Steve O

It's been 9 years since I wrote off my E34 535 and thought it was about time I became a 5 series owner again. Although with a new house, 2 kids & petrol twice the price, a E60 520 was the sensible option. In the one week I've had it, it's been great other than 1 journey, when the DSC failed.

Then this morning, I hear a car alarm going off. Not knowing what mine sounded like I just lay in bed till the other half said it was ours. I eventually managed to turn it off and got ready for work. I went back out to the car and the fob wouldn't open the doors. This happened on my old E34, so I knew it was the battery. The recovery van came out to jump start it and then all these "bing" sounds start coming out. The cruise control, airbags, seatbelt tensioning system, DSC, radio, elec windows, elec mirrors, steering wheel controls all failed. The 2 front doors also won't lock with the fob. The strangest one is the emergency wiper system coming on. The wipers are permanently on in this mode. I got some funny looks driving to the garage in the sunshine with the wipers on. It won't even spray screenwash to stop the squeaking. Luckly it was raining on the way home from work, so I looked like everyone else.

It's going in tomorrow and it is under warranty, but has anyone come across such a massive failure before. The recovery guy said something is draining the battery. Is it as simple as getting a reset after the battery going or something more serious.

Not the welcome back I was looking for.

snkpkp

happened to me in the third week, sometimes these cars sit in the lot so the batteries sort of go haywire, there is a battery controller which shuts down different modules of the car if it senses a weak battery, starts with the stuff that you might not need, sometimes there could be a source draining juice, just tell the dealer to check it thoroughly....you will be up and running in no time....its nothing

BMDiesel

so putting it back on power does not bring all the shut-down stuff up again?

strange recovery procedure there....

snkpkp

if battery Fully Charged for 12 hours = everything should go back to normal except for the airbag msgs which you have to do at the dealer

If jump started if then NO the battery remains weak so controller will still act up

Have the dealer Change the battery and tell them to take a look at the battery controller module

Moko

Could be worse you could have been on a 3 hour cross channel ferry from Scotland to Ireland when because of a flat battery everything shut down so the steering lock would not release, the auto would'nt go in to nutural so no chance to push it off the ferry or even drag it off.

So no choice but to endure another 3 hour trip back to scotland to be meet by a rescue truck who managed to get car moving and off the ferry, to then sit on the dock until 5.00am recharging the battery before getting the next ferry back to Ireland.

snkpkp

wow..... well in that case we should always carry an extra battery in the trunk lol...

Steve O

Got the car back today. They said jump starting the car is not recommended, as the modules can get spiked. Said I was lucky, as this may have caused ?2000 of damage. Unlike the recovery man, they couldn't find any drain on the battery.

They recommend just recharging the battery, but if you need to jump start it, switch on the heater blower & the lights before disconnecting the jump leads.

Thanks for the replies. Great forum, I think I'll stick around.