Hi
My friend has a BMW 318 ci reg 02 with only 30k on clock.
She returned from weeks holiday(car parked at airport) and whislt driving home the car lost all power and battery light came on. The car eventually started again and she return home
She took car into BMW dealer who check battery and alternator. They found battery had low charge so re-charge and said should be ok.
But one day this week whilst driving the battery light came on and the car had no power for a few seconds then it started again. She booked car into dealer again.
Does car need new battery? BMW dealer said alternator ok, so why no power? This is dangerous to lose power especially on a motorway!
Any advise welcome.
Noel
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My son had similar experiences 02 Series 3 - going along fine - then dashboard lights up and car dies.
AA diagnosed as faulty exhaust sensor and towed him to dealer.
BMW garage looked at it and said that the engine management software needed updating £170 approx.
Next day it died on outside lane of mway - again towed in by AA
Exhaust sensor changed and bill for £210 although they agreed that £170 bill was unnecessary & their fault and then they agreed no charge.
My son now has a Lexus - all down to poor BMW servicing Dealer - this was not an isoalted case on poor service - it lasted 3 years.
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I don't think we have the whole story here. It sounds more like the engine is shutting down and stalls thus the battery light will come on. Although you say the dealer though the battery had a low charge. This sounds like an electrical fault elsewhere. The ECU should have recorded under or over voltage if the ECU was powered during the engine shut down. Regards Peter
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If she managed to re-start the car on both occassions then it sounds like the battery and charging system are OK.
Could be some kind of engine-management related failure or just bad main earth somewhere. Stored fault codes should be a help...
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Hi
I will check with my friend, as when this first happened she was on motorway. She said that the car died and then the battery light came on and she had to coast into the hard shoulder. But it did start up after a while.
I did say to her that ECU would register a fault,but she didnt say what BMW said it was to her.
Thanks for information, she has warranty on her car so I'll tell her to keep going back until they sort it.
Noel
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It`s a sad indication of Main Dealer spanner monkeys being incapable of accurately diagnosing faults, and so keep changing parts until the problem is finally fixed.
This scenario is bad enough when the vehicle is under warranty, but is totally unacceptable when the customer is expected to foot the bill for their incompetence.!!!!!
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noel
There seems to be some confusion in the dealer's mind about this battery light coming on. [I wonder how much the poor tech trying to fix it has been told?] When an engine is still rotating, if it loses the ignition-switch feed for any reason, then the still-charging alternator back-feeds through the warning bulb and it lights.
The symptom is indicating a wide-ranging loss of an ignition switch feed for a few seconds. That's what needs investigating; not the alternator. It could well be the switch contacts themselves overheating; or, just possibly, a relay or circuit fault.
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I have seen a few of these 3 series (e46 models)with intermittant non start and loss of electrics and the problem has been a faulty ignition switch.Fortunately they are not very expensive (about £30 )and not too difficult to fit,around 1/2 hour.
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Spot on ,happened to my son on his e46 coupe no end of tests at agent could provid the result until an independant said "common
fault ignition switch" and hey presto.
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