still pretty much bs that you should need to do this with a car like this. My wife had a new 335i that had 3 batteries in 15 months! I had a "come to Jesus " meeting with the regional service director since she was totally p****d and reluctant to leave the car at the airport. When we were discussing I pointed out that I could leave my explorer parked for 6 weeks and it would start immediately but if the Beemer sat more thana week it was a crap shoot whether it would start or not. He responded "ah, but that is a ford, this is a BMW, completely different quality of engineering, you need to plug the battery tender in for more than a week... ". Then realized what he was saying . Needless to say they pulled out all the stops to fix it then and, funnily enough never had problems after that..

Oh, and I have disconnected the trunk light on the cab....

 

I've fully recharged my battery many times with the trunk open and trunk light on. The trunk light will turn off automatically after about 4 hours. Never bothered pulling it. I doubt that little trunk light could drain your battery anyway.

 

Obviously the mechanic doesn't know that the power shuts off to the lights after a period of time

If the ignition key is removed, loads which are
switched on or are in standby mode (such as the
luggage compartment light, interior light and
radio) are automatically switched off after approx.
2 hours

 

He did show me the switch to turn off the trunk light but you are right, he probably didn't know it went off automatically anyway. Let's see what happens and if it fails again, may have to go with cigarette lighter charger or CTek

 

If you lock the car those systems will shut off sooner as well. Otherwise I believe it takes up to 4 hrs before they shut off with the car turned off but unlocked. Just get in the habit of locking it even though it's in the garage.

 

The PO was a doctor that didn't drive the car much and he told me he just disconnected the battery. That means reentering the radio code each time etc. PITA. Hope I can get a charger that works or figure out a a way to drive this baby every day !

 

I had a battery drain problem with my previous 997. It was fixed under warranty. They had to replace some wiring from the battery to the engine compartment.

 

Looks like mine might be a cooling fan sensor issue. Mechanic noticed fan coming on at random while car was off and replaced sensors ($100 in parts) and thinks I'm good to go. Maybe something for some of you to look into.