Not a Breakdown, but stranded, yes. (archive)

My 8 has not broken down, but I was stranded one time when my alarm would not disarm and a friend offered to change the battery on the key for me. Well, he got the wrong battery, took more than 30 seconds to put the old one in, and voila. Lockout.

I left my baby at the beach. I figured if I have the key and I can't get it to go anywhere, no one will. And it was true. Even after unhooking the battery and re-hooking it up, the alarm held up its duties.

So, I had to get a tow truck to put my car on the flatbed, take it to a BMW dealer and have the alarm re-initialized. To my surprise, the dealer did it for free!!!

I notice that sometimes when I try to arm/disarm the car via the key remote and I have some power lines overhead, the alarm just won't respond. Either that, or maybe aliens are stealing my signals? :)

Pardon me for going on a tangent, but is there also a way to turn the alarm volume UP!? My beautiful 8's little alarm squeak is kind of pathetic. I want it to bellow out like a foghorn and send the message, "do NOT Mess with ME!"

Anyway, I'll never let go of my 8.

Richard

I'm still relatively new to the BMW 850i world (3 months, 1991 850iA), but the more that I read and learn about this awesome car, the more I see that the car is actually "smart" enough to keep the driver out of many trouble situations (i.e. the engine shutting off at red-line temps, the "limp-home" mode, the suspension auto-adjusting the shock dampening, etc, etc., etc.) I'm getting the impression that BMW spent a lot of time keeping this car from being broken-down on the side of the road.

OK, here is my question: Have any of you gentlemen been stranded, dead on the side of the road in your 850's (Obviously, not related to having done something preventable and really stupid, like running out of gas or leaving the lights on.)?

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