Hello,
I'm new to this forum - hope someone can help. I bought a 2001 740iL in the summer of 2002. The car isn't driven much around town and is used primarily for long road trips (both my wife and I are retired). The original battery was replace about a year ago after it would no longer hold a charge. The replacement battery came from a local BMW dealer and matched the original in appearance (white). Perhaps two or three times over the last year, the car wouldn't start - just got a click from under the hood. Suspecting low battery, I would attached a trickle charger to the terminals under the hood. Each time, the car would start after overnight charging. Yesterday, after about two weeks of sitting, the car wouldn't start (click again). So hooked up the trickle charger and let it charge overnight. Tried starting this morning, but only got a click. With the charger hooked up, I'm getting close to 14V at the battery. With the charger disconnected, turning the key drops the voltage to around 12V. Should I try jump starting the car? To do a jump start, do I connect the jumper cables to the terminals in the engine bay or should I attach directly to the battery?

I KNOW - I should drive it more, but I'm a bit paranoid about parking it anywhere other than in my garage or driveways of family members. My wife drives her Avalon for around town trips. The door dings on her car are testimony to the dangers that lurk out there.

Your two major concerns are covered in the owners manual. ;)

The owners manual covers Jump Starting and Battery Storage :)

(that little book is amazingly chock full of useful info...and if you don't have one...you can download an owners manual to your desktop from www.e38.org ...the owners manuals are at the bottom of the left column)

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/Jump%20Starting%20E38%20battery.jpg

I would also suggest looking into a battery tender. You could leave that connected until you're ready to start & drive your 7 again. A battery tender has enough spmarts in it to shut down when your battery is fully charged, and start back up & continue charging (at a low rate) once it drops low again. I found mine on ebay for around $40.

Thanks guys for the responses. Will be doing some downloads tonight. Haven't tried to jump start, yet. Weather was a little bad today and will need my son's help to push it out of the garage. Hope I can get it started tomorrow and the problem is only a bad battery. Don't understand why the trickle charge didn't work this time - battery is only about a year old. Wonder if the starter connections might be (dirty) oxidized - can one get to them easily? THANKS AGAIN

even though you have a BMW "sealed" battery...you may want to look real close and see if it really isn't "sealed" and just has the label covering the screw off caps. If so, the problem may be that the battery fluid has evaporated thus leaving the electrolyte clinging to the (now) dry sections of the cells/plates inside the battery.

If this is true, then top off the battery with DISTILLED water only. The electrolyte acts as the ionic conductor and if the fluid level is low, then the battery is electrochemically inefficient. Thus not producing enough power.

Ask me how I know about the "hidden" caps ;) You can see the screw off caps I found under the label of my original BMW battery...

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/1/web/433000-433999/433594_221.jpg http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/1/web/433000-433999/433594_131.jpg

The '01 will sometimes give you just a click when you turn the key, even though the battery is fully charged. I have had it happen several times, the first time when the car was delivered to me from Costa Mesa, CA. I immediately thought, 'oh keerist, the battery's dead'....but, no....my e30 used to do it as well. Just turn the key to the off position, and then back on again. If it does it a second time, you have a loss of electricity problem.

Sooooo, make sure your battery is full, and keep it charged, even if you just run it in your driveway for a while. But remember, sometimes it will refuse to start. In other cars, if this happens, it is generally the starter solenoid which has gone bad, but I don't know if these cars have starter solenoids or not.

Your Avalon would not be covered with dings if you just parked it a bit further away from the rest of the animals. I work at Home Depot and have no dings (knock on wood trim)....but I park at the opposite end of the parking lot.

jake

"Just turn the key to the off position, and then back on again. If it does it a second time, you have a loss of electricity problem."

Have done this before, but this time - no luck. It's times like this that one wishes he had a manual transmission.

"Your Avalon would not be covered with dings if you just parked it a bit further away from the rest of the animals. I work at Home Depot and have no dings (knock on wood trim)....but I park at the opposite end of the parking lot."

She really tries. At Home Depot and WalMart, she always parks far away with empty spaces all around. I've been with her many times on such trips and she always goes to a remote area of the lot. Surprisingly, many times when we come out, we'll have a car (or cars) parked right next to us (even with empty spaces still all around).

I would recomend you go back to the dealer that installed the battery and ask that they replace the battery under a "spare parts warranty" claim(2 year warranty on almost any BMW part). Tell them your issues, don't mention that you let the car sit so much, and let them test the battery. More than likely the plates building up a layer on them that prevent the battery from building many amps to crank the car over.

Then, get you a battery maintainer (I got me one at Harbor Freight for $4.99 and it seems to work) and keep it hooked up under the hood.