[clubs-fl]

Okay here is the short description:

I connected a new battery, the car doesn't start, it doesn't crank. I can here the fuel pump kicking in and no cranking.
I am getting A0B4 CAS: Engine start, starter operation error.

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And here is the problem in more detail..

I was having problems with my replacement battery for a while now.(for more then 6-8 months) . The dashboard was showing the yellow battery icon for a while. Inpa was also reporting lower cranking amps for the battery.

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I did register that battery I got from Walmart last year into the system and I remember manipulating the amp value with NCS Expert although I couldn't really find out the ah value for the battery. So I did a guesstimate. The reason I mention this is I don't know why the battery died prematurely in less then 16 months. I live in SoFla so weather here maybe a factor.

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Lately the engine was starting a little hesitant, possibly because of the low cranking amps the battery could generate.

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During the past weeks I was out of town and I left my car to my gf, and she couldn't start the engine after her grocery shopping. She did try to start the engine (I am guessing quite a few times) and from what she tells me it was cranking until it couldn't crank anymore

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The roadside assitance couldn't jump start the car and it was towed to my house.

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Once I got back back the first thing I did was replacing the battery, I did retrofit a sears diehard AGM EP-49 battery.

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I registered the AGM retrofit battery with ISTA-P (I changed from a lead based standard battery) and let the ISTA-P code all the other modules and reinitialize the windows etc. completing the registration successfully.

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Of course there were lots of low voltage errors that were thrown in from modules when the battery died but once ISTA-P cleared them they never came back.

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I still see the yellow battery error when I stop the ignition on the dashboard.

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I have a good power supply, battery charger and the battery seems to be fully charged with good voltage. I highly doubt the brand new battery is the problem.

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I unplugged the black IBS cable with the blue socket from the negative terminal to rule out a possible IBS problem and the car still did not crank.

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From my understanding the likely cause is a bad starter, but I just wanted to get second opinion before I order a new starter and spend a day replacing it.

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I know I probably need to check the voltage at the starter when the start button is pressed to diagnose if it is the starter, but I don***8217;t have the diagnostic tool for that which can attach to the cable and the starter is in a very bad place to reach as far as I see.

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Can it also be an alternator problem, since the previous battery somewhat died prematurerly and had lower cranking amps then expected.

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Any input is appreciated.. Thanks..

 

[Spacegray]

I replaced my starter recently (diy) & the indication that it needed to be replaced was that my engine wasnt making any noise at all when I hit the start button. Other humming sounds but nothing from the starter. Also the electronics in my car worked perfectly and even thought I tried to jump start it still nothing. So if your starter is not engaging at all I bet it needs to be replaced. Coincidence you had to replace your battery around the same time. How many miles does your car have? My starter was completely dead but had been going for some time. I knew it was going b/c it stored a code & my cranks were slow.

 

[Spacegray]

If I were you Id check the alternator before replacing the starter. Just to be sure

 

[sptt144]

Unplug the little blue connector at the negative battery terminal. It is the IBS. If it starts, you will need a new IBS and they are not cheap (around $200), It will stop your car from starting and kill your battery.

 

[clubs-fl]

i also believe my problem is with the starter. I ordered the starter and the gaskets for the intake manifold, it will be a diy for me too. My car is at 62K miles
Was it an easy job?
I was looking at the diy guides and I see the breather hose connecting to crankcase is easy to break. Did you manage to take it off w/o breaking.
Also did you replace the gaskets of the manifold, and replace the alu bolts holding the starter in place?
I don't have breaker bar or flex wrench, did you need them while taking off the parts? Especially I was reading the bolt at the back connecting the starter is a pia to get out.
I want to make sure I have all the tools ready and don't have surprises when I start taking off the parts.

I replaced my starter recently (diy) & the indication that it needed to be replaced was that my engine wasnt making any noise at all when I hit the start button. Other humming sounds but nothing from the starter. Also the electronics in my car worked perfectly and even thought I tried to jump start it still nothing. So if your starter is not engaging at all I bet it needs to be replaced. Coincidence you had to replace your battery around the same time. How many miles does your car have? My starter was completely dead but had been going for some time. I knew it was going b/c it stored a code & my cranks were slow.

Doing a bit of research I doubt it is the alternator, because the car should have still cranked with a full battery. Also the battery indicator icon is yellow, with a bad alternator it should have been red. I can't test the alternator now since I can't start the car.

