Help - My 520i is driving me insane

[gard2479]

Hi,

I have just purchased (2 weeks ago) a used 2004 520i Auto and I am encountering what appear to be immobilising issues on a daily basis. The vehicle would allow me to unlock it using the remote however when I tried to start the car it was dead. Through a combination of locking and unlocking the car using both key remotes and manually unlocking the car with the key in the door it would finally spark into life and once going all was good.

Whilst not acceptable, I managed to live with this as all my local BMW dealers were fully booked for at least a month. The car has a 12 month RAC warranty however I am currently working in Belgium and nothing is given any priority here. Ultimately the only pain was having to reset the clock and obviously not being able to drive off immediately.

The problem has continued on a daily basis and has been coupled with 4 separate warnings via the iDrive that the transmission failsafe has been activated however this warning vanishes soon after.

The final nail in the coffin was on Friday when I tried to lock the vehicle in my local supermarket. The alarm immediately sounded then the car again completely shutdown. After 20 minutes it came back to life and I managed to get it home however the next day the alarm activated for no apparent reason and then the car shutdown again. It has now not worked since and is sat on my drive completely lifeless.

I am content the battery is fine and this appears to be an immobiliser/alarm issue but it may be coupled with something else and why the repeated transmission warnings?

I have zero confidence in my car at the moment and cannot even get it to a garage for diagnosis until next month.

Apologies for the long winded thread but can anyone offer any advice.

Thanks, Brian

[gard2479]

Just as an update despite the car being 'dead' for the last 5 days, unexpectedly the alarm went off yesterday and the car then sprung to life. I managed to start it straight away which seems to confirm it is not a battery issue.

I left it running for 15 minutes and then switched it off. Tried to restart and lo and behold it's lifeless again.

[witeshark]

That seems like an intermittent electric fault...

[gard2479]

Originally Posted by witeshark

That seems like an intermittent electric fault...

I agree. The problem is so random however and it is very hard to pinpoint what is triggering it. I have the car booked in for 26 July so hopefully all will be revealed then, however 4 weeks without a car is a real pain.

[jimmythepie]

good luck with it.