Intermittent Starter/Ignition error message

Hi,

Just thought I'd throw this out there and see if anyone else has had this.

About a week and a half ago, I got into my car (F10 2.0d B47 engine) after having been in the supermarket and went to start the car. I hit the button and instead of hearing the engine fire up, I heard one of those lovely warning 'Dings' and a message saying:

Starter/ignition fault.
Engine cannot be started.
Please call BMW Mobile Care

I waited a few seconds and tried again and it fired up straight away (no struggles).

I thought possible glitch in the matrix if it's a once off but then it happened maybe 3 or 4 times again over the next couple of days. As it happens the car was due an Oil/Microfilter service which was done at main $tealer as the car is under AUC warranty. I mentioned the issue to the service team the day before it was due in and they said they would take a look.

When I picked it up they said there was nothing that would corroborate the issue in terms of codes etc, the only thing that was visible was a low voltage log a few times. I don't know if that is related as I didn't have the dates/times to hand. Anyway they said to take the car back and see if it re-occurs.

Since then it has happened once and I made a note of date/time..

Anyone else experienced anything similar?

~S

 

BMWs are infamous for throwing up various errors if the battery is low.

Is it the original battery ?

Connect it into a trickle charger and see if that improves things

 

Yup 100%, lots of freaky stuff can happen when battery getting old etc but I would have thought they would have checked the age/state of the battery while it was in with them.

Car is July 2015 so probably not an original battery but they should have data as to if/when it was swapped out as it has 100% main dealer servicing up to now.

~S.

 

If it has shown some low voltage codes, I’d be starting with the state of the battery. See if it takes a full charge, and then check the voltage once the car has shutdown, also the charging voltage to remove the alternator as an issue.
A few years back I had a 2012 320d with the same engine, I noted that the battery was original. As a preventative measure I hooked up the CTEK charger overnight, gave the battery a good charge cycle, then made a note to check the voltage regularly.

 

Could be the original battery.
I had one last 14 years.
Cold weather will drag an old/failing battery down.

 

The CTEK Chargers are good to use this time of year especially if you are mainly doing short journeys.....they also have a mode that conditions the batteries and helps to remove sulphates that build up on the plates extending the life of the battery.