What a night!!! My car took the worst time to die

[Ash83]

10:30pm leaving the gym, 45f degree out there. Got to my car, put the key, press start and boom Christmas time, the whole dash starts to flash, wipers starts to move, ticking sound from glove box and inside light starts to flash and fade away.

Add to that my trunk did not open and i could not get the toe hook out to toe the car, thank God one of the gym trainers showed up and offered to help so i asked if i can borrow the hook from his 1.

This is seriously a flow in the design to remove key for the trunk, just in case if you got electrical issues.

Does this sound like a battery issue? My car is exactly 3 years and 1 month with 40k miles, if it was battery, which i think will not be covered with the warranty, what will be the $$$ damage? Do you think i can push them to at least pick up the labor cost and whatever that battery programming cost?

[SteveAZ]

My trunk has a key, it's really tucked up under there above the license plate...did they do away with that?

Probably is a battery and not likely you'll get them to comp you one. If you get the same battery, it just needs to be registered. If you get a different one it'll need to be coded. Unless you have that ability or can find somebody near you that does, you're kind of at the mercy of the dealer.

Good luck

[FOACAD]

Check to make sure it isnt the cable problem that is part of the recall. That would be what id go for first.

[Dackelone]

Sounds like it could be the battery cable recall. I would push the dealer on that.

SUMMARY:
BMW is recalling certain model year 2008-2012 1-Series coupes and convertibles manufactured December 2007 through July 2011;


Btw... only early 1er's had a mechanical key tucked up under the lic plate light area. After 2009 bmw deleted that lock and went all electronic.

[m7ammed]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Btw... only early 1er's had a mechanical key tucked up under the lic plate light area. After 2009 bmw deleted that lock and went all electronic.

Which is the dumbest idea since the battery is in there and if the car battery dies then it will be a headache to replace it.

[Bmwbreed]

Originally Posted by m7ammed

Which is the dumbest idea since the battery is in there and if the car battery dies then it will be a headache to replace it.

Or if you're doin some modding work and disconnected the battery for safety and then your neighbor comes by and closes your trunk being a Good Samaritan thinking you forgot to shut it. That was te first week I had my car. I had to tind up taking out the rear left speaker cutting away a small bit of the foam to find the trunk emergency release cable. Then I took a razor and shaved away the plastic coating on it just enough to be ble to pull on it to release the trunk. So if my battery ever dies an I need to get in there that's what I'll do. But it's very dumb they did away with the mechanical lock

[m7ammed]

Originally Posted by Bmwbreed

Or if you're doin some modding work and disconnected the battery for safety and then your neighbor comes by and closes your trunk being a Good Samaritan thinking you forgot to shut it. That was te first week I had my car. I had to tind up taking out the rear left speaker cutting away a small bit of the foam to find the trunk emergency release cable. Then I took a razor and shaved away the plastic coating on it just enough to be ble to pull on it to release the trunk. So if my battery ever dies an I need to get in there that's what I'll do. But it's very dumb they did away with the mechanical lock

Imagine if your car doesn't have a release cable because only US spec cars have those.

[SteveAZ]

Yeah, I didn't know there was a key on mine until a week ago. I disconnect my battery all the time and was always paranoid so I was jamming a towel in to the lock assembly.

As for the battery cable, I thought those were more of a catostrophic failure with no current flow...sounds like she had some and the lights then watched the lights "fade away". I guess worse case, the cable, it's taken care of by the recall or the fact it's under warranty...battery....not as likely. Let us know how it goes.

[RimasRS]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Sounds like it could be the battery cable recall. I would push the dealer on that.

SUMMARY:
BMW is recalling certain model year 2008-2012 1-Series coupes and convertibles manufactured December 2007 through July 2011;


Btw... only early 1er's had a mechanical key tucked up under the lic plate light area. After 2009 bmw deleted that lock and went all electronic.

+100 had same

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by m7ammed

Imagine if your car doesn't have a release cable because only US spec cars have those.

US cars have a emergency manual trunk release... But it's in the trunk.

[luv135i]

even if its battery that is covered too

[Got_///M]

Strong spelling OP..

