I removed my negative battery cable for 5 minutes and now my Z3 won't crank. Do I need to have the battery registered every time the battery is disconnected?
No you don’t. I removed mine for the winter, hooked it up when ready to move it out of storage, and cranked right up. Just had to input the radio code.
Are you sure you hooked the wires up correctly? Any other electrical things work?
Greg
Tally Ho
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1988 O'Day 322 sailboat - (unlimited mpg)
2000 BMW Z3 M Roadster (25 mpg - but who cares)
2019 Subaru Outback
(30+ MPG)
A month ago my Z3 wouldn't crank. All of the electrical components work (radio, headlights, brake lights, top open/close, etc..) except for the power windows. I had the battery and starter replaced last week as the repair shop told me the starter was bad and was shorting out the windows. The car started fine since the repair but today I removed the negative battery cable for 5 minutes and now the car is displaying the same non-crank symptoms as before.
Even if you disconnected the battery cable, the battery can still drain. What voltage is the battery at? What happens when you try to start it, any lights at all, does it crank without starting or...?
I'll check the battery voltage tonight. All of the electronics work except for the power windows; the headlights remain bright. When I try to start it, it doesn't crank. I hear a humming noise which I guess is the fuel pump. I'm not hearing any clicking. When I turn the key back to OFF to remove it, the oil and brake light faintly illuminate until I cycle the key again to ON and back to OFF.
Last week I towed it my local BMW dealer and they replaced the starter and battery. It started and the power windows worked. They said the starter was bad and was shorting out the power windows.
I drove it every other day since getting it back last week. Yesterday I removed the negative battery cable for 5 minutes, reconnected it and the car started immediately. I shut off the car and tried starting it 10 minutes later. Same symptoms as before; no crank, no power windows, wonky lights on dash after trying to start.
I called the dealer and explained the problem. They are stumped. I'm stumped too.
No clicking means no power to relay/starter, or bad starter. Check fuses?
E36/8 2000 M Coupe Cosmos Black/Black
Shark, Conforti CAI, B&B Exhaust, H&R, Bilstein, AKG Subframe/Diff, UUC TME Red/Caps, Swapped Front Hats, Ice>Link.
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The voltage on the battery reads 12.29 volts.
The voltage is a little low, but a load test will be a better indicator of the state of your battery. Take it to your local auto parts store so they can perform a load test and can advise on the next steps.
Tony
"You can't sign away negligence."
Last edited by sruchris; 09-11-2018 at 07:55 PM.
Here's a video of my problem. Any help would be appreciated.
I'm beginning to wonder if your original starter was bad or not. I cant see how a "bad one" would in any way have a effect on your windows only
You need a good scan of the whole car with BMW diag, for starters.
There is definitely a short somewhere, and it could be a faulty module, or even ignition switch failure.
-Abel
- E36 328is ~210-220whp: Lots of Mods.
- 2000 Z3: Many Mods.
- 2003 VW Jetta TDI Manual 47-50mpg
- 1999 S52 Estoril M Coupe
- 2014 328d Wagon, self-tuned, 270hp/430ft-lbs
- 2019 M2 Competition, self-tuned, 504whp
- 2016 Mini Cooper S
Looking for any codes in the EWS module, as well as if your clutch switch works correctly. This is where finding out what the modules are thinking is beneficial, among things.
-Abel
- E36 328is ~210-220whp: Lots of Mods.
- 2000 Z3: Many Mods.
- 2003 VW Jetta TDI Manual 47-50mpg
- 1999 S52 Estoril M Coupe
- 2014 328d Wagon, self-tuned, 270hp/430ft-lbs
- 2019 M2 Competition, self-tuned, 504whp
- 2016 Mini Cooper S
Any chance of the dealer honoring a warranty on the starter replacement and diagnose the real problem
I would approach the dealer about that. Didn't they diagnose, and charge you a lot of money? Who's to say it even needed a new starter, since that did not fix the problem? At the least, they owe you another diagnosis. One would assume they eliminated the clutch switch as the cause, before selling you a starter. That is easy to check. Also, this might be "old school" and not right on these cars, but we used to simply jump from battery to starter, to see if the starter was good and the problem somewhere else.
Last edited by zellamay; 09-11-2018 at 11:19 PM.
Try starting the car with jumper cables on the terminals under the hood. I had a very similar issue a couple years back where the fusable link that is inline with the positive battery cable in the trunk had corroded so much that it could no longer pass enough current to run the starter or DME properly. There was enough left to make some things look like they were okay, even read battery voltage at the terminals under the hood, but not enough to function. It was EXTREMELY frustrating. If this is your problem, bypassing that link will prove it and you can tear into the positive battery cable and replace the link.
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