key in ignition

Funny thing happened the other day... I put the key in the ignition and turned the key and it just turned freely forwards and back. I took the key out, pondered a bit, put it back in, turned and this time it worked. Can someone enlighten me, I'm guessing it is a security feature but how is it enabled, do I need to have something checked, does the key need to be recoded, batteries replaced?

Thanks Maurice '95 740i

Reply to
Maurice
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I'm guessing it is not a security feature, but rather is a sign of impending total failure.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

I don't know the answer to the other problems, but I think you'll find that when the battery needs replacing, it tells you on the cars display. Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

My 98 M3 has been doing the same thing for about 2.5 years. No impending failure just a worn out mechanism. If you wiggle the steering wheel a bit it will catch - or just turn the key back and forth a bit and it will catch as well. Probably not worth the money to fix since it is not really broken.

JM

Maurice wrote:

Reply to
jmiller0666

Yes, it's a security feature, no it's not a problem. When it happens, just do what you done before.

Reply to
Leroy

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