BMW E46 Starting Issue. Car will not crank: SOLVED

[Joey]

Got a call yesterday from the girly saying that her car would not start when she tried to go out at lunch time. Here are the symptoms...

• Car will not crank (no click or anything)
• All lights on the interior work

I have been doing some research and found several possibilities for the issue.

1. Bad Key (Tested with Spare- Not the issue)
2. Low Voltage in Battery (Swapped test battery in- Did not solve issue)
3. Starter is bad
4. Possible bad engine ground
5. Electrical issue

Since she has a valet key with her at all times i asked her to try that key out instead. This did not fix the problem, car would still not crank.

I think it may be the battery. Regardless of the interior lights being on, i learned that the voltage required to crank the starter is a lot more than required to give power to the lights, etc. Since the nights have been getting very cold here in the North East they may have taken a toll on the battery. Not sure if it was ever changed by the original owner.

Car was towed to a shop local to her as i was unable to get to the car yesterday at her work. Hoping they do a voltage test on the battery first to rule this possibility out.

Anyone ever have this issue or have any experience with such a problem? Any help or insight would be appreciated.

[ENVē]

I would say battery is definetely the issue. After you get the new battery take it to autozone or wherever you get the batttery and get the alternator tested to make sure its still doing its thing.

And if it fits try to find the Optima equivalent. Little more expensive but maitanence free and a really good battery for cold cranking amps every time.

[Extremesport3]

Joey - its the battery most likely. I had the same issue with my M... it seems to allow for lights and other low low voltage items to work but it doesnt have the juice to turn that damn starter. Go to autozone and grab one of the duralasts, thats what i did. Works great ever since.

Its weird because even if the car starts and the battery is shot, the car will run itself at half capacity for all the non-major functions. When my battery died i freaked and was puzzled as to what it could possibly be. The car would start with a jump, and any accessory i turned out would run to slowly or not at all i began to think the car was really messed up. BMW's have a way of making sure you can just make it home, safely.....

John

[Joey]

Thanks for the input guys. I am hoping it is the battery so we don't have to waste time or money getting it towed somewhere to diagnosis and fix it. Going to take a meter up there after work and test the battery. She did say one of her friends tried to jump her with no avail. I am not completely convinced though as they hooked it up directly to the battery in the trunk (mistake 1). I don't know if how long they let the car get juice for either. I have read cases where jump starting did not work with a particular car, but it still ended up being the battery.

Also going to check the battery terminals in the trunk and engine bay. I was doing a lot of maintenance earlier this month so there is a chance that one of the connections might have come loose. Hopefully one of these options fixes the car. I will keep you guys posted.

John, shoot me a call sometime soon. Think i am going to be in the market for a M in the near future.

[Extremesport3]

Joey - i have christmas parties tonight and tomorrow night. I can call you friday evening if your around - also im hoping to be at Adams house saturday to do a ton of crap on my M.... perhaps you can come by and help/watch/chill whatever!

Let me know - John

PS - glad to hear your looking for an M!!

[Joey]

Well, wanted to update this thread. I went to swap in my brothers battery yesterday and knew right by looking at the current battery that this was not going to fix the issue. The battery in the car looked new and was definitely replaced at some point (not the BMW battery). Regardless i strapped the test battery in to no avail. Car still wouldn't turn over.

Battery terminals in the trunk seemed fine as well as the posts in the engine bay. Now i am leaning toward the starter or some electrical issue. Most likely going to have it towed down to a shop to get it looked at.

[Joey]

UPDATE

Car is all fixed and back on the road. We ended up taking the car down to Ben @ Rogue Engineering to have him take a look. Ben had the car back on the road a day after the tow truck dropped it off. The issue ended up being a bad starter. Glad it is finally fixed and back on the road. Hopefully this is some good information for others in the future who might experience a similar problem.