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2009 M5 No Start, two clicks, newish battery

5K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  RichWVU 
#1 ·
Car started and drove home fine last night, this morning wouldn't start / wouldn't even try to turn over. Just getting two clicks, about 5ish seconds apart. I can hear the SMG priming and shifting between first and neutral, so that doesn't seem to be an issue. Battery was replaced about two years ago, and was reading 12.0v when I hooked it up to my charger, charged it to 14.0v and still the same thing, click click.

Dash and exterior lights seem fine, no warning lights or control messages.

Guessing starter/solenoid, but wondering if there was anything else I should check before I start jacking the car up and crawling around underneath it.
 
#3 ·
Alright, that might be a tough one to search, but I'll see what I can find. In the mean time, if anyone can remember a thread title or something it'd be much appreciated.
 
#5 ·
Thanks rt. After spending some intimate time with my extended warranty this afternoon I've determined that the starter, harness, wiring, etc are all covered. I'm not opposed to spending a day hunting down the loose connection or changing the starter, but might as well try to get something out of my warranty.
 
#6 ·
Dealership replaced the starter, didn't fix anything. Decided it was the CAS module, replaced that, didn't fix anything.

Now they're going through the wiring harness again trying to see if there's a short or loose wire somewhere. I mentioned the ground nuts referenced in that thread, they said they check and re-tighten those whenever they're under the plenum.

Quite frustrating.
 
#8 ·
Oh, they said the starter and CAS unit jobs would be on them if they weren't related to the problem. Surprised me to hear but I'll take any positive I can at this point.
 
#12 ·
Not an odd question, I asked myself the same. When I realized the starter was warrantied, I took the car to the dealer without doing much more investigative work of my own. But yeah, ran perfectly fine the night before and nothing weird when I parked it that night.

I'll mention the crank sensor to them first thing in the morning.
 
#13 ·
I had similar problem last week.
Been having starting problems whereby after the 3rd crank only that the car started.
I wanted to stop by the workshop but postponed. Regretted it.
Last Friday (or was it 2 Fridays ago), the car wont start at all.
Had to tow the car to the workshop and as the car was being unhooked, the car started. Dammit!
Earlier,when I called the workshop, immediately they pointed to the starter.
Before they started any work, I asked them to check the battery.
The reading was 12.5 and indicated in good working order.
Whenever I crank, no warning lights came up and everything was working.
After checking that the battery was fine, I asked them to check the grounding and the connection as per one of the threads here.
Before closing everything up, I tried to start and it worked fine.
So they started to put everything back together.
After paying them and wanting to drive home, I couldnt start the car and this time the lights were flashing here and there and asking me to reset the time and date etc. WTF!
Checked the battery again and it was dead. Battery was 2.5 years old.
Really weird, before starting the work, the battery was fine and now the battery was not.
Installed a used battery and the car started fine. Go figure.
Asked them to install a new Varta AGM battery and I havent had the problem since.
Still praying it doesnt happen again.
 
#15 ·
Latest update is the signal wire from the CAS to the Starter shorting out. Said they found a rodents nest under my wiring harness, which I simply cannot fathom. Wouldn't that basically be sitting right on top of the block? I drive my M5 literally every single day, no way anything's had time to build in there unless it was during the previous ownership, which was over a year ago at this point.
 
#19 ·
Questions I intend to ask myself.
 
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#18 · (Edited)
How can you replace the starter motor without taking the plenum off as well as the wire harness? It slides in towards the back (flywheel) from inside the "V". Unless I am mistaken, my bullshit alarm is going off.

Also, harness wires are pretty well encapsulated inside the plastic harness box. If they damaged this, they should also have replaced the harness box because it requires quite a bit of damage to get to whatever wire the rodents ate. In other words: there is still time for a picture.

That said, a friend of mine has a older 540 and started smelling gas. Rodent had eaten through his gas tank! So, anything is possible with these buggers. Found another nest in his intake filter box. Pretty annoying.
 
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