2009 E90 318i shut off while driving and won’t start

[M157]

Was driving my 2009 318i along a country road doing around 40mph and then all of the sudden the car just shut off. no spluttering or anything suggesting a mechanical fault, just a smooth silent shutdown. now the car won’t turn over, just makes a clicking noise but doesn’t show up any warning lights. Anybody have any clue what it could be?
UPDATE: diagnosed with a seized engine. car towed to garage and left there currently. only owned it since thursday night. perfect.

Edited by M157 on Saturday 29th May 10:22

[RUSSELLM]

Battery terminal loose ?

[M157]

Have had a look at that and seems all fine. tried jumping it a couple times and got it to turn over. going after bigger leads now to see if it can hold more charge.

[stevemcs]

Don't start it, get it scanned just incase the timing chain has failed - we did one last week where the guides broke up

[M157]

timing chain was done about 6 months ago

[RUSSELLM]

Have a good look at the connectors to the battery terminals as well. I saw a cracked one a couple of weeks back.

How old’s the battery ?

[M157]

i’ve had a look through the service records and from what i can see i believe the battery to be a couple years old and the car has only done about 5k miles in the past year so i feel as if it’s got a dud battery. still unsure as the RAC, as always have failed to turn up all day.

[helix402]

Has it had the battery cable recall?

[M157]

Don’t think so. believe it has had the blower fan regulator recall but that’s it.

[Pica-Pica]

Could it be the battery is not being re-charged?

[Touring442]

M157 said:

Was driving my 2009 318i along a country road doing around 40mph and then all of the sudden the car just shut off. no spluttering or anything suggesting a mechanical fault, just a smooth silent shutdown. now the car won’t turn over, just makes a clicking noise but doesn’t show up any warning lights. Anybody have any clue what it could be?
UPDATE: diagnosed with a seized engine. car towed to garage and left there currently. only owned it since thursday night. perfect.

Edited by M157 on Saturday 29th May 10:22

Sorry to hear that - it would have been my first guess. Oil pump failure or bits of chain guide sucked into the strainer after the chain job.

They really are garbage.

[M157]

won’t be finding out until tuesday earliest unfortunately. loved it whilst i had it so don’t want to see it go.

[Touring442]

They're not the best things sadly - apart from that you have injector dramas, the NoX sensor, low oil pressure and others. Given that a secondhand engine is upwards of £1000 plus fitting (not including the essential chain replacement), it's probably not worth fixing.

[stevemcs]

The one we did last week hadn't chucked bits of guides in the sump but the pick up looked damaged so that was replaced.

[M157]

Touring442 said:

They're not the best things sadly - apart from that you have injector dramas, the NoX sensor, low oil pressure and others. Given that a secondhand engine is upwards of £1000 plus fitting (not including the essential chain replacement), it's probably not worth fixing.

yeah i mean i paid £3.1k for the car with 94k on the clock FSH and no advisories on the MOT so i thought i landed myself a peach. seems that’s not the case and the worst part was it being a private sale. oh no.

[M157]

stevemcs said:

The one we did last week hadn't chucked bits of guides in the sump but the pick up looked damaged so that was replaced.

how long had that car gone on the chain it had?

[stevemcs]

I think it was on 130k, however we think someone had been in there before as the sump had been stuck on and it should be a gasket

[Touring442]

M157 said:

yeah i mean i paid £3.1k for the car with 94k on the clock FSH and no advisories on the MOT so i thought i landed myself a peach. seems that’s not the case and the worst part was it being a private sale. oh no.

Bugger.

It's right in that price range where it's uneconomical to fix yet too expensive to scrap.

I would put it through a Copart salvage auction. They will collect it and sell it for you.

Is it a Coupe/ Convertible?

[M157]

it’s a saloon, only an ES but has a few options such as the nice lights and alloys and is a very clean example

[gizlaroc]

If it just stopped, like power gone and coasted to a halt with no smoke, no nasty noises up front, then it points towards battery cable.

Had this the other month, it was the battery cable that runs under the car, the connection was really corroded, replaced that for £30 and it was fine again.


So don't panic yet.