View attachment 580196

If I were you Id check the alternator before replacing the starter. Just to be sure

thanks i have already tried that and the car didn't crank.

Unplug the little blue connector at the negative battery terminal. It is the IBS. If it starts, you will need a new IBS and they are not cheap (around $200), It will stop your car from starting and kill your battery.

 

[Spacegray]

Took me 2-3 hours. I did it by myself tho most of the work was removing the intake plastic parts.

Word of advice, stay organized there are so many screws and bolts I kept them in plastic containers. I hate when screws go missing when I go to re install everything. Also, make note of everything that you unplug as far as the electrical connectors are concerned. Have a cloth or old rag over the latch for the trunk so you dont get locked out. After you disconnected the battery terminal unless you have folding seats you wont be able to get in the trunk.

I checked my gaskets & they were actually in great shape. I didnt replace them this time around but since you bought them you may as well go ahead and replace those since the manifold has to come off anyways.

Also, as far as the bolts for the starter are concerned I did actually replace those. I got them for BMW they were cheap so I figured hey why not.

For the bolt on the starter, I had to run out & grab a ratchet w/a swivel head. It just made it so much easier getting to those e bolts.

 

[Spacegray]

i also believe my problem is with the starter. I ordered the starter and the gaskets for the intake manifold, it will be a diy for me too. My car is at 62K miles

Was it an easy job?

I was looking at the diy guides and I see the breather hose connecting to crankcase is easy to break. Did you manage to take it off w/o breaking.

Also did you replace the gaskets of the manifold, and replace the alu bolts holding the starter in place?

I don't have breaker bar or flex wrench, did you need them while taking off the parts? Especially I was reading the bolt at the back connecting the starter is a pia to get out.

I want to make sure I have all the tools ready and don't have surprises when I start taking off the parts.

Doing a bit of research I doubt it is the alternator, because the car should have still cranked with a full battery. Also the battery indicator icon is yellow, with a bad alternator it should have been red. I can't test the alternator now since I can't start the car.

thanks i have already tried that and the car didn't crank.

How is going have you attempted this yet

 

[clubs-fl]

yes i changed the starter motor last week. it wasn't a very hard diy to be honest. i managed to unplug the breather hoses w/o breaking them they just needed a little bit of patience coming out. i don't understand why they note 90% of the time those hoses break at pelicanparts diy guide.

also i bought a tekton Flex Head Bent Handle Ratchet, which made it very easy working with those bolts in weird places.

overall it wasn't very hard diy at all. i ended up changing the gaskets for the intake manifold since i already had the new ones delivered, however mine also looked like they hardly needed replacing. i also replaced the alu bolts for the starter too..

I bought the brand new starter off Ebay for $55 so it was also a cheap fix. In total i spent around $100 including the tools I had to buy.

anyway the car starts just fine now, the problem was the starter as I was thinking.

however I still get the yellow battery icon on the dash after i stop the engine. I checked the voltages for the alternator and it is charging the battery just fine putting out around 13.9 volts when the engine is running.

i checked the voltage of the car after the car was at least 5, 6 hours in the sleep mode and it read 12.8+volts.
I checked the voltage dip when starting the engine and it fell down to 10.10 v momentarily which should probably be better for a brand new AGM battery but still not that bad.

i am guessing i have a problem with the IBS cable which is throwing the yellow battery error.

How is going have you attempted this yet

 

[Spacegray]

yes i changed the starter motor last week. it wasn't a very hard diy to be honest. i managed to unplug the breather hoses w/o breaking them they just needed a little bit of patience coming out. i don't understand why they note 90% of the time those hoses break at pelicanparts diy guide.

also i bought a tekton Flex Head Bent Handle Ratchet, which made it very easy working with those bolts in weird places.

overall it wasn't very hard diy at all. i ended up changing the gaskets for the intake manifold since i already had the new ones delivered, however mine also looked like they hardly needed replacing. i also replaced the alu bolts for the starter too..

I bought the brand new starter off Ebay for $55 so it was also a cheap fix. In total i spent around $100 including the tools I had to buy.

anyway the car starts just fine now, the problem was the starter as I was thinking.

however I still get the yellow battery icon on the dash after i stop the engine. I checked the voltages for the alternator and it is charging the battery just fine putting out around 13.9 volts when the engine is running.

i checked the voltage of the car after the car was at least 5, 6 hours in the sleep mode and it read 12.8+volts.
I checked the voltage dip when starting the engine and it fell down to 10.10 v momentarily which should probably be better for a brand new AGM battery but still not that bad.

i am guessing i have a problem with the IBS cable which is throwing the yellow battery error.

