My car is dead, Help!

[NateB26]

Ok, so im driving over to my friends tonight and all of a sudden all the sound from my stereo shuts off, but you can see on the cd deck the cd is still playing, just the sound went off. I pull into a parking lot to try to mess with it, turn my car off, then when i go to restart it it wont start. It tried to crank over once, couldn't make it, then just started clicking every other time i tried to start it. I checked the battery connection and everything was tight, no corrosion or dirt. I tried to jump start it... nothing. Now its not even trying to crank over or clicking, just nothing. All my lights still turn on, windows roll down and up and my heater works as well. I cant figure out what this could be. The only thing is that i had a new cd deck installed last week, its just a sony xplod deck, not very powerful, i dont know what this could be but hopefully somebody can help.... by the way my car is an 89 535i automatic

[Brewtech]

call the previous owner and ask if they know what's going on? Could be an aftermarket killswitch or alarm issue.

[attack eagle]

soundslikea voltage issue. what is the battery voltage?

[HausBimmer]

Search this site for the "fusible link" issue. There are typically two, one under the hood and one under the rear seat. See if they can prevent starting - it sounds like you are losing the amp in the trunk, but not the deck in the dash, so only part of your electrical system is going South. Automatics have a no start electical interlock - I was reading about jumpering it when you do the manual trans swap - this is where I would begin anyway.

[Binjammin]

It sounds like a bad voltage regulator in the alternator. It would keep your car from charging while you're driving down the road. So far as jumping the car goes, get a better set of jumper cables. Most of them have REALLY bad clamps that don't make a decent enough connection to justify their existence.

I'm guessing there wasn't enough voltage to the factory amp for it to stay turned on, but the head unit you installed isn't as sensitive to voltage drops.

[Dizzy5]

I found that an after market alarm killed the stater. I ran a wire up from the solenoid that I could touch to the positive lug to start until I figured out exactly what was going on. I had it tied off close to the lug. I had to pop the hood to start it. Once I completely removed the thing it was back to normal. One more thing that might help on starting. I found that if I disconnected the battery for a while it would go ahead and start normal for a short time. Hope this helps. I know it could be a lot of other things. My car is a 89 535im, good luck.

[NateB26]

Yea, we pretty much narrowed it down to the starter as the main problem. It wouldnt jump, but my battery is still fully charged, so you think my aftermarket deck could kill my starter like your alarm did? Once i removed the back seat i could see that it also had an aftermarket alpine alarm system that i never knew was there. U think i should just replace the deck or what?