Car won't restart immediately

[bsun]

Here is the annoying problems:
If I turn off the engine I cannot immediately restart the car. When I turn the ignition key, checking lights turn on but no sound at all (no cranking sound). I have to wait for a couple of minutes before I can restart the engine.
I drove my car to the dealer to check the problem out, the car worked just fine that day(!!!). Dealer did not find anything, except that there was an engine misfire---That was about a month or so ago.
Last night returning from work, the problem happened again.
I found out that if the car is cold, I can shutdown the engine and restart it immediately with no problem.
Car is 01 530i stick.

Please advice.
Thanks

[bsun]

Thanks for replying. The battery is the original so it must be almost 6 years old. I guess it is time to check it out.
One more question, though, if the battery is weak, why do you think I can do a repeat cold restart without any problems, but could not do it once the car has been warmed up?
Thanks everyone for replying.
Ben

[Bob]

High mileage,or many starts? sounds like the starter might not like hot starts, clean the battery terminals first.

[bsun]

milage is around 50000. Almost drive it daily: once in the morning, once in the evening. So average 2 starts a day.

[seventy5]

start wih the battery, 6 years is pushing it. the dealer probably got the car turned it over a couple times, it worked, so they read codes. a battery, starter, etc won't throw a code, and dealer techs usually won't poke around unless they get a code...quantity not quality.
electrical equipment requires more current when they are hot, so when it's cold that might be helping the starter to kick the motor over, even though the starter is on the opposite side of the exhaust manifold it still gets pretty warm.