98 323is - Drove into driveway, stopped and now car won't restart.

[43rdWorld]

I had gone out to get inspected and got rejected because my 3rd brake light was out. They also said my outer tail lights were out as well. Weird as the tails are fairly new but the 3rd light was OEM. Pull into the driveway, stopped the car, realized I needed to move it to the side, went to start it again, the dash comes on and goes completely black as I turn the key to start the car. Battery is brand new and was working fine this morning, so I don't think it was the battery. Fuses appear good. I did check the trunk wiring and found that 3 wires had cracked - blue/gray, green/yellow and white. The white was almost broken - about 3 strands left. The other 2 had cracked insulation and exposed copper but not broken.

I'm going to check all the fuses, fix the wires and take the battery in for testing. Is cracked and 1 (almost) broken wires enough to kill the entire car? It is totally black - nothing comes on - just like the battery was disconnected.

If none of those three things help anything, what else should I look into? I guess it's my own fault as I was making plans to sell her off and I seemed to have made her angry.

Thanks in advance.

[Eric93se]

First check the fuseable link . If that's good then possibly ignition switch. Also try another key.

[A Banana]

I had a similar issue, and my fuel gauge and temp gauge weren't working. Turns out my brake light fuse went out. No idea why BMW would do that but I guess when our brake light fuse goes out, your car won't turn on...


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[43rdWorld]

Thanks - I'll check the link and will double-check the battery terminals while I'm at it. I found another post on bimmerfest where someone had a similar problem due to bad connection on the battery terminals. I had originally thought I had a fuse issue because of all the lights being out, but that fuse looked good but I'll yank it again and test it to be sure.

[43rdWorld]

All is well. I'm loathe to admit it but it was an id10t error. Loose negative battery terminal. Tightened that up, fixed the wiring bundle, put in a new 3rd brake light and got inspected. Good to go.