[mattysiam]

Hi,

Great forum, thanks. Hopefully someone will have an answer to my problem?

I have an 2006 E91 320d and my friend is also giving me his 2006 E90 320d. His E90 has been sitting in a car park for the houses where he lives for 11 months.

Yesterday I want to pick it up. As expected his battery was flat and I mean totally flat. I had to open the door with the metal key, and when inserted the key into the ignition hole and pressed start, nothing at all.

I hooked up some jump leads which are pretty heavy duty, left the donor car running for a good 20 mins and tried again. The dash lights came on this time, and the car turned over sluggishly, but no where near well enough for a car to start. After a couple more tries I gave up as I wasn't expecting the car to start by using jump leads.

Due to the car being a good 200 meters from his house it's impossible to trickle charge the battery in the cars current location, via the battery charge points under the hood.

With this in mind, my next plan was / is to remove the battery from his car and take it home to charge it.

Is it okay to charge an E90 battery by charging direct to the battery terminals, and if the answer is yes and I do this, will the battery be okay to reconnect and start the car with no additional programming / resetting of the battery?

Also, I'm concerned that because the battery was totally flat, there could be other issues which would stop the car from starting, even if I use a fully charged battery. From threads I've been reading these could include a problem with the fuel system like the injectors are no longer under pressure, or other fuel issues like the diesel has gone bad, even after only 11 months. So, I'm now also thinking about emptying the diesel in the tank and removing and cleaning or changing the fuel filter. Anyone think that might help?

The car is in the UK so it would have been sitting from January this year in the cold winter.

Any suggestions, tips or advice for me would be warmly appreciated.

BTW, my friends E90 I'm trying to start has a dying turbo, but did still drive. It's been sitting for 11 months because he bought a new car.

Thanks in advance!

[Emilime75]

It's fine to remove the battery and charge it directly to the terminal posts. However, having sat discharged that long, it's likely to be no good and will need replacement. As for your other questions, you may run into some issues with various electronic modules in the car booting back up and coming online, along with fault codes. The fuel, fuel pump and fuel injectors "should" be OK, I don't think 11 months is long enough for the fuel to spoil and gum things up, but it may have lost some of its combustive strength. Put a new battery in it, try to start it, report back and let us know how it went.

[mattysiam]

Thanks for the info, I'll take your advice and try it with a fresh battery and I'll update you here. I'll need to cut it out of the weeds too.

[Emilime75]

I would...
1. Check to make sure it's got oil in it.
2. Install new battery. Disconnect fuel injector electrical plugs. Crank engine to lubricate everything.
3. Check serpentine drive belt system.
4. Check coolant level.
5. Try starting it.


heck fluids, like coolant and engine oil, before trying to start it. Might also want to disconnect the fuel injectors once you know there's oil in it and crank it a few times to lubricate everything before trying to start it. Check the serpentine belt.

[mattysiam]

Well, I never got to try and get it started as my mate who was giving me the donor car, changed his mind and sold it for scrap. Fair play to him, better than nothing.

[E92William]

Those M sport parts are probably worth more over here than what they paid him for scrap.. crazy how every other BMW in Europe has M sport package and here it's a rarity