dpetrov

Hi folks,
this is my first post here and I hope it won't violate any forum rules.

I'm starting this topic on behalf of other colleague from Bulgarian's BMW forum. He is experiencing very strange and IMO serious issue with his bimmer.

During ride the car just stops with lot of warnings. Some of them are: "transmission failure", "drive control system failure", "Fuel pump or Fuel injectors malfunction" etc. This happened twice for last 10 days. In my opinion it's quite dangerous to drive in this condition. He tried to make some diagnostics, yet unfortunately there was nothing written within the computer warnings/errors. Like it never happened. (Only warnings/errors were recorded for each electrical component that were affected from this unexpected shut down - for example cruise control) We suspect a battery problem (or battery charger), since all the electrical components were affected at the same time, but we might be wrong (because he was able to start the engine immediately without any problems). I was wondering - Has anyone else experienced something like that? Any thoughts are more than welcome!

Looking forward,
Dani

Theo

These symptoms are typical of a dying battery, however the lack of a need to recharge before restarting seems at odds with this. I might very well be associated with problems within the electrical system, which is often better than electronics issues. Issue could be anything from a loose contact or fuse to a power module, hard to say.

I assume he tried to diagnose through the i-drive menu? In that case I'd have the car diagnosed by a dealer or specialist immediately, chances are that in that readout errors will be stored. Not very expensive and very useful in all probability...
Work from there.


Good luck.

emooo

Hello guys,

I am the owner of the car with the problem described above. Thanks to dpetrov for bringing my issue here. Theo, I checked the battery voltage through the hidden menu and it was showing 12.2V which is fine. I checked the alternator and it seems the alternator is working fine, because the after ignition the battery voltage rises to 14V. Today I brought the car to the diagnostics (not a official BMW dealer) and they told me there is no errors stored. I have no idea where to go from here.

Thanks.

Cabrio freak

+10000....
whit the bmw software they can read the error codes
hope that can help..succes and keep us updated

sanjsanj

[font="'Comic Sans MS"]Random errors happening at the same time, that sounds familier! Must be the battery is going bad. Change it.[/font]
[font="'Comic Sans MS"]How old is the battery btw? And what are your driving characteristics normally like?[/font]
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Sanj

emooo

The battery was changed 8 months ago but then I got problems with battery cable IBS sensor that was causing high battery discharge nightly. How can I check if battery is in a good condition? I am looking in hidden menu and I see the battery voltage is over 12V. Is that enough proof the battery is fine?

porsche911targa

Changing the battery without "registering" it may be the problem.

I don't know if I'll be able to explain it well, but hopefully others will be able to chime in and correct me.

As the battery ages, the computer tells the alternator to use more juice to recharge the battery and for longer. When you change the battery, the alternator will continue to work in higher mode unless you let it know that the car has received a new battery and it can stop working as hard.

I'm not sure if your battery is now damaged as a result, but you may want to start by having your dealer, or indy with the right software, register your battery with your onboard computer. Good luck.

emooo

The battery was changed at the dealer and properly registered.