Help! my X1 has 20 min to 3 hour power outages.

[marceire]

Hi there, first time posting.

My 2014 X1 has started having power outages.
They typically happen at the point the engine stops, either when it auto-stops at a stop light, or when I park and cut the ignition.
All the power dies, you can't lock the car, roll-up windows, etc.
You can't start the car. Nothing that requires power works.

After, 20min to several hours the power will just come back by itself.
This has happened 5 times now a 4 month period, twice at stop lights, three times in parking lots.
It seems to be triggered when the power in the car has to switch to battery because the engine is no longer generating power. Just guessing here.

After the last time where it recovered after 40mins, I brought it to an official BMW dealer but because the issue is intermittent they did not encounter it and were not able to diagnose.
Their suggestion is to wait until it happens again and have the vehicle towed to them.
This is not a great solution as it involves driving around fearful that the car will fail, then calling AAA and praying that the outage lasts the trip to the dealer and stays broken during the delay before they can look at it.
It could be 12 months and 12 failures before the stars align and they get to see the issue happening.

Would value advice on how to proceed with this.
I have googled extensively but do not see others with this issue.
I assume because the car dies and comes back that this is caused by a component that monitors power and that is deciding to shut it off and also to bring it back when it's happy all is OK.
I am not a mechanic, so this is just speculation.

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

[MarcoZandrini]

How old is the battery? I’d remove the battery cables and thoroughly clean both the battery posts and the cable connectors. Then, I’d reinstall the battery cables (positive first) and make sure that the cable connectors are absolutely tight-no movement when attempting to twist the connectors. If that doesn’t solve the problem I’d replace the battery.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

I've had very similar issues on my car. It first happened after filling up with fuel, got back to the car and in my rush, my fingers slipped on the key as I was trying to start it - the starter turned for a split second. I slowed down, turn the keys to completely off and then slowly turned to try and start. The starter motor would turn but the car would not fire up. After 5 mins of trying, I stopped. I pushed the car to a safe area and left it there for a couple hours (my premises were 400 yards away). Came back and the car started right away. Happened again some months later and I left it an hour, came back and it started. Over a period of about 18 months/2 years, it happened here and there to the point I worked out that after 20 minutes, I could re-start it.

My key then stopped working and my theory is now that the rolling key security code mis-matches when trying to start. After that period of time, they 're'sync' back up and the car will start.

The difference is that your's stops the car fully, no electrics at all, whereas on my car, I could still roll windows, listen to radio etc. From that, I'd also suspect a loose connection on some of the electronic modules for the keys etc (EWS is it? I'm no mechanic either!!) Mine is an E39 and yours a much newer X1. I suspect also with the extra layer of complication with the 'stop/start' feature, that could be the first place to try to look at etc.

Cheers, Dennis!