[Jeff Jersey]

Please be gentle with me BMW veterans. I'm a rookie 2025 X1 owner with less than 1K miles on the car and it seems like every day this snazzy machine comes up with something to surprise (and confuse) me. I'm an old retired guy, long happily married, and this car sometimes make me feel like I'm trying to keep up with a 25 year old girlfriend. (Yeah, like that could ever happen....)

Anyway, the weather man says rain and snow are coming tonight and tomorrow. I just got the car washed and waxed today and she looks lovely. Thought I'd put the car cover on for a day or so. As I went to unroll it across the hood (bonnet), I see for the first time a red flashing light facing me, on the back of the rear view mirror as I stand in front of the car.

A little research tells me that this is apparently a signal that the anti-theft system is activated and protecting the car. Is that correct? And isn't this flashing light going to suck my battery life as the car sits in the driveway for the next say 3 or so days? Can I turn the flashing light off? Should I?

Thanks for any guidance you can give. I will probably be back later asking more dumb questions, and also what I should get the car for Valentine's Day and what flowers it likes. I was going to nickname the car "Otto" but that seems very wrong now. I'm thinking maybe "Sandra."

[J-RO]

Yes. It won't. Yes. Thats up to you.

[FZI89]

Flashing red light is the car telling you the alarm system is active. You can’t turn it off unless you disable the alarm system by pressing the lock button twice.

It does drain the battery, but it’s absolutely negligible. I parked my car for 14 days with the alarm system on and the overall battery drain was 1%.

[ficuswhisperer]

There's a whole bunch of things that are active when the vehicle is "off" that will drain the battery a lot more than that flashing LED on the mirror. It'll be fine.

If you plan on not driving for a few weeks or more, there's a deep sleep mode you can utilize that will shut down most/all inessential vehicle facilities. There's more about this in the manual (search for "deep sleep")

[Jeff Jersey]

Thanks for the help! Much appreciated.

[DaveMc]

Originally Posted by FZI89

Flashing red light is the car telling you the alarm system is active. You can’t turn it off unless you disable the alarm system by pressing the lock button twice.

It does drain the battery, but it’s absolutely negligible. I parked my car for 14 days with the alarm system on and the overall battery drain was 1%.

Even though it says so in the handbook, pressing the alarm button twice doesn't now disable the alarm. I discovered this on a ferry trip! Neither does leaving the bonnet (hood) or a window slightly open (as it used to). Although to be honest unless they have reverted back during the very latest OTA update, the only way, is via the central display screen, where when you 'stop' the engine, you now get an option to 'disable the alarm once'. For me, non of the other options to 'disable' the alarm work anymore. Not sure how it works for the EV's.

[schnell325]

Originally Posted by DaveMc

Even though it says so in the handbook, pressing the alarm button twice doesn't now disable the alarm. I discovered this on a ferry trip! Neither does leaving the bonnet (hood) or a window slightly open (as it used to). Although to be honest unless they have reverted back during the very latest OTA update, the only way, is via the central display screen, where when you 'stop' the engine, you now get an option to 'disable the alarm once'. For me, non of the other options to 'disable' the alarm work anymore. Not sure how it works for the EV's.

Did you see, after the second press (of the LOCK button), a long solid red light? That indicates the motion sensor is off (I travel by ferry often).

[FZI89]

Originally Posted by DaveMc

Even though it says so in the handbook, pressing the alarm button twice doesn't now disable the alarm. I discovered this on a ferry trip! Neither does leaving the bonnet (hood) or a window slightly open (as it used to). Although to be honest unless they have reverted back during the very latest OTA update, the only way, is via the central display screen, where when you 'stop' the engine, you now get an option to 'disable the alarm once'. For me, non of the other options to 'disable' the alarm work anymore. Not sure how it works for the EV's.

Just to double check, what do you mean by “alarm” button? You should press the lock button (BMW logo) twice, and then you’ll get a visual confirmation from the red flashing light.

[Graemeb2812]

Pressing the lock button twice within around 30 seconds will disable the tilt/motion sensors but not deactivate the alarm.

If I remember correctly, an option pops up on the iDrive once you switch off and before you exit, that allows you to disable the alarm completely (along with setting pre-conditioning, etc.)