Hi all, first time posting and looking for help! I have a 2005 e60, drives fine. I commute circa 20 miles each way to work every day. Car start fine in the mornings and evenings when I leave but if after arriving at work or at home in the evening I try and start the car again it has nothing. Key goes in, clutch goes down but instead of cranking it just goes into the stage 2 menu. Lights, radio and everything else works fine. Only error message is the 'increased battery discharge' (which has always come on intermittently throughout the 5 years I've had the car...) Had a battery change about 18 months ago with no issue until now. Nothing else has been altered that would affect it so I'm at a complete loss. Weird thing is, if I leave it over night or throughout the day it'll start with no issue (other than the 'discharge message) but try and use it within a couple of hours after my commute and all I can do is access the menu! If I take the car on a short run (say for fuel) its usually fine, it seems to be the longer journeys that it strangely doesn't like... Any ideas?

 

I had a similar behavior with mine that ended up being a bad starter relay. Try hooking up a light bulb between the starter relay and starter to see if it's your starter relay or your starter.

A couple other threads about random no-turn-no-starts involved a bad crankshaft sensor and a bad clutch pedal sensor.

 

Thanks flagrant2, I will certainly try this as that would make complete sense.