car dies, need help

[barry 90 525i]

hi, 90 525i automatic, several times in last couple of days when my daughter was driveng my car, it has died completely all of a sudden, no electrical power, it starts right up again, happned when backing up and while driving straight, i drove it all around and couldnt duplicate it, i dont see anything obvious, is there anything that i should check?, thanks

[BMWDriver]

Have a look at the battery under the rear seat, see if the cable to that bat is loose any. (I'd be suprised, but you never know.)

[barry 90 525i]

my battery is under the hood, that was the first thing i looked at, could a bad alternater cause it?, but then it starts right back up, it has me baffled.

[ThoreauHD]

http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/maintenance/electrical/fusible_link.htm

[BMWDriver]

Unfortunately, I'm no electrical systems specialist. My other uneducated guess from other posts would be a relay. We'll have to wait for a more experienced reply.:(

But someone here had a different problem where the alt fan would come on with a couple of faint dash lights coming on when the engine was off, key out, and it turned out to be a relay problem.

Mind you, with a Toyota I used to own, I blew the alternator, and so all the electrical had gone. I jumped started it a couple of times (push, 2nd gear... that routine) and took it to a garage.

Perhaps a look at the Bentley manual might help. You can download it. Somewhere within the threads here is a link to a 60MB file in pdf.

[BMWDriver]

Ah, here we go, fusible link. I do like to type for no good reasons sometimes.