Battery Drain Warning Message | Dash Camera is Draining My Battery | What To Do

On many of today's luxury vehicles, such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Range Rover/Land Rover, and MINI you may receive a dash board warning message as shown below:

 
If this occurs after you have installed a dash camera it is because the dash camera is drawing power (current) from the vehicle battery while the vehicle is off (the camera is running in parking mode).

You have 3 options to resolve this warning message:

1. Disable parking mode and run the dash camera while the vehicle is running only.
   PRO: You will never have the warning message ever again, and you will never have the chance of a dead vehicle battery due to the dash camera running in parking mode.
   CON: You will no longer have parking mode recording, so no video will be record while the vehicle is off and parked.
    
2. Reduce the motion and impact sensitivity settings of the dash camera. This will reduce the frequency of video recordings and thus reduce the power consumption of the dash camera.
   PRO: Easiest *possible* solution without changing wiring or buying an expensive dash cam battery. But see below.
   CON: This may not solve the problem, as the camera is still drawing current from the vehicle battery and thus the warning very well may come back up. The other problem with this solution is you may not record an incident in parking mode because the sensitivity settings have been reduced to their lowest level, so the camera may not trigger during an event.
    
3. Purchase a dash camera battery (see our dash camera battery article HERE to understand what a dash camera battery is)
   PRO: 100% solution that will get rid of the warning message, and allow you to maintain full sensitivity parking mode functionality of your dash camera.
   CON: Cost for product + installation. Average price installed for a dash cam battery is $350 - $370 + HST