Hello everyone my name is Mario, I’m new to the club. I own an e46 m3 and a s1000r. Quick intro. I have an issue with my dads e64 640ci wondering if I can get some insight or help with it. This one has me pretty stumpy at the moment since I can’t seem to find the issue. Complaint: Car does not start right away, takes a few tries when battery is fully charged but recently is just hasn’t started at all. I changed the starter since he didn’t wait for me to diagnose and just bought the part and nothing, still same issues. We put a fresh battery in it and it started up fairly well then we let it sit for about an hour to try again and nothing. We put the jump starter on it from engine bay terminals and it starts right up. He took it to a place to check the alternator and they said it was working. Has anyone had this issue before? We’re busy with work so it just sits meanwhile but we would really like to get it up n running to be able to drive it. Thank you all who can help and took the time to read this. Have a great day!
I wish I knew something specific to help. Kinda sounds to me like a problem with the car's electronics, something interfering with the voltage being passed through to the starter. Given these modern BMW's electronics, can-bus systems, modules, etc. etc. & complexity, diagnosis is a mixed bag but can be very challenging. If it's something simple, great, but how to figure that out - eek. One thing, the batteries on BMW's circa post-2005 & on need the 'registration' procedure to match the car's system & charging to the battery. I don't think that means you get the kinds of malfunction you're seeing if it didn't get registered, but battery life is substantially compromised if it doesn't get registered, so that would be worth doing sooner rather than later if this model BMW requires that. Because of how tightly-knit the car's electronics & battery are, if a battery's old (6-7 yrs., variably), modern BMW's can show all kinds of wonky inexplicable things happening if the battery is at the end of its life. Swapping in a new battery presumably covers that angle, even I'd suspect if not registered (full voltage when new is still full voltage, right?). Which, moving along, makes me think something like maybe an issue with one of the car's electronic system modules related to the starting circuits. The first thing to start with probably would be get a reading of any error codes thrown & see if that offers some guidance towards resolution. There are simple code-readers, best bet would probably be a shop with a pro one that can read all codes, etc., or a BMW dealer.
I have a couple of scanners. I used Inpa and Carly for bmw pro. I registered the battery a few times. I have no error codes. The only code I get is about the Evap valve (can’t remember the exact code for the life of me so I must apologies) but no codes other than that one. I still have not gotten around to do any further diag.
When the vehicle doesn't start is the car electrically dead meaning turn key in the ignition and nothing lights up? When cranking does the instrument cluster light up and the starter doesn't turn? If the vehicle is electrically dead and keeps going dead could be a major system draw on the battery. The vehicle would need to have a draw test done to see it the amps are too high. If the vehicle has good electrical power could be multiple things like a bad key not sending the random code. The CAS module not sending the starter signal to the starter.
