Hi all, recently purchased a 94 530i. I was told by the seller there was an 'occaisional' problem where the car would not turn over.

I found this to happen quite often - there is a clifford alarm/immobiliser fitted so I had a clifford dealer disconnect the immoboliser part of the system.

The problem is still happening. All lights etc come on but nothing happens (not even clicking) when the key is turned to try and start the engine.

There seems to be an occaisional light whirring sound every couple of minutes when it's in this state.

Leaving the car for 15 mins makes the problem go away & it starts fine. Every time it happens. Leaving it for under 10 mins the problem is still there & it seems that trying to start it within this time 'resets' the time we have to leave it (so we then have to wait a full 15 mins more).

Normally the car starts fine - there seems to be no indication that there is a problem with the battery. When the engine turns over it does so perfectly well & starts no problem.

Does anyone have experience of this? Any advice is appreciated.

Best Regards

Mike Chalkley

You might have bad brushes on the starter. The wear out with time and cause intermittent starting problems.

Is it likely that this is affected by heat? I'm thinking of the fact that the problem goes away after about 15 mins.

ALso - are the brushes user-replaceable? I can't see any listed on the https://secure.gsfcarparts.com parts lists.

regards

mike

But if the brushes were bad you would hear the solenoid clicking. Make shure the guy disconnected everything from the immobilizer
Other than that if I remember right there is a few weird devices on this car that make the car not to start, door need to be opened with the key (in case someone break the window and screwdriver start it) so if this is the case there have to be a timer there or some driver detecting device on the seat but I have been told a while ago from unshure source
This might be something for a e34 expert that knows every wire on this car
good luck