Electronic issie

[Bob4enka]

Hi, I have some strange issues going on with my e87 2010. I will drive it, everything will be working normal, then I will park it and go shoping. When I am back the car is completely dead, as you have removed the battery. It cannot be opened, nor started. Everything is off. I manage to open it manually but that is all. It all used to last for about 10-15 minutes and then the power comes up again out of nowhere. Nobody van find what the problem is. We changed the battery with a new one, but the problem stays. It started taking longer time for the power to come again. Then the radio stoped working- no life in it. The rear seat heating stoped working as well and after a week, the light module stoped working. Last time the power did not come for a week. We got a car electritian to look at it but it against all odds started working again with him and the only thing he found out was that the light module is not working. But the module not working was because of the initially electrical issue. All the fuses work, the battery is new and nobody can find the failure. What can cause the complete loss of power that vomes back of itself in a while. I will strogly appreciate any ideas.
Thank you!

[MarcoZandrini]

You have a bad electrical connection somewhere. Start with the battery. Make sure the battery cable connectors are tight. Try to rotate than to see if they are loose. Next, check the ground cable where it’s bolted to the body. The connection needs to clean and tight. Use a digital volt meter to check the voltage across the battery. Move to the engine compartment. Check the voltage at the jumper post that’s located under the red plastic cover. Use the engine as the ground. Is reading the same as the reading at the battery? Next, open a fuse panel and check the voltage at a fuse that has power at all times. The engine computer (DME in BMWspeak) has power at all times.

Lastly, whacky voltages cause whacky issues. Once you find the bad connection the other electrical issues should go away.

[Bob4enka]

Thank you. I am a woman and do not know how to do all the things you wrote about . The services here put the car for diagnostic and the only issue that comes up is the light module. But the light module stoped working because of the electronic problem. I really do not know what to do now...

[MarcoZandrini]

Ok. Here in America we have the BMW Car Club of America(BMWCCA). There are chapters everywhere in the country. Maybe Norway (beautiful country, wonderful people) has a similar organization. Also, perhaps a friend or neighbor could perform the voltage checks I’ve outlined. These checks are relatively simple.