On a more serious note, that sucks man.

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by Got_///M

Strong spelling OP..

LOL, I wasn't gonna go there.

[fullboost]

Originally Posted by Bmwbreed

Or if you're doin some modding work and disconnected the battery for safety and then your neighbor comes by and closes your trunk being a Good Samaritan thinking you forgot to shut it. That was te first week I had my car. I had to tind up taking out the rear left speaker cutting away a small bit of the foam to find the trunk emergency release cable. Then I took a razor and shaved away the plastic coating on it just enough to be ble to pull on it to release the trunk. So if my battery ever dies an I need to get in there that's what I'll do. But it's very dumb they did away with the mechanical lock

Similar thing happened to me. I was installing an intake on my car one night and a friend of mine was there. He wasn't there to really help (not a car guy) he was just there to shoot it. I opened the trunk to pull out the intake and disconnect the battery. Him, being my friend, shut the trunk for me. oops. A quick search on this forum later I find that there are + and - leads in the engine bay. My car was in a position where we couldn't pull a car up next to it. I thought, no biggie, pop it in neutral and roll it back. My DCT however didn't agree with those plans. So we ended up pulling his battery out of his car setting next to mine and Jumping it. What a pain in the a$$.

I thought about keeping a smaller 12v battery with leads handy just to pop the trunk if the battery dies or somehow this happens again but with all this talk about coding batteries I figure I will just deal with this poor design.

[Bmwbreed]

Originally Posted by bmw1racer

US cars have a emergency manual trunk release... But it's in the trunk.

Read my post. That's what he was referring to.

[doublevanosrc]

Originally Posted by m7ammed

Which is the dumbest idea since the battery is in there and if the car battery dies then it will be a headache to replace it.

No kidding, how can a company that produces such amazing machines commit such a huge flaw?

[Ash83]

I got my car back and they said it was a dead battery, it was covered under warranty.

How could a battery die in 3 years?

I hope my original battery was just bad and it is not a bad alternator that will cause more issues when the warranty runs out.
--------------------------------------------------------
Job #1

PROBLEM A TOWED IN, VEHICLE WON'T CRANK
6120505 CHECK BATTERY WITH BATT TESTER (N/C)
6120502 PERFORMED BATTERY ENERGY DIAGNOSIS (N/C)
6120503 CHECKING BATTERY IN CLOSED-CIRCUIT (N/C)
6121517 REPLACING BATTERY (N/C)
1 61-21-7-586-961 BATTERY FROM EXIDE (W (N/C)
CORE CHARGE
1 BF EXCISETAX (N/C)

40480
BATTERY DEAD
PERFORMED ENERGY DIAG USING ISID FOUND EXHAUSTIVE BATTERY
DISCHARGE,30G SHUT DOWN,BATTERY FAULTY,PRO DATE OF WEEK
2009.DIAGCODE D6121 00ENDIAG 902.NUMBER OF TRIPS 5/20KM
76,OK.PERFORMED LOAD TEST USING MIDTRONICS SAID REPLACE BATTERY WC
80C08-NUTEG.R/R BATTERY RESET CLOCK.REGESTERED BATTERY REPLACEMENT IN
POWER MODULE
-----------------------------------------------------------

[Kreed]

Originally Posted by fullboost

My car was in a position where we couldn't pull a car up next to it. I thought, no biggie, pop it in neutral and roll it back. My DCT however didn't agree with those plans. So we ended up pulling his battery out of his car setting next to mine and Jumping it. What a pain in the a$$.

[fullboost]

^^^Thanks bro. I guess I better get to reading my owners manual.

[James G]

Originally Posted by Kreed

of course your tool kit is in the trunk that you cannot open to get to that allen wrench that you need one more reason I love my 6MT

[Satalite]

Dunno about everyone, but my dealer isn't currently doing the recall till they get the OK from BMW NA...

I'll have to take it in when they start in March...

[Maranello455]

They dont even have the official BMW bulletin yet. My car is in the dealer and I asked them to perform the recall but they dont have the reworked parts yet. As you say it will begin in March.