fivefeezy

Hey guys!

I wanted to see if any if you guys could help me out here. Long story short, I was driving up the 5 freeway from LA to SF and my car died smack right in the middle of the 5 freeway 170 miles out of SF.

I was driving my 2004 545i and it started having electrical problems, the ABS lights when on, active steering, my lights inside the car started flickering and the IDrive just completely shut off! I safely pulled over to the side of the road and shut down the car. The battery light flashed before all the lights just shut off. I got it towed to Pheadues BMW (for all you sf guys that might know of them) the next morning on a flatbed. For the last 2 or 3 days, they can't figure out what the problem is. They said the battery now is charging up completely normal, the alterator is charging and working fine, and they seemed to be completely stumped on what the problem is! They let it run idle in the shop for a couple hrs yesterday and its seemed like its working fine now they said. Do you guys recommend anything to have them check it out to see what the source of the problem is?

I know many of you guys on this board are very knowledgable and i would appreciate any help! thanks so much guys!!

Nick

pjinca

Sounds like your alternator went Kaput and the battery lasted as long as it could on it's own then died without getting charged. Happened to me when I was going from Miami back to NY on 95, battery light came on in North Carolina and the car died in Virginia (luckily coasted all the way into a SERVICE station - which are rare on 95, most gas stations are gas and chips only). Good luck
Alternator froze up and the battery (an Optima yellow) lasted a couple hundred miles more.

fivefeezy

They claimed to say its working normal now and fully working? My car is out of warrenty, is this an expensive fix? Thanks

navin

Same thing happened to me, it was the alternator that needed to be changed. It kept behaving similar to your situation every now and then but would work like normal once the car was started up again.
It went away once my dealer replaced the alternator, there were no error codes stored either because the system basically wiped itself out every time to the extent that my smg shifting needed to be reprogrammed.

navin

I was told that the alternator was causing a higher voltage to go to the controllers/computers which was causing it to shutdown the entire system to prevent from frying itself, It was working as normal otherwise.
Hope this helps.

mos12osut

In addition to changing out your altenator you should also have your IBS sensor checked,and or replaced.It's the little red wire on your negative battery cable,that sensor relays all of the car info(codes) to the on board computer.These sensors have a tendency to malfunction in the 2004 5- series cars.

sdg1871

That sux bro.

It does sound like an alternator malfunction to me.

v_therussian

Another one for alternator. Maaaaybe the battery, don't know about the IBS sensor - not familiar with it. But from the little that I do know, its the alternator.

Good Luck fixin' her

Barny2010

I had a similar issues on my 3 series. Several times the car just cut out same, lights on lost power coast to halt! Changed battery, checked charging everything looked fine. Finally tracked the issue down to the electronics on the Alternator. Not sure if the 5 is the same but 320 had 2 types of alternator, the cheap kind and the expensive...you can guess which one I had! Apparently this has some kind of clever electronics, to work out when to charge and when not, some kind of power saving when engine in overun or braking.

Anyway, it would sometimes work fine no issues, then sometimes click nothing! Disconnected the electronics (different plug to the rest) and hey presto worked great for a few months! Then needed to replace the entire alternator! Sadly new, not cheap, so got one second hand refurbished fitted myself issues solved!

pjinca

If it turns out to be the alternator PM me and we can arrange to get together and I'll change it for you.