Greetings all, I am new to the r53 world as I picked her up last month. I had a week battery when it was purchased and the other day on the ride home I noticed flickering in the headlights and pulling in the driveway I was seeing complete loss of coolant temp readings and associated dash lights. Went to start it and nothing but a ticking noise coming from within the dash. This ticking noise persisted for 2 days, tried to jump the car and got nothing but a click. Thinking it was the battery I replaced it but I just hooked it up and got a singular tick from the starter trying to turn on and an immediate loss of power to everything. Checked all the fuses and hard reset the system by touching the terminals and that regained electric but everytime I go to engage the starter-- complete loss of all power. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Would shifty aftermarket led turn signals cause this? Do I have a bad ground somewhere or is my starter or relay toast? Thank yall!

 

It may have been stated may times here but I'll reiterate by suggesting to check and/or clean the large ground wire on the furtherist front of the engine on the passenger side near the upper engine mount.
I have a 04 pre-facelift R53 and had a similar loss of power/stumble coupled with dash lights and gauges going wacko - this was completely resolved when I discovered a missing 10mm nut securing one of 2wo main wiring BUS. Depending on year -These BUS are flat looking plates with a bunch of small wires connected to it.
It/they are located right or left just under the hood locking hindge. The BUS are grounds or need to be grounded. They/it maybe hard to spot right away on a dirty engine but once you do, clean contact surfaces and tighten the 10mm nut. On the early 2002-pre-facelift models, there are 2wo - one on each side (R & L) below the hood locking hindges.
Good Luck.

 

How are you at cars in general? Are you skilled diy on Euro platform stuff, or just starting.

you have some issues - check all your connections. What brand battery did you buy? Is this a sunroof car? The roofs leak, and water makes a mess under the carpet, and to other modules.

where are you located / salt belt cars can have corrosion issues that are a pain to resolve.

 

I am replying here so that I can keep track of this thread.


 

this does sound like bad grounds. i'd start by checking the obvious ones. i'm bad with electrical