Another strange 330 problem.

Hi Again. If a weak battery is the the cause. a check with a high rate discharge tester should show if the battery is at fault. IME a garage will do the check for free. Mike.

Mike,

Excuse my ignorance but what does "IME" stand for?

G.S.

In My Experience. As the check usually only takes a couple of minutes, no doubt garages do it for free in the expectation of selling you a new battery

I have owned a load tester for over 10 years, and have found it invaluable in deciding whether a battery needs replacing or a starting problem is elsewhere. Mike.

Just to add to my erlier reply, you may find the following site useful.

I'm curious to know why the starter doesn't engage, though. Most cars will do this with a near flat battery. And this wasn't the case as a short charge had them start normally.

I THINK that model has a feature that means it'll shut off electrical loads so that there's always enough charge to start the car. I know I read that but it may have been relation to a newer model.

Modern BMWs give very little warning of a bad battery. One morning they just refuse to crank and keep doing it until you replace the battery.

in article snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk, Dave Plowman (News) at snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk wrote on 2/2/09 6:19 AM:

Fords have an electric quirk .. that all 6 cells of the battery have to be hot and running ... so test with a hydrometer thingy the specific gravity of the battery cells and see if one is dead. 5 hot cells will not do it and you get game on like you are seeing.

Ford Diesel is the same way dispite the use of two 65 amp battery and 12 cells to test ... one is out .. bad news bears .. .need all 130 amps of cranking power to turn over the diesel engine with glow plugs up and the oil heater on.

Check this stuff out is my first suggestion ... if cell is burned out and dead, fix is to replace the battery so you have a fully hot charge going on per factory specs ... then it will start up licky split is that is the problem.

sumbuddie wear blind sea

:?

Modern BMWs just don't seem to do that. I've seen a few with dead batteries over the years.

When the OEM battery went south after 3 1/2 years on my Z3, there was no warning whatsoever. After being parked for 30 minutes after a one hour drive, the dash lights came on as normal, but everything went dead as soon the starter was engaged. As we were in the Canadian Rockies at the time, I was able to bump start it and (just barely) limp to a local garage. Tom

I know this isn't the same but it might help someone. I have a 1988 735i. I don't know how old the battery is but I bought the car used from family and I've had it 7 years without any trouble. I stopped driving it since I was staying with family and used their van. After 8 to ten days, the battery was bone dead. I couldn't even open the door locks without lifting up really hard on the handle as I turned the key, since I had locked it manually. I finally got in and we charged it up. I ran it for 20 minutes each day for 4 days which I thought was enough but a week later it was stone dead again. The manual says the battery is under the read seat like old VW bugs but I'm not about to tear the leather to check it. I'll have the shop look at it. From my experience, when batteries start dying, they don't hold charges anymore for more than a day or so.

The one on my 528 did exactly the same. But after charging it externally it still wouldn't 'work' - it had a very dead cell. In the cases I'm talking about a short charge gets it going again.

It could make some sense to have sensing which stopped you absolutely flattening the battery - but then it would need to operate on the lights etc as well.

The rear seat is VERY easy to remove. It's held by two catches about 9" in from each side of the seat base where the seat meets the carpet. Just insert a screwdriver a few inches and pry it upwards. Do that to eash side then just pull the seat base forwards :-)