Completely Dead Car
 

Hey Everyone,

New to the forum but not new to more problems with my car! This one was an odd one, I woke up to my car completely dead yesterday. I had to manually insert the key to open the door. When I tried to start it, nothing happened. There was no crank, no electronics turned on, the light that shows what gear the car is in was gone. From what I can remember, I could not hear a humming sound coming from the fuel pump. So I decided to call AAA and get the car jumped and it started up just fine. The guy said the voltage was low on the battery and that we need to change it. It has been exactly 4 years with this battery and it hasn't shown any sign of needing to be replaced. Another odd thing was that I could not open any of the other doors besides the driver door from the inside, so I kept climbing over the other side to check to see if any fuses where gone.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what the problem is I would happy to hear that, based on my googling it is the starter. The car started up this morning with no problem.

Thank You!

Your battery was completely dead (below 10v). Charge it up then have it tested at a parts place - most offer free battery testing. If it fails, you need a new one. The starter motor isn't your problem. How cold was it when it died?

agreed. you think it is not the battery but 90% chance it is.

1. car completely dead
2. AAA jump starts car
3. after jump start, car runs normally

you need a battery.

Battery

[QUOTE=srj;1598940

If anyone has any suggestions as to what the problem is I would happy to hear that, based on my googling it is the starter. The car started up this morning with no problem.

Thank You![/QUOTE]
Your problem is the battery. It won't be long before the car doesn't start again. You say that you had no signs that the battery was going bad, but actually the door lock problem was the first sign. Also, 4 years on a battery is about average, especially for the E60s.

As somebody mentioned take the battery to an auto parts store or even Walmart. They will not only check the battery they will charge it for free if it is in fact low at the time. After charging they will recheck the battery with a load tester to confirm whether the fault is the battery or something else. This is the first thing you must do. Every other troubleshooting will be based on the battery test.