Halp! Car won't do anything when I turn the key

[HAULN-SS]

So I was doing my front brakes today and was listening to the car's radio. Something happened, I don't know what, where when I looked in the car, the dash lights and shit were going crazy, and the music had quit. I turned the key off, and tried to turn it back on , and I don't get a single light, a click, nothing. Can't turn any lights of the car on. Did I somehow trip some theft thing? Anyone got any suggestions?

[HAULN-SS]

This is the malibu, btw.

[BLINGMW]

Have you checked the battery voltage? Are you sure you didn't kill it? It could have very well been able to play music as the battery continued to be drained far past the point where it could run anything else.

[HAULN-SS]

Well that ended up being the winnar I guess. I swapped in the battery from the monte for a few minutes to test and everything went to normal. I guess the flashing UFO lights in the cockpit is what freaked me out.

On a side note, I broke down and bought a dewalt cordless impact, and that is fucking awesome to have around. Being able to do wheel lug nuts in like 10 seconds compared to 5 - 10 minutes with my breaker bar + sockets makes changing brakes a breeze. Though I did break a 1/2->3/8s reducer, that i was trying to use with my 3/8 deep well sockets. Some fucking guy at jiffy lube incredible-hulked a lug nut on when I last got my tires rotated I guess. Gave me an excuse to also use my impact sockets.

[Goodspeed]

I had something similar happen in the XJ recently, shit was weird. In the space of a few days, I first noticed that all my radio presets were gone (after starting right up). Then the next day it wouldn't start at all, no clicking, nothing, so I drove the Miata to work. The day after it started right up again, but died soon after getting to Advance - new battery did the trick.

[ViPER1313]

The dash on my moms Mazda 6 went bat shit insane when the battery died. Gauges flailing, warning lights, etc..

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[Jake]

Just be glad you don't have a newer BMW. The battery has to be "re-coded to the car" when it's replaced... aka you can't do it yourself.

[BLINGMW]

Just be glad you don't have a newer BMW. The battery has to be "re-coded to the car" when it's replaced... aka you can't do it yourself.

wot?! Tell me what model year that started so I can make that my official BMW cutoff date.

[Jake]

I think it's post-E46 stuff... like whenever iDrive got intro'd.