Car won't start after jump starting another car...

So as we were attaching the jumper cables to my E90, the ground clamp popped off and shorted/sparked near the DME/control box grounding bolt. Now my car won't start. It just cranks, but never turns over. The following warning symbols light up: yellow ! in circle with parenthesis around, ! inside triangle with semi circle around with arrow pointing counter-clockwise with ! to the right, and lastly, the yellow car up on the lift. I'm trying to avoid the tow to the dealership... So far, I've checked and ruled out blown fuses in the DME/control box, replaced the light blue relay within the DME/control box, checked multiple fuses in the glove box (but not all..so tedious)..and I've disconnected the battery for at least 15 mins. I have a generic OBD scan tool and it only shows a U0100 (lost communication with ECU). It seems like the car is in a protection mode, thus keep fuel pump from activating... I'm wondering about the power distribution box on the battery, but I'm still getting current from the red jumper post in the engine area, so I'm assuming the fuse there is ok. Any chance the Battery Safety Terminal (BST) would be triggered? Although, that seems to be more related to impact related accidents...? Any help on what else I can check/replace before having to call the tow service is much appreciated!

I believe these batteries now need to be "registered" by the dealer after having been disconnected.

I'd call BMW assist and play dumb about the jump start as we all know "no good deed goes unpunished".

A little knowledge about the electrical system .
Tells me I would never jump another car with my BMW.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...4oRQoA&cad=rja

https://wiki.bentleypublishers.com/d...4242A6C62198A5

Read the above and do voltage checks for starters.
You could have blown out the IBS or blown the battery disconnect device.

They have made these things to complicated .
Registration only needs to be done if you are putting in a new battery.

Thank you both for the quick responses and wealth of info. I finally gave up late last night, swallowed my pride and went to bed in utter defeat. I made the BMW tow call first thing this morning and am still awaiting a diagnosis/solution. Fingers crossed it's not a fried ECU.... Thanks again.

Good luck .... don't feel bad ..... let us know the outcome!

Originally Posted by oldsankey

So as we were attaching the jumper cables to my 2010 335D, the ground clamp popped off and shorted/sparked near the DME/control box grounding bolt. Now my car won't start. It just cranks, but never turns over.

The problem: You have lost your Mojo.

There is a British spy/action documentary on the subject, or you could look into new parts.

Bad, I know....but it can be saved!

You must:

So an update... The dealership has had my car for six days now...and still can't get it started! Day one they advised the DME/ECU needed to be replaced (thank goodness for the warranty) and that took two days for authorization and shipping. Now even with the new DME, the car still won't start. They claim that the after-market air intake/filter is preventing them from getting good diagnostic reads to identify why the car won't start. Seems odd as I've had an after-market air intake/filter on for months with no issues and never threw any codes with it on. They want me to bring the OEM intake/filter in to re-install...and they hope they'll be able to troubleshoot at that point. Seems like the dealership is just fishing around and have no idea as to how to get their car started... So frustrating.

If it still has the MAF Sensor I call BS.

Yeah, MAF sensor remains unchanged and I also made sure I left the metal diffuser screen in place just before the MAF sensor to ensure accurate readings.

to be fair to them, i suspect the jump start event fried quite a bit of electronics gear-- they are probably doing stepwise diagnostics and have to rule out everything as they clear codes.
i would just toe the line with them at this point-- if they discover the failure was caused by an improper jump start event, none of what they are doing would be covered under warranty and you will have a very very large bill to pay.

I totally agree and I hope they don't go that route. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they correct the problem soon and most importantly, they continue to do the work under warranty.

My bet it will be a simple and relatively low cost part covered by warranty.

Originally Posted by laser

I believe these batteries now need to be "registered" by the dealer after having been disconnected.

I'd call BMW assist and play dumb about the jump start as we all know "no good deed goes unpunished".

No they do not. Please research before making uninformed suggestions.

Originally Posted by David1

No they do not. Please research before making uninformed suggestions.

David do you have anything helpful to add or did you just feel like making a useless post?

Originally Posted by laser

David do you have anything helpful to add or did you just feel like making a useless post?

he is correct.
your post that a battery needs to be re-registered after being disconnected was incorrect and not relevant to the OP's issue.
in any case, battery registration (or lack thereof) would not cause a no-start condition.

a new replacement battery needs to be registered as the charging system increases the charging current as the battery ages to compensate. this needs to be reset with a *new* battery to prevent shortening its life by overcharging the new battery

sorry to hear about the problem. i have had few people ask me for a jump before. the thing is i would never jump start anyone elses car with my bmw. theres too many sensors and electronics to risk something happening. people have gotten mad but i always ask them if my car doesnt start if they will pay for repairs. i do carry cables though which i have lent to others to jump their car from someone ese. hope all goes well OP.

