E60 starting issue

[crankedup5]

Once again my 550i is refusing to start, press the start button and nothing happens. Had this issue on and off for about a month now. Replaced the starter battery the other week and all fine until this morning.
I get the dreaded yellow warning light on dash showing steering wheel with padlock through it most likely the CAS unit, although BMW Indie suggests replace my ignition key.

Any suggestions just how much money this unit is going to cost, just so I don’t call over in the dealership when they give me a quote.

[shakindog]

Start with the basics
Check battery voltage,starter and all the earths before going all in on expensive modules.
As if changing the battery cured it for a while I’d say it’s more likely something wiring related that was over come by new battery in better condition than old one so able to over come whatever the issue is
Far more knowledgeable folk than me will be along shortly

[crankedup5]

Thanks Shakin, my son came over to have a quick look, checked battery voltage at 12.9. I have stuck a optimiser trickle charger on just to see if that makes a difference to the voltage.
The BMW Indie garage re-set the fault codes back to zero, I don’t understand much about this stuff but I’m sure I read somewhere that re-set will allow the car to be started a number of times until a limit is reached. I think my car has reached that limit.
Garage suggested a new key, that about £200 so if it’s not fixing the fault it’s pointless. I really don’t want to go down the road on a try this / try that route costing hundreds of pounds a pop.

[d_a_n1979]

crankedup5 said:

Thanks Shakin, my son came over to have a quick look, checked battery voltage at 12.9. I have stuck a optimiser trickle charger on just to see if that makes a difference to the voltage.
The BMW Indie garage re-set the fault codes back to zero, I don’t understand much about this stuff but I’m sure I read somewhere that re-set will allow the car to be started a number of times until a limit is reached. I think my car has reached that limit.
Garage suggested a new key, that about £200 so if it’s not fixing the fault it’s pointless. I really don’t want to go down the road on a try this / try that route costing hundreds of pounds a pop.

Is that at idle or engine off?

Idle you want c14.4v, engine off, c12.4v - any less than that & you'll have issues, more so when its cold...

It could be key fob/EWS issues; plenty of info re Google on that

But you could do to get it plugged into ISTA if you can find someone local with that to see what's going on / show the live data etc

[crankedup5]

d_a_n1979 said:

crankedup5 said:

Thanks Shakin, my son came over to have a quick look, checked battery voltage at 12.9. I have stuck a optimiser trickle charger on just to see if that makes a difference to the voltage.
The BMW Indie garage re-set the fault codes back to zero, I don’t understand much about this stuff but I’m sure I read somewhere that re-set will allow the car to be started a number of times until a limit is reached. I think my car has reached that limit.
Garage suggested a new key, that about £200 so if it’s not fixing the fault it’s pointless. I really don’t want to go down the road on a try this / try that route costing hundreds of pounds a pop.

Is that at idle or engine off?

Idle you want c14.4v, engine off, c12.4v - any less than that & you'll have issues, more so when its cold...

It could be key fob/EWS issues; plenty of info re Google on that

But you could do to get it plugged into ISTA if you can find someone local with that to see what's going on / show the live data etc

Thanks for input.
The voltage reading was with engine off, I will Google for the fob/EWS issues.
Thanks again.

[crankedup5]

We had the car on the trickle charger for a few hours, tried to start the engine and it worked perfectly. Took a voltage reading with engine running and it registered an input of 15.3 volts. So that system seems fine.
Could it be simply my short journeys of 4/5 miles round trip with heater on just not charging the battery enough?

[d_a_n1979]

crankedup5 said:

We had the car on the trickle charger for a few hours, tried to start the engine and it worked perfectly. Took a voltage reading with engine running and it registered an input of 15.3 volts. So that system seems fine.
Could it be simply my short journeys of 4/5 miles round trip with heater on just not charging the battery enough?

Hmmm voltage seems a little high to me, that could be alternator issues

Does your car have the IBS system fitted?

With 12.9v at engine off, that's more than enough to start the car really...

[crankedup5]

d_a_n1979 said:

crankedup5 said:

We had the car on the trickle charger for a few hours, tried to start the engine and it worked perfectly. Took a voltage reading with engine running and it registered an input of 15.3 volts. So that system seems fine.
Could it be simply my short journeys of 4/5 miles round trip with heater on just not charging the battery enough?

Hmmm voltage seems a little high to me, that could be alternator issues

Does your car have the IBS system fitted?

With 12.9v at engine off, that's more than enough to start the car really...

It’s strange isn’t it, the alternator output I assumed was it working at max to get the charge into the battery quickly. Yes the car has the IBS system.

Car with old battery and cold weather, was non crank no start.
Replace battery car starts fine for about ten days.
Today non crank no start in cold weather.
Trickle charge battery and car starts perfectly.

All very odd.

[Huskyman]

Did you code the new battery to the car? That might explain the high voltage at idle, try that and see if that sorts the starting issues

[crankedup5]

Huskyman said:

Did you code the new battery to the car? That might explain the high voltage at idle, try that and see if that sorts the starting issues

The battery was fitted by an established well regarded BMW Indie. I can’t imagine that they failed to code & register the new battery. I will double check with them tomorrow.
Thanks for suggestion.

[hman]

https://bmwrepairguide.com/bmw-e60-battery-sensor-...

worked on mine

[d_a_n1979]

crankedup5 said:

d_a_n1979 said:

crankedup5 said:

We had the car on the trickle charger for a few hours, tried to start the engine and it worked perfectly. Took a voltage reading with engine running and it registered an input of 15.3 volts. So that system seems fine.
Could it be simply my short journeys of 4/5 miles round trip with heater on just not charging the battery enough?

Hmmm voltage seems a little high to me, that could be alternator issues

Does your car have the IBS system fitted?

With 12.9v at engine off, that's more than enough to start the car really...

It’s strange isn’t it, the alternator output I assumed was it working at max to get the charge into the battery quickly. Yes the car has the IBS system.

Car with old battery and cold weather, was non crank no start.
Replace battery car starts fine for about ten days.
Today non crank no start in cold weather.
Trickle charge battery and car starts perfectly.

All very odd.

As said above; code the battery to the car again, unless the batter spec changed and then it needs registering to the car

And I'd say the IBS is failing/has failed and needs replacing

[crankedup5]

Thank you both for contributions and a very useful link.

[Collectingbrass]

I had similar symptoms with an E63 645. It turned out to be the earth strap connection at the starter / alternator, item 2 here https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=EH72...

[crankedup5]

^^^^^^
Thanks
No crank & no start again today having given the battery a overnight trickle charge up to its maximum capacity. It’s on its way back to the BMW indie now, they are saying and did say on previous visit the key fob is borked. So that’s the next move. Then As previously suggested here I will replace the IBS.
When this car is working it’s a brilliant car, the manual gearbox with a wavetrac diff makes it awesome to drive. Such a shame that currently it’s spoilt with these electronic gremlins.