My car is 1989 bmw 325i w/ m50 (also has 13 button obc, euro clock and m3 mirror wired up). I have had an intermittent no start for my car that happens once every few months, but has been happening more often. Happens either cold or hot. Basically, battery has full charge, everything gets power, but car does not turn over when key is turned to ignition. Sometimes if I let it sit for a while, or if I jump it, it will start, and it starts if I roll bump start it. After I do get it started I can turn key on and off and starts everytime. Problem only happens the one time about once a month or so now. I believe it is either starter slowly going out, or related to ignition cylinder. Only reason I think it might be related to cylinder is because I replaced it a while ago, and when I put it back in there was a little round plastic piece with a tab and a spring that I did not put back in cuz didn't know how. Any thoughts how to trouble shoot? Starter is buried under intake manifold so can't think of a way to test it, would just have to replace.
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Was your car an auto prior? Also can you jump pins 11 and 14 and it will start from there, even when the turning the key does not work? -
Car was manual stock, still has original 5 speed tranny. Will the 11 to 14 pin jump kick the starter solenoid to confirm that it's working?Comment
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So I figured out the issue was the battery. It was a fresh battery manufactured less than 2 years ago. Got it from Oreilly and it was the lower end battery, I think called Super Start. For whatever reason it was slowly decreasing the amount of volts it was able to hold and was only able to hold between 12-12.5v. I think that's enough for all the car accessories to function but not quite enough for the starter. Put in a fresh battery a month or two and no issues since...started gettting interstate batteries at costco, better and cheaper option.Comment
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