Sounds like the the black jumper cable slip and touch a positive terminal on the car which cause the spark. That surge of current could have fired a number of modules, one would hope that the fuse would have protected the circuits but that doesnt seem to be the case here. With that said, I never jump anybody with a modern car, way too much electronics in there to get into trouble. I leave the jumping to AAA or a battery charger.

Never experienced a problem using my e90 for a jump. I'm glad others are more cautious with their precious contacts.

Originally Posted by Orient330iNYC

he is correct.
your post that a battery needs to be re-registered after being disconnected was incorrect and not relevant to the OP's issue.
in any case, battery registration (or lack thereof) would not cause a no-start condition.

a new replacement battery needs to be registered as the charging system increases the charging current as the battery ages to compensate. this needs to be reset with a *new* battery to prevent shortening its life by overcharging the new battery

Not to hijack the thread, but.... It would seem that only BMW replacement batteries could be used as a non-BMW replacement battery could have a different 'aging' profile. Or, am I raising an issue that doesn't apply?

Originally Posted by anE934fun

Not to hijack the thread, but.... It would seem that only BMW replacement batteries could be used as a non-BMW replacement battery could have a different 'aging' profile. Or, am I raising an issue that doesn't apply?

if you switch from an AGM to a flooded battery, there is more coding that needs to be done. otherwise, the charging profile of a lead acid battery is from what i understand pretty much the same for all batteries of the same general type. (bmw uses a bunch of different OEMs for its batteries)

Originally Posted by Orient330iNYC

if you switch from an AGM to a flooded battery, there is more coding that needs to be done. otherwise, the charging profile of a lead acid battery is from what i understand pretty much the same for all batteries of the same general type. (bmw uses a bunch of different OEMs for its batteries)

What about going to a higher capacity AGM battery? Same technology (AGM) as the stock battery, but deep cycle vs std. (non-deep) cycle? I am thinking about a deep cycle AGM battery (like an Optima Yellow top) as a future replacement when the factory battery goes permanently on holiday.

Just to follow-up and close out my "car not starting issue"... I finally picked up my vehicle late yesterday with the following repairs/replacements: DME Gateway Failure. No communication from DME. Replaced DME and Program/Encode to car. Special Measure indicated Gateway not working and replaced the JBE and performed a 2nd programming w/CAS. Switched to ISTA/D and entered fuel injector calibration and EGR adapt. All I can say is wow, thank goodness it was all included in the warranty. I brought my OEM air intake in as requested, but they later said it wasn't necessary. Lesson learned-Don't jump start another car with a BMW...as benign as it seems. Thanks for all the input!

Glad it was covered

Originally Posted by oldsankey

Lesson learned-Don't jump start another car with a BMW...as benign as it seems. Thanks for all the input!

No, the lesson learned is not to use ANY car with a computer to jump a car. Here is some information from Pat Goss on jump starting:

Old-fashioned booster cables can be big problems for late-model cars. You see, they were good back in the day, but back in the day, cars didn’t have a lot of computers and electronics. These can damage computers and electronics because of voltage surges through the electrical system. Throw ‘em away.

You can replace them with a couple of different things: one is a booster battery. They are available in a lot of different configurations from the most basic up to something that has pumps and lights and everything like this Black & Decker does, but their basic function is to connect them to the battery, jump start the car. But remember it is a battery, and if you don’t keep it charged, well, it isn’t going to do you any good at all. Two dead batteries don’t work.

Here’s another option: these are Smart Jumper Cables from Michelin. Now, the first thing that you’ll notice about these is that there’s this big box in the middle of the cables. This is a module-it’s a smart module. Next thing you’ll notice is that all four cable ends are blue. So, here’s the drill: you start with the car that is running-has the good battery. You hook up two of the cable ends, doesn’t make any difference which way you hook them up because polarity is going to be controlled inside the module. Then you come over to the car with the dead battery, you take one of the remaining ends and hook it to the positive battery cable. Now you never hook booster cables-both of them-on the car with the dead battery, right to the battery. You always connect the last connection-the ground connection-to a good clean metal surface on the engine, not to the body because that can lead to its own set of problems. So, just make sure you’re connecting it to something that doesn’t move, and you’ve got a good connection.

Alright, you can also tell by looking at the module because the module has two warning lights on it. They’re both lit, then everything is good to go. If one of them isn’t, then you wiggle the cable ends around until you get a good connection. Both lights are lit-wait a couple of minutes, start the car with the dead battery and disconnect the cables. And no, you don’t have to worry about the surge, because this module has a built-in surge protector that protects both vehicles against that deadly voltage surge.

Glad for the happy ending!

Lean a lot on these boards ...... another lesson for me.

Then there is always AAA .....