Congrats Im glad its starting now! Idk perhaps after a certain time the rubber weakens on all those hoses & they just have that as a disclaimer. Fortunately all my hoses are also in great shape considering heat cycling & all.

That battery light tho.
Question: did you register your battery? I may have missed that?
& another: when you start now are your cranks slow? Or sometimes slow? Or the same?

B/c if you registered your battery & the battery is new, you just replaced the starter (which probably shorted out) the only thing left rly would be your IBS but check out these links. Maybe you could make some sense of whats going on w/your car? So you can decide what needs to be done next.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...dhOSc2JggwVqMGg&bvm=bv.60157871,d.cGU&cad=rja

p://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shrani.si%2Ff%2FG%2FfL%2F2lp3YVG1%2Fe90-general-vehicle-elet.pdf&ei=LwnZVPy6LofWoATv24KwCQ&usg=AFQjCNGkuTApihgKgehd-64NgWxT30w5Ig&sig2=Hx0XqNfe5pNZsCpGSZFnKg&bvm=bv.85464276,d.cGU

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=P2mzAf34AGpTkGZOPnfzzg&bvm=bv.85464276,d.cGU

 

[clubs-fl]

i just realized the yellow indicator light is not actually a low battery indicator. that is the yellow indicator for the coolant. i replaced my battery for no reason. probably the previous battery died because the old starter was going bad and she tried to start the engine draining the battery with the dying starter.

 

[clubs-fl]

i didn't see your post before posting mine.
yes you are right i think the previous battery died because the old starter shorted and drained the battery..

i just changed my battery for no reason.
and yes i did register my new battery. did a retrofit fit ISTA-P for AGM 90ah battery. My previous battery was a smaller size and was a lead battery.

Anyway now I got this sorted, since that yellow indicator was a a coolant indicator, which I was confusing for low battery all this time.

Also when I connect the car to the computer and run diagnostics with Rheingold and ISTA-P I get absolutely no errors now.

The yellow coolant indicator shows on the dash after I stop the engine. It has been there for a while maybe for 18 months. I should take care of that today.

Congrats Im glad its starting now! Idk perhaps after a certain time the rubber weakens on all those hoses & they just have that as a disclaimer. Fortunately all my hoses are also in great shape considering heat cycling & all.

That battery light tho.
Question: did you register your battery? I may have missed that?
& another: when you start now are your cranks slow? Or sometimes slow? Or the same?

B/c if you registered your battery & the battery is new, you just replaced the starter (which probably shorted out) the only thing left rly would be your IBS but check out these links. Maybe you could make some sense of whats going on w/your car? So you can decide what needs to be done next.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...dhOSc2JggwVqMGg&bvm=bv.60157871,d.cGU&cad=rja

p://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shrani.si%2Ff%2FG%2FfL%2F2lp3YVG1%2Fe90-general-vehicle-elet.pdf&ei=LwnZVPy6LofWoATv24KwCQ&usg=AFQjCNGkuTApihgKgehd-64NgWxT30w5Ig&sig2=Hx0XqNfe5pNZsCpGSZFnKg&bvm=bv.85464276,d.cGU

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=P2mzAf34AGpTkGZOPnfzzg&bvm=bv.85464276,d.cGU

 

[Spacegray]

i just realized the yellow indicator light is not actually a low battery indicator. that is the yellow indicator for the coolant. i replaced my battery for no reason. probably the previous battery died because the old starter was going bad and she tried to start the engine draining the battery with the dying starter.

Hm I see. Well it sucks but at the same time it doesnt if you look at the whole picture you learned a lot from the diys & still saved a ton of cash.



Is this what it looks like? This indeed is the low coolant indicator. The battery one is yellow and the image is rectangular as well except there are no squiggly wavy lines in it. Supposed to be coolant in this case I suppose

 

[clubs-fl]

yes it is exactly what i am getting.
i checked the coolant resorvoir and the coolant level is REALLY low. just a glimpse of coolant at the base of the reservoir.

I don't notice any leaks, so i wonder how the coolant level is gone so low in a closed system.
I live in SoFla and heat maybe a factor.

I will fill it up and keep an eye on it.

