Hi All,

We currently have a 2012 F10 520d. Have it since the end of April but sometime in August it started to give trouble when starting. Initially, it would start OK 99% of the time, but since then seems to have got more frequent and now maybe 30% of the time it has trouble starting. (I should say that it’s the wife’s car mainly so I don’t drive it that often so that’s a bit of a guess).

So what happens is that when I press the start button (car has auto start-stop) with the brake pedal pressed, everything lights up (full dash lights, all looks ok) but nothing else happens i.e. no starter cranking or anything like that. Switch off & try again, nothing again. If I repeat this several times, the engine will eventually fire up. Sometimes just before it fires, it will try & turnover but without firing. Generally, at the next attempt, it will fire up ok. What I have noticed, is that just before it eventually fires up, I can hear a little click coming from the glove box (like a relay switch engaging or something).

The other thing that happens is there are several error messages coming up. It seems to need to cycle through & identify all these before it will start. Once it does though, it seems to fire up almost straight away.
• Driving Stabilisation Failure
• Flat Tyre Monitor (RPA),
• Parking Brake only partially available,
• Limited fuel supply.

So I brought it back to the dealer who said it was out of warranty (of course) but that they’d send it to their electrics place & for goodwill, will sort it for trade prices (whatever that means, but fair enough). However, that was back at the end of September. They still have it and still can’t isolate the cause. I should add that it was in Frank Keane’s in Blackrock for a day in August but they couldn’t find the problem either & they charged me €300 for a diagnostic health check which showed “potential” low voltage in the battery. Didn’t fancy paying that kind of money again hence going back to dealers.

Has anyone experienced anything similar, and would any of you more electrical / mechanically minded folk out there hazard a suggestion as to what it could be? The car performs faultlessly once it’s going, no issues, no other faults appearing etc. I’m also getting very concerned about the cost of this given that they have had the car for over 3 weeks now. What way do garages charge if they can’t find/resolve a problem? In my work, if we don’t deliver we don’t get paid, regardless of how long we spent trying to deliver. Not sure how this is gonna work out.

Appreciate any help on this.