BMW 2015 F30 - Cranks but won't start

[Matty1981]

Morning All.
Last night while out with the family for some food, my car decided it didn't want to start. Press the button and can see & hear it trying but then comes up with the warning to contact BMW. This happens every now and then and has done ever since I got the car 4yrs ago. But usually I turn the car off and then on again and it works. Not this time so had to push start it. After the meal, started fine. Got home, started the car a few times and fine and same again this morning with no issues. Just intermittent and frustrating.

Any ideas? Had it looked at before and they couldn't find anything wrong as it started so spent £100 for nothing.
Below youtube video shows what it does (this isn't my vid, but shows what happens)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bofLhNySzSo

[E-bmw]

That looks like there isn't enough power getting to the starter.

Could be many many things from goosed battery/starter/alternator to a simple loose terminal but as you mention it is intermittent there is one first check that will likely find the problem.

EVERY high power terminal from battery to alternator to starter including engine/gearbox chassis connection needs to be (ideally) removed, cleaned & re tightened.

I would expect you to find one is loose/corroded causing a poor connection intermittently.

[Matty1981]

Thank you. Will give it a go

[Matty1981]

UPDATE

Had a scoot around and couldn't see anything a miss (but I'm not the most car savvy person). Browsed other forums and they said it could also be:
- Key fob related (going to get a new battery for my fob today)
- Grounding issues

Car started perfect this morning then all of a sudden, brake rear brake light warning failure and then rear indicator warning. Tested indicator and the left one was going crazy. Pulled over and stuck the hazards on and all fine. Turned off hazards and then tested left and right indicators and all fine. Asked some bloke to stand at the back to ensure brake lights working and all fine too

I had my car washed by the local pols on Monday so wonder if they have done something. They did jet wash the sills in the boot so conscious a bit of water got into the battery

[anonymous-user]

Have you had the car battery tested?

[Matty1981]

Booked in with Kwik-Fit this afternoon from a free health check. Was going to just do it myself but as its free I thought I'd use them as its free

[E-bmw]

Matty1981 said:

Booked in with Kwik-Fit this afternoon from a free health check.

Just remember, they aren't doing a free health check, they are looking to see if they can sell you tyres/brakes/MOT/service/exhaust.

[d_a_n1979]

Matty1981 said:

Booked in with Kwik-Fit this afternoon from a free health check. Was going to just do it myself but as its free I thought I'd use them as its free

As E-BMW said; don't trust Kwik Fit... Even Halfrauds would be better

But see if you can find an independent car battery reseller or even a decent local indy garage and see what they say...

Take whatever Kwik Fit with a pinch of salt!

[bigdom]

Check the battery terminals are tight.

My mate had a similar issue a few months ago, turns out negative cable was slightly loose - as this has the IBS lead it will through up other issues. Battery was replaced about 18 months before and he had been nowhere near it after that.

It could also just need a new battery depending on how the car is used (short journeys) or left unused during the week?

[Matty1981]

UPDATE

Been Qwik-fit, they ran a test on the battery.
Battery Health = GOOD
Recharge = GOOD
Voltage = 12.02V
Measured = 543 EN(A)
Rating = 900 EN(A)

Said might be causing issues because I literally use the car to travel to and from work most days (approx 6 mile round trip) and weekends very rarely moves. So needs a nice long run.

[Matty1981]

bigdom said:

Check the battery terminals are tight.

My mate had a similar issue a few months ago, turns out negative cable was slightly loose - as this has the IBS lead it will through up other issues. Battery was replaced about 18 months before and he had been nowhere near it after that.

It could also just need a new battery depending on how the car is used (short journeys) or left unused during the week?

I'll give the cables a wiggle later.
Do about 6 miles a day Mon-Fri and nothing really over the weekend.