Hm I see. Well it sucks but at the same time it doesnt if you look at the whole picture you learned a lot from the diys & still saved a ton of cash.

View attachment 581327

Is this what it looks like? This indeed is the low coolant indicator. The battery one is yellow and the image is rectangular as well except there are no squiggly wavy lines in it. Supposed to be coolant in this case I suppose

 

[sptt144]

That happened to my friend. Started died and killed the battery.

 

[Spacegray]

yes it is exactly what i am getting.

i checked the coolant resorvoir and the coolant level is REALLY low. just a glimpse of coolant at the base of the reservoir.

I don't notice any leaks, so i wonder how the coolant level is gone so low in a closed system.

I live in SoFla and heat maybe a factor.

I will fill it up and keep an eye on it.

By all means please make sure you check it in the morning BEFORE cold start. Its not a good idea to check it while the engine is hot since the system is pressurized you could scald yourself. Coolant leaks on these cars are a pain b/c the leaks usually evaporate before its spotted. Look for a crusty white residue around hose connections. Also, check your thermostat and water pump. A led flashlight would make a world of difference is spotting them. The plastic expansion tank itself could need to be replaced as when they expand with heat it may only leak from small cracks while youre driving. As you said, make sure you keep the coolant topped off and just pay close attn to the car. Follow up with any changes.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/pa...328i&mg=17&sg=05&diagId=17_0322&q=17137567462

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/partgrp?id=PH53-USA-12-2008-E90N-BMW-328i&mg=17

 

[clubs-fl]

I ended up changing the coolant fluid. There is a good DIY on pelicanparts website for E90.
BMW claims the coolant in the system don't need to be changed for the lifetime of the car. I drained the fluid in the system and I found little black rubber like deposits in the fluid. I think it is a good insurance for the longevity of the coolant system changing the fluid every 4 years.
I checked all the hoses etc and everything looks good, however if I was doing the change again I would get a new drain plug for the radiator.

Overall my car is now error free.

Looking back I am thinking, I can not be confused over the low coolant indicator and low battery voltage indicator for so long. Probably I started having the low coolant problem rather recently and the battery problem was solved after I replaced the battery.

By all means please make sure you check it in the morning BEFORE cold start. Its not a good idea to check it while the engine is hot since the system is pressurized you could scald yourself. Coolant leaks on these cars are a pain b/c the leaks usually evaporate before its spotted. Look for a crusty white residue around hose connections. Also, check your thermostat and water pump. A led flashlight would make a world of difference is spotting them. The plastic expansion tank itself could need to be replaced as when they expand with heat it may only leak from small cracks while youre driving. As you said, make sure you keep the coolant topped off and just pay close attn to the car. Follow up with any changes.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/pa...328i&mg=17&sg=05&diagId=17_0322&q=17137567462

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/partgrp?id=PH53-USA-12-2008-E90N-BMW-328i&mg=17

 

[clubs-fl]

picture of the coolant fluid

 

[Spacegray]

picture of the coolant fluid

Hm Id bet those came from the hoses over time. Its good you changed the coolant tho this has me wanting to change mine too

 

[Spacegray]

"Looking back I am thinking, I can not be confused over the low coolant indicator and low battery voltage indicator for so long. Probably I started having the low coolant problem rather recently and the battery problem was solved after I replaced the battery."

That sounds about right. The w/these cars a lot of times multiple issues will pop up at the same time or around the same time. So I bet here in your case thats what happened

 

[clubs-fl]

Examining the particles closely they do look like the rubber deposits probably stripped from inside the hoses.

I would also advise you to change it if it hasn't been changed before. i don't buy into the BMW's lifetime fluid literature.

From what I have read online BMW was using the same spec coolant fluid in their earlier cars (< 2002) and they were advising the coolant fluid to be changed every fours years.

The BMW OE coolant is Zerex G-48 but that is not easy to find. I used the Zerex G-05.
Of course you can buy the OE coolant from the dealer.

If you are going to do the diy i would suggest you get a drain plug for the radiator.
The only things you need to do to drain the coolant fluid is unscrewing the plastic plug from the radiator and removing the hose from the thermostat.

It is a fairly easy diy, it takes like an hour, an hour and a half at tops including lifting the front of the car, draining the liquid, bleeding the system and checking for the leaks after warming the up the engine etc.

Hm Id bet those came from the hoses over time. Its good you changed the coolant tho this has me wanting to change mine too