zimguy

Hi All

I am really sorry for making this urgent but I am desparate and have to have this sorted by Friday.

Problem is - Car cranks but will only fire up 1 time out of 30 to 50 attempts. It went from completely fine to doing this and throwing up nearly 2 pages of errors on the iDrive.

Have killed 1 battery trying to start it and am now on my 2nd new one.

The garage (a specialist) has had my car in and out for 5 weeks, these guys are great, but they are pulling their hair out and I have run out of money. We keep thinking we have nailed it, and then it dies again.

In addition to not starting, the iDrive faults that have come up from nowhere are :
- Transmission fault
- Stability control failure
- Cruise control failure
- Drive control system fault
- Fuel pump.....and the list goes on and on

Work done to try and resolve this so far:
- Usual diagnostics and code clearing ..many many times.
- Full set of new heater plugs and heater plug controller replacement.
- new battery
- Main ecu removed, sent for testing, no fault found
- Main ecu plug pins showing signs of corrosion, all the pins replaced with BMW original parts.

None of this has solved it despite weeks of effort.

At one point just after doing the ECU pins, the car ran perfectly for 5 days without a single fault...and then from nowhere it went crazy again. Yesterday managed to run it on and off all day, today it was dead again.

I have managed to spot a couple of indications on the dash which give me a clue if the car is getting the right signals at that moment and will start, which is great because I dont need to crank it and kill my battery and starter motor so I just sit there flicking the key repeatedly between off and ignition lights until I things look normal . I stopped counting after 60 this morning and i think I managed to fire it up shortly after (around 65 attempts)

Once running, its fine and usually the faults are not present, sometimes 1 or 2 hang around..its different each time.

Once warm the car pretty much starts most times, about 1 in 3 attempts.

Please can anyone help or advise...it is hugely critical that I have this fixed by Friday and I have run out of time and money

Car is a 2004/5 5.30d auto with 86k miles on the clock and prior to this had no problems at all.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can advise me out of this mess.

Trinity Autosport

Does this issue happen only at cold starts?

zimguy

Hi TrinityAuto

Its much worse in cold starts, can take upward of 40/50 attempts.

When warm its better but not always perfect. It either fires up first time or it can take a few cranks....usually starts 1 out of 3 or 4 times.

It gets more difficult as the car cools after a drive.

zimguy

Anyone else able to offer anything on this one? Im about to go to my garage to see if they have an update.

chris_marron535

alternator?

Trinity Autosport

I was thinking it might be a starter or alternator.

H F

,, Usally when u get multiple errors like that its the alternator..

H F

Does the motor turn,,, or does it just click...

zimguy

Yes, the motor turns every time it just does not fire up.

Do you guys know how I can get the alternator tested? Is this a BMW thing or should my specialist garage have the correct kit?

So the alternator would influence signals being sent all over the vehicle even without the car being started or trying to charge?

thomassteen

Can not be alternator if I am understanding you correct. You say that you turn the ignition on and off without cranking the engine until you get the indicators you expect in the dash. If this is the case, then the alternator is not doing anything since it is not rotating.

What are the indicators in the dash when it is good and bad?