Well, I'm back The car has been sitting since my last posts. Finally getting around to working on it again. Oh boy what a mess this thing is.

Here's where I am now. I ordered an ignition switch from the BMW dealer. This makes #4, I think, but the other 3 weren't from the dealer. I installed that, tried to charge the battery (took it out of the car) and it wouldn't charge well. Took it and had it tested and it failed the test. That was a 1 year old Bosch battery, 2nd one that's "gone bad" in the last 2 years. Got a new battery (it was free, thank you!), as soon as I hooked it up, the radio blasted and the fan motor started blowing, all the dash lights lit up. WTH?

Took the glove box out and unplugged the FSU. Hooked the battery back up, everything lights up again, no key in the ignition.

Bumped the key a few times to get oil up into the top of the engine since it's been sitting, then started it. It started fine. Turned the key off and took the key out and the car kept running for about 10-15 seconds. All the lights stay on and then the dash lights start coming on, along with the Engine Failsafe message. Put the key back in, started it, it seems to run fine, then turn it off and take the key out and it keeps running.

Clearly I'm missing something obvious here now? I have the pinout for the ignition harness and I can verify that there's power on the #5,6, and 7 pin.

Anyone got any suggestions on what to check next? In my mind, it appears that the car thinks the key is in a position it's not (possible short on one of the pins, 1,2, 8, or 10). To me, and I could be completely wrong on this, the only way there's power on things like dash, climate control, radio/nav display is because it thinks the key is on. Only way I would think that would be possible is for some power wire to be supplying power to 1,2,8, or 10 wire through a bad wire or crunched wire somewhere.

Suggestions anyone? Only thing I can do is go back and pull the battery connections to make it all stop.