Never buy abmw- in winter !

[oldskoolskool]

the negative lead didn't work on the caliper couid only get an earth off the track rod end, which confused me,

The wishbone, anti-roll bar and strut will be insulated via rubber bushes, and the ball joint on the track rod ends may be a very poor conductor.

[Doggy]

That's handy!

I estimate a 2.2 Ohm 100W resistor, connected between this and a convenient earth, will have the desired effect in about 5 hours.

[lozz]

the negative lead didn't work on the caliper couid only get an earth off the track rod end, which confused me,

The wishbone, anti-roll bar and strut will be insulated via rubber bushes, and the ball joint on the track rod ends may be a very poor conductor.

aye true. the jump lead wasn't long enough or it wouid of been welded to the bmw badge the big pile of s...t

[lozz]

That's handy!

I estimate a 2.2 Ohm 100W resistor, connected between this and a convenient earth, will have the desired effect in about 5 hours.

[Busman]

Bloody hell! All this buggering about because it doesn't have a key hole?

[mjb]

Yeah I had that fun with my last bimmer. Took the battery out to charge and closed the tailgate so I could close the garage door... Oops. The E39 tailgate is solenoid-opening, not mechanical.

Thankfully I could get in the other doors, so I ended up dropping the back seat and climbing through to hit the interior mechanical opener

And here's the reason guys we buy French

Like the 307 or 407, also with electric tailgates?

Also, I quite like having the battery in the boot. With the size and weight of the bloody things (nearly twice the size, and 25Kg compared to 14Kg for a hdi90 battery) there's less back pain involved in swapping, more weight on the driving wheels, and more room under the bonnet for the V8 goodness

[Doggy]

....and a lot more volt drop due to the longer battery cables while your starter attempts to coax that little V8 into life

[mjb]

....and a lot more volt drop due to the longer battery cables while your starter attempts to coax that little V8 into life

Well it's a heck of a hefty cable - around 0 gauge, which is 0.0003224 Ω/m, say there's 4m to the starter (8m including return trip which we'll presume to also be the same resistance). That makes 0.0025792Ω in wire resistance.
Let's presume the starter takes 600A. Single-phase voltage drop according to wikipedia is (2LRI)/1000 = (2*8m*0.0025792Ω*600A)/1000 = 0.025v

[Welly]

[steve_earwig]

Connections are usually worse for resistance than the cables anyway. Real Minis used to have it in the boot, there just wasn't room under the bonnet for one.

[highlander]

BMW Isetta (the UK 3-wheeler edition) had the battery under your seat. A special feature of this car was that the seat springs would short the battery out, particularly if the driver is heavier than the average bear...

[steve_earwig]

I've heard of that happening to Beetles - the battery is under the rear seat on those. Same for MGBs.

[Welly]

A special feature of this car was that the seat springs would short the battery out, particularly if the driver is heavier than the average bear...

Nah that was the heated seat feature

[mjb]

A special feature of this car was that the seat springs would short the battery out, particularly if the driver is heavier than the average bear...

Nah that was the heated seat feature

[Doggy]

....and a lot more volt drop due to the longer battery cables while your starter attempts to coax that little V8 into life

Well it's a heck of a hefty cable - around 0 gauge, which is 0.0003224 Ω/m, say there's 4m to the starter (8m including return trip which we'll presume to also be the same resistance). That makes 0.0025792Ω in wire resistance.
Let's presume the starter takes 600A. Single-phase voltage drop according to wikipedia is (2LRI)/1000 = (2*8m*0.0025792Ω*600A)/1000 = 0.025v

It's a DC circuit, volt drop is simply I x R, to use your figures, 600 x .0025792 = 1.55 V.

Doesn't sound too much? Bear in mind your battery voltage will be somewhere in the region of 7-8 Volts when delivering 600A. now it's not so insignificant.