theimperialdragon
Member
Hey guys - have an issue where my 2005 320i's engine died out quietly and abruptly while driving.
This has happened twice so far recently and I'm getting rather concerned. Wondering if anyone else have faced a similar issue before?
Both incidents happened in the mornings after the car had been off for the night for at least 10 hours. Both incidents also happened when starting the engine wasn't smooth (after depressing brake and pedal, engine takes slightly longer than usual to start up) - which also resulted in a transmission error (exclamation mark inside gear cog) showing up in the BC (which disappeared quickly).
These are the following factors that should be taken into consideration:
1) I have a weak battery which have so far resulted in the need to use jumper cables twice in the past year because I had left the aircon and lights on without engine running.
2) I also have the habit of shifting the transmission to "N" whenever possible to coast, and the both incidents happened while the car was coasting on "N".
The first time the engine died - I had already been driving for 10 minutes and I suppose the engine would've been sufficiently warmed up. I was driving at around 70kmh and had shifted from D to N to allow the car to coast. The aircon was off, so the cabin was rather quiet (when the engine died out - my sensitive ears did not notice any difference). After coasting for around 300m, I shifted back to D and stepped on the accelerator but there was no response, and only then did I realise that the engine had died out. Soon thereafter, loss of power steering ensued, and it took quite a lot of heaving of the steering wheel to get the car to turn into a side road. First thought that came to mind was to try the engine start/stop button. I pressed it without depressing the brake pedal and the engine started again normally without a hitch.
The second incident within two minutes of starting the engine in the morning. Engine was cold and similar to incident #1, starting up the car wasn't smooth. I was driving down a steep 100m slope when I shifted to N, engine cut off quietly followed by immediate loss of power steering, pressed start/stop button and engine came back to life normally.
Random possible cause guess -> alternator?
This has happened twice so far recently and I'm getting rather concerned. Wondering if anyone else have faced a similar issue before?
Both incidents happened in the mornings after the car had been off for the night for at least 10 hours. Both incidents also happened when starting the engine wasn't smooth (after depressing brake and pedal, engine takes slightly longer than usual to start up) - which also resulted in a transmission error (exclamation mark inside gear cog) showing up in the BC (which disappeared quickly).
These are the following factors that should be taken into consideration:
1) I have a weak battery which have so far resulted in the need to use jumper cables twice in the past year because I had left the aircon and lights on without engine running.
2) I also have the habit of shifting the transmission to "N" whenever possible to coast, and the both incidents happened while the car was coasting on "N".
The first time the engine died - I had already been driving for 10 minutes and I suppose the engine would've been sufficiently warmed up. I was driving at around 70kmh and had shifted from D to N to allow the car to coast. The aircon was off, so the cabin was rather quiet (when the engine died out - my sensitive ears did not notice any difference). After coasting for around 300m, I shifted back to D and stepped on the accelerator but there was no response, and only then did I realise that the engine had died out. Soon thereafter, loss of power steering ensued, and it took quite a lot of heaving of the steering wheel to get the car to turn into a side road. First thought that came to mind was to try the engine start/stop button. I pressed it without depressing the brake pedal and the engine started again normally without a hitch.
The second incident within two minutes of starting the engine in the morning. Engine was cold and similar to incident #1, starting up the car wasn't smooth. I was driving down a steep 100m slope when I shifted to N, engine cut off quietly followed by immediate loss of power steering, pressed start/stop button and engine came back to life normally.
Random possible cause guess -> alternator?
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