Battery going south?

[Beemerman59]

'08 GSA just a year old. Problem tonight in that the front HID (35 watt from HID50) would not light despite several attempts. End up riding home on just the auxillaries which did a great job. Got home and tried another few times but no joy. Tried the littlel trick of telling the computer not to light up the front light as the bike was stationary, ran the engine up to 4K and then moved the bike forward. HID flickered but wouldn't light.

Measured voltage across the battery: engine running was 14.2 volts (whatever engine speed). Engine turned off and the battery read 13.56 volts but rapidly fell to 13.08 volts in 5 minutes. Is this a battery problem? If so, how do I convince BMW to replace under warranty as it's only a year old? Or do I really want to get a replacement from BMW when a Hawker Oddesey is what I need?

 

[Slowdown]

Why have you reached the conclusion that the battery is at fault given the evidence you have???

 

[2 wheel humvee]

It's the H.I.D.I've had 2 separate and different types of failure,first was a ballast,replaced without question by Les,2nd was a bulb (burner) also replaced without question by Les as it was still fairly new,the 1st failure is fairly common whilst the 2nd is,apparently, not so common,from what you describe I'd say it was a ballast.

 

[Les Wassall]

Swap the high and low beam hids over to see if you get the same problem, if you do then the battery is the one to look at, other than that it may be a hid fail.
Battery is more a problem just on start up if it'd getting low or old then the hid fails and a second strt is needed.

mail me and I can sort it out.