[d_a_n1979]

Matty1981 said:

UPDATE

Been Qwik-fit, they ran a test on the battery.
Battery Health = GOOD
Recharge = GOOD
Voltage = 12.02V
Measured = 543 EN(A)
Rating = 900 EN(A)

Said might be causing issues because I literally use the car to travel to and from work most days (approx 6 mile round trip) and weekends very rarely moves. So needs a nice long run.

That's a bit low IMO

You want around 12.54v when engine is off/car asleep and around 14.4v when the engine is running...

Personally I'd give it an Italian tune up once a week; buy a Cteck MXS5.0 charger and maybe look to fit a new battery for peace of mind (Tanya batteries will soon sort you out, Exide AGM won't be expensive at all; you just need to ensure you register it to the car)

[Matty1981]

d_a_n1979 said:

That's a bit low IMO

You want around 12.54v when engine is off/car asleep and around 14.4v when the engine is running...

Personally I'd give it an Italian tune up once a week; buy a Cteck MXS5.0 charger and maybe look to fit a new battery for peace of mind (Tanya batteries will soon sort you out, Exide AGM won't be expensive at all; you just need to ensure you register it to the car)

Thanks Dan. Will check them out

[steve_n]

That battery is dead/dying. Only 60% of the cold cranking power and the voltage is beyond low. Time for a new one.

[anonymous-user]

Battery needs an idle test so checked first thing in the morning for a really good picture of its health.

Definitely time for a new battery and as said before, Tayna are the best company.

[Matty1981]

pocketspring said:

Battery needs an idle test so checked first thing in the morning for a really good picture of its health.

Definitely time for a new battery and as said before, Tayna are the best company.

I'll stick my voltage meter on it before I head to work in the AM. Supposed to be a right faff changing it

[d_a_n1979]

Matty1981 said:

pocketspring said:

Battery needs an idle test so checked first thing in the morning for a really good picture of its health.

Definitely time for a new battery and as said before, Tayna are the best company.

I'll stick my voltage meter on it before I head to work in the AM. Supposed to be a right faff changing it

Just a couple of bits of trim and that's it...

But you need to register it to the car; something like the Creator C410 for c£50 on Amazon will do the job and it's a good good code reader too...

But if you fit a larger battery to the car; you'll need it coding. There's a difference

If unsure; get a local battery specialist to sort it for you

[E-bmw]

Matty1981 said:

pocketspring said:

Battery needs an idle test so checked first thing in the morning for a really good picture of its health.

Definitely time for a new battery and as said before, Tayna are the best company.

I'll stick my voltage meter on it before I head to work in the AM. Supposed to be a right faff changing it

Anything under 12.3 volts needs further investigation.

A fully charged good battery should read 12.6v or slightly more, every 0.1v under that is up to 20% loss of charge.

[bigdom]

Matty1981 said:

I'll give the cables a wiggle later.
Do about 6 miles a day Mon-Fri and nothing really over the weekend.

Agree with everything above, battery is not well. I have the CTEK charger Dan recommended in his reply to you. I've used on motorbikes for years. Since covid, and home working my cars mileage have dropped over 20k a year. My local BMW specialist changes loads of batteries now for that reason.

There is a recovery function on the CTEK you can use once a year, it may help a bit, but it might have gone past the point of no return.

Changing the battery is easy < 5 minutes. It just needs registering to the car, or it will continue to charge it at the old rate it's doing now and it will kill that battery prematurely.

[Matty1981]

pocketspring said:

Battery needs an idle test so checked first thing in the morning for a really good picture of its health.

Definitely time for a new battery and as said before, Tayna are the best company.

Started the car this morning and popped the voltage meter on and got 15.26V.

As weird as it sounds, after Qwik-Fit had it yesterday the head unit seemed to have reset the settings. Saved stations had gone and sat nav went back to default. This morning, everything back to normal. I think the universe is telling me to get a new car. Was hoping to get another year out of it. Problem being, 2nd hand car prices are ridiculous at the moment and don't get much for your money.

Edited by Matty1981 on Thursday 2nd March 07:46