TCU Replacement problems

[ifly]

I know I have one of the pre-Bluetooth TCU's but BMW NA is giving me grief about an intermittent issue that has started about six weeks ago.

The problem is my sound system is playing along fine when "silence" occurs anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour, after the first dealer interaction they "upgraded the software" and the problem went away for a week. The next time it happened it went off for an hour and on Sunday I noticed in the dark the wrench and SOS butons flashing along with a nice farting noise

When this first occurred I stopped for 5 minutes in NJ and the service foreman said he had seen this problem twice over two years and it was a TCU replacement to fix the prob. Anyway apparently as of February BMW NA has changed its policy in regard to TCU replacements and a thorough check out has to occur. So I get a call yesterday from the dealer asking about the aftermarket installed equipment (alarm w/anticarjacking/ radar detector/ Icelink) telling me that they will charge me for the issue if caused by the aftermarket goodies (this I understand) however they felt that it was the 2nd alarm even though it has no connection to the audio system and also the problem started after I had a short in the licence plate light.

Anyway I'm starting to ramble but needed to vent Has anyone else had a problem getting an intermittent issue on their TCU replaced?? I have a PUMA case going as well as a call into BMW NA in regards to this issue.

Starting to feel like I did when I had to Lemon my first X