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Re: Dead car - see comments and please help, TIA (archive)

[ Follow Ups ] [ 6-series (E24) Message Board ] [ Msg. Board FAQ ]

Posted by Joey on February 26, 2001 at 08:51:12:

In Reply to: Re: Dead car - see comments and please help, TIA posted by Bryan on February 25, 2001 at 21:18:47:

I had an 83 with a drain. It turned out to be a short in the electric antenna. Yours does sound like it could poss be the ECU.
Take care,
Joey 77 633/89 M3
Had the same problem w/ my car after the motor was rebuilt. The battery would just be drained after a couple of days. It was traced to a faulty ECU. It seems that the ECU was sending power to the injection unit even when the ignition was shut off. After the ECU was rebuilt, no more dead battery.
'79 euro 635

We have norrowed it down to a heavy drain on the battery as it kills dead the new battery in a matter of a couple of days. Nothing is on in the car except a dummy security LED. My mechanic has given me some clues as he was doing other repairs and we ran out of time for this. It is a second car and currently at home, so I'm doing a little investigative trouble shooting on my own with the groups help.

My mechanic hints at starter or starter selenoid. Another mechanic friend said it wouldn't necessarily be the selenoid or the starter wouldn't engage, etc. Could a bad starter motor just drain out the battery as the car sleeps? This part isn't cheap to fix or replace. Could I do it myself if I could get enough room under the car? I'm a pretty good hack, but PITA jobs I'd rather defer to my mechanics.

It has also been speculated that it could be in the ignition switch. Could a bad switch drain the battery while she sleeps? This I imagine I could do by digging into the steering column from the confort of my Recaro front seat.

I'm not the best with an DMM, and I know I may get recommendations to run some tests, I could get help from my other mechanic friend down the street. But I'm looking for answers from us digest experts on the possibilities of the above or any others you folks may think it could be. The charging system is fine. Like I said, it dies while parked with new battery. I drove home from mechanic/new battery. 3 days later went out to car and it was 95% dead, a day later was 100% dead.

TIA,

Mark Robbins
First 79 635CSi
Dead 1983 635CSi






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