POBeemer
05-10-2006, 05:48 PM
Hi, I have an odd problem, yesterday I went to start my car a 98 740i E38 and I got a brief engagement of the starter but then clicks. I assumed by battery was drained but after significant testing of my battery including load tests etc. My battery proved out to be just fine. I also tried to jump start my car using the approved BMW process but with the same result, the starter would engage but not disengage without turning the flywheel and then it would disengage. After all of this I discovered that right after my initial attempt at starting I had no power to my car whatsoever inside the cab of my car. Meaning, no dome lights nothing to the ignition, no chimes etc. Initially, I suspected the starter but now I'm not so sure, because two trustworthy technicians that I have had work on my car said that a bad starter regardless of problems would not lead to lack of power mentioned above especially dome lights chimes etc. I also noticed that whenever I'm connected to another vehicle via jumper cables I have all the power that I mentioned I didn't have before. I'm now suspecting one of the relays that is above my battery which is mounted in the trunk might have an open in it, but I don't know which of the three is the main relay. There are three relays back there and two of them (light green) seem to check out electrically, one of them (dark green) does not and I think it may be my main relay, I've checked every connection I can put my eyes on and this seems to be the problem. Any experience that anyone has in this area would be appreciated greatly. It may just be simpler if I knew what each of the 3 relays (in the trunk on the starboard side of the car right above the battery) were for.
HELP
HELP