[AWest1991]

I had to replace a thermostat to water pump hose and all was good on the repair side but when I got everything back together I read on pelican parts tech articles that you need to bleed the cooling system by turning on the ignition, setting heater to the hottest setting and fan speed low, then hold the gas pedal for 10 seconds to start the process which runs the coolant pump for 12 minutes.

Well when i went to do that my battery ended up being dead so I threw the BMW charger I had on the battery and left it for an hour or so then tried it. What happened was when I got to the gas pedal part I held it for 10 seconds and on the 10th second my cluster started flashing and flickering for a few seconds then all of a sudden everything went black and I could hear a noise which I think was the pump running like it said it was supposed to do and after about a minute of that it stopped and no other sounds or anything happened so I left it for about 15 minutes then got in the drivers seat to start the car it wouldn't do anything at all. I tried to pull my key out, I tried starting it, I tried everything including unplugging the battery for about 45 minutes but still nothing. It won't even spit my key out of the ignition.

Please help if you have any idea what it could be

Thanks in advance

[LGCubana]

If the battery died, A trickle charger would have to be used for an extended amount of time, not just an hour.

[JP.Williams]

Need to charge that for much longer and leave the charger attached while completing your work

[roadkillrob]

The bleed procedure doesn't involve the seat heater which is what would have killed your car as it has a huge current draw.

Venting Procedure (to get the trapped air out of the system)

17) Insert the key into the dash slot and hit the starter button (but don’t start the engine – e.g. keep your foot off the bake/clutch).
18) When the ignition is on, set the heater to the highest temp (84 deg.) and set the fan on low.
19) Hold down the accelerator pedal for 10 seconds then release. This activates the water pump and it will cycle for about 12 minutes to vent all the trapped air into the coolant reservoir (it sounds like a min washing machine). Don’t open the reservoir cap or bleed screw during the venting process! (you’ll have start the process over) You may want to hook up a extra battery to the under-hood jumper points to keep the car’s battery from running down.

[DJtoad]

If that was sufficient to drain your battery, you're probably in need of a new one. But as others have said, it's going to take a long time to charge a battery using a trickle charger. I believe your car came stock with a 70 Amp-Hour battery (around 700 CCA). It will take 11+ hours to charge a 70 Ah battery to 80% using a 6 Amp charger. If your charger is one of the 1.25 Amp models it's going to take days. Personally, I'd just replace the battery if you intend to keep the car. There are lots of battery replacement threads. While it's preferable to register the new battery with the car (tells the ECU it's been replaced so that it can adjust the charge rate/cycle) it's not absolutely necessary unless you switch battery types. Registering it will simply extend the life of the battery a bit.

[DJtoad]

Originally Posted by roadkillrob

The bleed procedure doesn't involve the seat heater which is what would have killed your car as it has a huge current draw.

What makes you think he turned on the seat heater? In fact, living in Phoenix, I bet his car doesn't even have that option.

[roadkillrob]

Originally Posted by DJtoad

What makes you think he turned on the seat heater? In fact, living in Phoenix, I bet his car doesn't even have that option.

I swear I read he turned his seat heater on high, must have been reading it too early!

Read it again and he did everything correct, sounds like battery is just week and he killed it. If the BMW trickle charger is the battery tender style one, it won't charge anything in an hour - could take a day to get the battery charged, but by the description the battery is definitely dead.

If it is the original battery in your 2006, it has lasted about 2 or 3 years longer than normal and probably just time for a new one.

[fazman]

Originally Posted by AWest1991

I had to replace a thermostat to water pump hose and all was good on the repair side but when I got everything back together I read on pelican parts tech articles that you need to bleed the cooling system by turning on the ignition, setting heater to the hottest setting and fan speed low, then hold the gas pedal for 10 seconds to start the process which runs the coolant pump for 12 minutes.

