No power

[Sticks14 0]

Hi Guys ,

A bit of a strange one and dont really know where to start looking. Ive got a 2000 540i which has in the last few months has had a problem with there being no power to anything . I drove it around today ,went to put it in the shed tonight and the doors wouldnt open , no centre console lights were on etc no power whats so ever . i rocked the car and the centre light flicked on and everything worked again. this has happened to me three times now with no real similarities ,just that ive parked the car after everything was fine then when ive come back ,no power . the batteries been charged and evreything seems tight ,i just dont know what else to look at.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Get the battery tested and go from there. E39s are notorious for electrical gremlins when the battery gets tired. IIRC resting voltage should be 12.6v for a 6 cell, anything under that suggests the cells are on their way out. Hotwire will probably chime in with a whole bunch more useful info, he's good like that (And please correct me if I'm wrong here)

[Allanw 1072]

Check the battery disconnection device in the boot. If the aribags are triggered, it blows this device to disconnect the battery from the rest of the car. and they can go bad/intermittant, causing problems like this.

[hotwire 352]

^^^^ Certainly a plausible cause & the first thing to check, though I have never seen that happen myself, nor come across the mentioned problem with the car.

It does sound like a main connection problem.

If you find nothing obvious, my suggestion would be to take it to an auto sparky. Unless you have the means/knowledge to check things, you could be chasing your tail.

[aja540i 1906]

Ignition switch?

[francoisv 466]

I had the exact same issue with my e39 before I started stripping it, turned out to be that the power (+) connectors located in the white housing above the battery, were quite loose, which was killing power to the entire car.