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[JasonH]

Just had a look at my bmw hand book out of curiosity. With reference to jump starting there is nothing unusual mentioned, with the exception of allowing a diesel to run for ten minutes prior to using it as a donor car.
As mentioned, they do have a +live post clearly marked with a big red cover under the bonnet but the starting procedure is pretty standard. It does say not to have the donor car running until the jump lead connections are complete but apart from that nothing any different.

I think that the by the time the F series came out all the modules are robust enough to survive a jump start. The service bulletin was issued for E series cars.

[YZ250]

Just had a look at my bmw hand book out of curiosity. With reference to jump starting there is nothing unusual mentioned, with the exception of allowing a diesel to run for ten minutes prior to using it as a donor car.
As mentioned, they do have a +live post clearly marked with a big red cover under the bonnet but the starting procedure is pretty standard. It does say not to have the donor car running until the jump lead connections are complete but apart from that nothing any different.

I think that the by the time the F series came out all the modules are robust enough to survive a jump start. The service bulletin was issued for E series cars.

 

I had several E92's (330d/335d's) but never bothered looking at the hand book/supplements so I wouldn't have noticed that. 

[biggriffin]

When i was a boy in tut war, we was told on the car with the flat battery, make sure headlights are switched on, to eliminate voltage surge.

[Doctor Gollum]

X5s were particularly fragile* for inappropriate jump starting...

Not exactly robust elsewhere either

[Nick W]

As jump-starting is a fact of life with cars of whatever vintage, surely the designers of modern car electronics should have incorporated a simple over-voltage protection to their sensitive circuitry? It IS easyto do!

Ron.

you've forgotten that German engineers don't expect their products to break down, so such measures are unnecessary.


There are worse problems though: Mercedes are particularly good at them. Many of the bigger cars won't shift out of park unless the engine is running. So how are you supposed to move it if it  won't start? The FWD ones have a different issue, in that they automatically move back into park after a few seconds. Winching one onto a truck is a tedious business.

[Lazydocker]

The instructions came Direct from BMW Assist. It has now been rescinded 

[BazaJT]

At one time[not long ago] if you tried a booster pack on some Fords-C-Max for one-it would blow the radio/head unit at least.

[TD]

As jump-starting is a fact of life with cars of whatever vintage, surely the designers of modern car electronics should have incorporated a simple over-voltage protection to their sensitive circuitry? It IS easyto do!

Ron.

you've forgotten that German engineers don't expect their products to break down, so such measures are unnecessary.


There are worse problems though: Mercedes are particularly good at them. Many of the bigger cars won't shift out of park unless the engine is running. So how are you supposed to move it if it  won't start? The FWD ones have a different issue, in that they automatically move back into park after a few seconds. Winching one onto a truck is a tedious business.

Have a look around the shift, theres probably a small flappy bit of plastic which you can poke a screwdriver down and move a plastic lock lever, that then enables you move the auto shift out of park. There was on my c220 

[Andy B]

As jump-starting is a fact of life with cars of whatever vintage, surely the designers of modern car electronics should have incorporated a simple over-voltage protection to their sensitive circuitry? It IS easyto do!

Ron.

you've forgotten that German engineers don't expect their products to break down, so such measures are unnecessary.


There are worse problems though: Mercedes are particularly good at them. Many of the bigger cars won't shift out of park unless the engine is running. So how are you supposed to move it if it  won't start? The FWD ones have a different issue, in that they automatically move back into park after a few seconds. Winching one onto a truck is a tedious business.

Have a look around the shift, theres probably a small flappy bit of plastic which you can poke a screwdriver down and move a plastic lock lever, that then enables you move the auto shift out of park. There was on my c220 

But more & more models have an electrically operated column change .... like mine. I believe free wheeling hubs are available for these cars 

[Nick W]

As jump-starting is a fact of life with cars of whatever vintage, surely the designers of modern car electronics should have incorporated a simple over-voltage protection to their sensitive circuitry? It IS easyto do!

Ron.

you've forgotten that German engineers don't expect their products to break down, so such measures are unnecessary.


There are worse problems though: Mercedes are particularly good at them. Many of the bigger cars won't shift out of park unless the engine is running. So how are you supposed to move it if it  won't start? The FWD ones have a different issue, in that they automatically move back into park after a few seconds. Winching one onto a truck is a tedious business.

Have a look around the shift, theres probably a small flappy bit of plastic which you can poke a screwdriver down and move a plastic lock lever, that then enables you move the auto shift out of park. There was on my c220 

That doesn't apply to the ones with electronic shift levers on the steering column. Certain BMWs are the same. The original X5 had a manual release(the toolkit had a plastic thing supplied by Ann Summers to do this) which was deleted on later models.

JLR get electronic shifters and handbrakes right; they DO have a manual release. the

[Kevin Wood]

Can't believe Panzerwankywagens have such fragile electrics as this while everyone else has managed to make electronics in cars pretty much bomb proof. ..   

Hang on though.. Yes, perhaps I can.

[Mister Rog]

This is all news to me. My Volvo has battery right in the back. Never even looked at it, maybe I should.

So the risk is to your car if you are being jump started, not if you are jump starting another vehicle ?

Sorry for being so thick . . .

[Doctor Gollum]

This is all news to me. My Volvo has battery right in the back. Never even looked at it, maybe I should.

So the risk is to your car if you are being jump started, not if you are jump starting another vehicle ?

Sorry for being so thick . . .

Read the handbook, but only ever use the engine bay terminals for jump starting purposes

[Marks DTM Calib]

Can't believe Panzerwankywagens have such fragile electrics as this while everyone else has managed to make electronics in cars pretty much bomb proof. ..   

Hang on though.. Yes, perhaps I can.

'It woz not in zee spec!'

[Nick W]

This is all news to me. My Volvo has battery right in the back. Never even looked at it, maybe I should.

So the risk is to your car if you are being jump started, not if you are jump starting another vehicle ?

Sorry for being so thick . . .

Read the handbook, but only ever use the engine bay terminals for jump starting purposes

But not on an XJ Jag! Those are done off the battery in the boot and the earth stud in the wheel well provided for the job.