Car lost all electric power, went dead on road

[TerminatorX5]

Today I faced one of the nightmare scenarios on a road...

first off, I must say that I have brought this Armageddon on myself - I was in a hurry and did not follow proper "procedures"... And this will not (I should say - should not) happen to your ride...

What happened, I was coming home, with both kids in the back seat, playing whatever they play, when all of a sudden, without any previous warning (the signs were there, i just did not pay attention) the car went TOTALLY dark. I was shifting lanes and punched the gas pedal when this happened, the total speed was 35 MPH and I was hoping to pick up a couple extra MPHs to overtake the "slow" traffic... the nav monitor (the brightest light blob in the peripheral vision) went black, the cluster went black, the xenons, the radio... the entire car lost its power... engine was off... (i think it was off, even though come to think about it, it should have been on... maybe should not have...) my hand jumped to 4-way flashers - to no avail... duh... i managed to coast to the left turning lane in front of the traffic signal, and then i stopped... the power locks did not work... kids are screaming... look in the mirror, no cars behind me, i jump out the car, grab the cell phone, turn on the flash light on the phone, shine the light onto the oncoming traffic, to warn them... I am in turning lane, so I should not expect anyone flying into me but driving a black car with NO identifying lights at night is not good... my flares, my flashlights are in the trunk... trunk can't be opened... by now i already know what the problem is... before tackling it, i yell at the kids to get out the car, get onto the median, and once there was no cross traffic, i send them across the street to the sidewalk - just in case if somebody manages to plow into me, at least the kids will be at a safe place...

meanwhile, some dude on a bicycle yells across the street, turn the flashers on... some other dudes, as they pass by in their cars, yell the same thing...my response - total loss of power... the bicyclist is, open the hood, maybe we can jump it... I was like, you got a battery on you??!! he did not, obviously... well, at least he stayed with me and his bike had the blinky thing

Now, what actually has happened...

if you guys remember, I have installed a master cut-off switch and placed it in the spare tire cavity (http://www.xoutpost.com/951035-post76.html). earlier today, i was working on some of my projects, i was tucking away some cables, rerouting some of the previous wires in the trunk area and i had the spare tire out as i was running some video cables... since i only have couple of hours to work on the project, before parents' duties kick in, i had to wrap up the work and was hoping to continue the next day, sunday... and because it is my daily driver, i had to zip everything back up... however!! I was too LAZY to properly secure the spare tire - I did not tie the tire down and just threw it in there... I thought that the tire was a bit too close to the red kill-switch but said - yeah, nothing happened in all that time before, nothing will happen...

obviously, as i punched the gas pedal, the tire shifted and effectively activated the self-destr... the kill-switch...

i managed to open the top hatch and just recently i was explained how to open the bottom hatch in case of power failure... all i needed is a flat blade screwdriver to pop the trim on the inner side of the bottom gate... believe me, i have a screwdriver or two... or even more... but most of my tools are in the trunk, under the sliding floor, which can not be opened without the bottom gate opened, which needs some rigid tool to pop the panel... i found something in the pockets, popped the trim, opened the lower gate, pulled the floor opened, reached in and turned the switch!!! voila!!! the car came to life!!! started the car and went to collect the kids, who were cheering up... thanks to the bicyclist guy who stayed with me...

there are so many lessons here for me...

keep spare tire secure...
have a flashlight in the glove compartment in addition to the trunk
have a tool handy to pop the trim on the lower gate


there are probably more lessons out there but those are the immediate attention ones...

[Lexicon740iL]

Wow....That sucks Term.

I'm glad to hear you the kids and the x made it out safe!

I had it happen to me when my alt failed on me in my E38 while driving through an intersection at night. I thought the inability to turn on my flashers was going to going to get my baby smashed... Luckily I remembered a shurefire tactical light I had with me had a strobe mode so I threw it in the rear window till AAA showed up.

Did you really ask the guy on the the bike if he had a battery when he said jump it?

That's hilarious man

[upallnight]

I have a cutoff switch on my PORSCHE so that during the winter storage I could disconnect the battery from the car electrical and just charge the battery on the maintainer, but you have to physically unscrew it to disconnect it.

I have strobe LED on all my bikes that you could probably keep in the glove compartment for such an emergency. When the Audi wagon crap out on us I made sure the wife and kids were out of the car, even though we were off to the side of the road.

[g300d]

Damn! Glad you and yours are ok!

Maybe self des-kill switch should have some sort of flip cover, like those on missile launch button thingies?

[Brandon002]

I would just remove the kill switch. Just disconnect the battery if/when you need to kill all power.

[TerminatorX5]

@ Lex - I sure did ask him about the battery...

@ upallnight - i will evaluate the locations for my flashlights and a possible strobe light

@ g300d - this is a good idea... i will "borrow" one from work... let's hope nobody will bump into that RED button at work!!! lol... but seriously, thanks for the idea

@ Brandon - I would remove the switch, as the mod is fully reversible (the only things left behind are two small holes in the sliding floor support) but in my particular situation, I would like to keep the switch there, for the power to be disconnected when the car is shipped around on boats... In my line of work i get to haul my car with me, and would rather not deal with a battery that had gone flat, as I believe that once a battery gone flat once, it will not be the same...

I just need to mitigate the issues that incident has uncovered...

[Lexicon740iL]

You might want to pick up one or two of these for the E53 Term.


Battery Powered, Magnetic and hinged for angle adjustment


When you said the bike guy hung with you and he had the flasher thingy I remembered seeing these at the store.

The Safety Award Store - Auto :: Auto Roadside Kits :: Warning Triangle - Magnetic Base

You never know they might come in handy if your comms are down and you need to signal for extraction in the field

[Qsilver7]

Glad the story had a happy ending.

If you have a smart phone...go to the apple store or google play (iPhone or Android...not sure where you get apps for windows)...and look for a free flashlight app that also has a strobe feature. That app has saved my bacon on several occasions in a power outage and at work when I needed light to see.

BTW, do you still have your BMW provided "torch" in the glovebox?

[TerminatorX5]

Lex - very interesting "saucer"!!! i will look into this gadget...

Q - i used an app for the flashlight on the cellphone... this one does not have a strobe but a strobe one is interesting option... ohh.. and the torch... it is probably in there... never was useful, even in the E34 - maybe in the complete darkness of Swiss Alps (or Costa Rican Cierra de la Muerte) the weak light output from the "torch" could draw attention... not in the midst of these roads here...

i am not even sure of that light is working or not... lol...

[g300d]

You're welcome! I hope my suggestion doesnt get a missile launched at someone somewhere LOL!

I always have an AA powered flashlight in my pocket, its a keychain for my house keys as well. Very useful for a variety of jobs and situations. Lots of inexpensive but powerful lights in the market now.