Well when i went to do that my battery ended up being dead so I threw the BMW charger I had on the battery and left it for an hour or so then tried it. What happened was when I got to the gas pedal part I held it for 10 seconds and on the 10th second my cluster started flashing and flickering for a few seconds then all of a sudden everything went black and I could hear a noise which I think was the pump running like it said it was supposed to do and after about a minute of that it stopped and no other sounds or anything happened so I left it for about 15 minutes then got in the drivers seat to start the car it wouldn't do anything at all. I tried to pull my key out, I tried starting it, I tried everything including unplugging the battery for about 45 minutes but still nothing. It won't even spit my key out of the ignition.

Please help if you have any idea what it could be

Thanks in advance

If you are charging your battery, please use the jump points from inside the engine bay (NEVER USE THE ACTUAL BATTERY POSTS IN THE TRUNK, if u charge or jump start from the trunk u may blow out the junction box and thats a cool $1k to fix).

Search for how to get into the hidden menu in the kombi, i believe test#9 will show u you battery voltage. It needs to be above 11v to crank the motor.

I agree with the other posters... If your battery is over 4+ years old and you plan to go thru the effort to remove the battery to re charge it... U might as well install a new battery instead because its not worth the effort/time to put in an old battery. If you do a like for like battery swap (same type agm/lead acid, same AH rating +/- 5 AH rating, then u will not need to re-code the car). Registering a battery is a nice to do if u are swapping like for like, not required. It is highly recommended to register a new battery if you are coding for a different battery type AGM/lead acid and/or different AH rating.

[Efthreeoh]

So the first thing you should do is simply jump start the car and get it running. Then once you've driven the car for a few hours, the battery should be charged back to normal. However, if the battery is original, then a new battery is probably called for. The bleeding procedure states to connect a 12V charging device to the under hood battery connections while performing the bleeding. I always use a spare car battery (with jumper cables) that I keep in the garage.

[AWest1991]

Ya that's what I was thinking but I figured the lights or something would turn on once I plugged the charger in but I understand amperage and I inded have the 1.25a model and I left it on all night since that happened so about 12 hours now and still nothing. But funny thing is it was late last night and I went to Bimmerpost and went to the e90 site instead of the e60 site because this happened on my 2008 535i not my 2006 325i. I still have the 3er sitting out front I'm going to open my garage and jump the 5er with it but the problem is the front of the 5 is at the front of the garage and it's parked diagonally so I can't reach the jumper cables to the jumping points up front. Should I just jump it from the battery or go a different route by trying to get the car out of the garage to jump it properly? (The car is dead completely and I have the new shift knob where you don't physicslly use the knob to put it into neutral so I can't roll it back)

[AWest1991]

I would remove my 3 battery but that would be too much of a pain

[DJtoad]

Originally Posted by AWest1991

(The car is dead completely and I have the new shift knob where you don't physicslly use the knob to put it into neutral so I can't roll it back)

Instructions for placing your 535i into Neutral are in the owner's manual. In a nutshell you pop off the shifter trim plate, insert the screwdriver that came with your car (toolkit in the trunk lid) into a special hole, and pull back until it clicks. If you can't find the screwdriver that came with your car, any screwdriver that fits in the hole and isn't too long will work.

[Meeni]

You should do the pump priming procedure with the charger plugged. Now you need to recharge your battery for a long time. If that doesn't solve the problem, the battery has been damaged by being fully discharged and you need a new battery.

[batman_e92]

Wow I'm just reading this now and I read on this site a while back that symptoms of a bad battery is over hearing cause the dieing battery can't operate the elctric water pump properly ... That could have been ur problem all along .... Good luck with bro sounds like a pain in the a$$ |

[Greyfox]

Weak and bad batteries will cause all kinds of gremlins to show up in these cars. Mine manifested as a the CCC display going nuts and turning pink.

[AWest1991]

It was definitely the battery. I ended up taking my chances and jumping from the rear and all was well. I did the cooling system bleed and started it with no further problems except the smoke that filled my garage coming from the wd40 still on the brand new catless downpipes I installed at the same time I did the water pump

[AWest1991]

Thanks all who responded I appreciate the help guys!