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Imola 4.6 12-12-2012 09:11 PM

Total electric outage
This morning i was unable to open my doors with the remote nor open my trunk with the key....i opened the door with the key and nothing would turn on, no welcome lights, radio, engine, nothing!! ....while i was waiting for my jump i figured id go back in the car since it was raining and guess wut? it freaking started right up like nothing ever happened...i had to reset the clock and stuff...20 mins later while on the highway it just literally stalled on me with all the warning lights flashing and it kept doing it for about 30 mins or i got out of it tonight all the power shut off again without me being able to close the car with the remote so i had to close it with the key....Wuts going on?

1. no electrical power to the car
2. 20 mins later it starts like nothing happened
3. stalled on me on the highway a couple times
4. parked it tonight and once again lost all electrical power :dunno:'

SES LIGHT P1434 Code had came on 2 weeks prior to this.

ard 12-18-2012 11:20 PM

1. "What" not "wut". It isnt cool, IMO

2. Did you ever buy that Peake (BMW specific) code reader, to allow you to decode the BMW codes?

3. How old is the battery???? If 4 years or more, just replace it....bad/failing battery will cause strange behavior

bimmernut1 12-20-2012 06:24 PM

I was going to say battery until you said it stalled on the highway. I'd now bet it's the alternator. If you have a battery tender, charge the battery up overnight. Check the voltage with a voltmeter the next morning. I would expect to see 12.5 to 12.7 volts. Then start the car and measure the voltage at the jumper posts while running. Keep the voltmeter leads away from the fan. The alternator should be able to run the voltage up to around 14.3 volts. If not I'd first have a shop run a load test on the battery. If the battery shows good, check the alternator.


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