No Onions

So I'm driving and all the sudden everyone's favorite bell sound goes off and I look at the idrive screen and it says dynamic stability control failure. I pull over and turn off the car for a minute, then back on and no errors on the screen, so I continue to drive. All the sudden it shows a transmission failure, then dynamic stability control failure and the flat tire monitor failure, back to back to back. Then the idrive screen goes completely blank and then comes back on with the transmission failure again, then blacks out, then back on again. I pull over knowing that something is seriously wrong and turn the car off again, then back on and everything seems like it's gravy again. I drive and all of the above happens again, plus the car is shifting weird, then holds in 3rd gear without upshifting. I flip the shifter to manual mode to try to upshift and nothing happens. My speedometer goes from 40mph to zero, then a few seconds later back to 40, and it continues to drop and then go back, and each time it does this the air conditioning shuts off. By the time I got home from this crazy 12 mile drive I had the following errors pop up on the screen:
flat tire monitor failure
transmission failure
dynamic stability control failure
abs failure
increased emmissions
active steering failure
check engine light is now on
then the speedo and A/C issues


What the fuck is my car smoking? This one's going to be expensive....

skelevirus

It's your battery or alternator there's a bunch of threads about this

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can you link me to one or several of them? i don't know what to search for in the search function.

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nevermind, just found a thread. thanks.

btw, what does a new alternator cost?

subarashi

Sorry to hear this dude. It's your battery failing - why it's failing is anyones guess - either age related (mine lasted three years before it started doing funny things) or an alternator issue. If it's the battery, there's a number of threads on using non OEM ones though my advice is to stick with a BMW battery for a variety of reasons. This is a costly venture but worth it in the long run. If it's the alternator, you will need diagnostics and then a major replacement - your looking at costs in the thousands at least...

GL...

S

skelevirus

^+1

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a new alternator is several thousand dollars?

DKNewYork

It's the alternator. Had the same problem 2 years ago. I replaced the battery first, then a couple of months it happened again. Then brought it to the SA and they replaced it under warranty. I take it you're not under warranty anymore.

On realoem.com, they list it at $748.89.

http://www.realoem.c...198&hg=12&fg=20

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any idea what the labor will run? is replacing the alternator pretty straight forward or does this take a ton of hours?

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http://www.bavauto.com/se1.asp?dept_id=35

$664 on that site.