Long Story (dead battery) opinions?

[janagler]

I know I don't write often on the boards, but I wanted to share this story and get you opinions.

Tuesday night I left work and headed to the market. When I came out of the store, I tried to start the X, and the battery was totally dead, out of nowhere. I called roadside assistance and they sent someone from AAA battery services. Although he was able to jump the car for me, he told me that his battery meter said the battery was dead and would not start on its own again, but he could change it for me and that he had an X5 battery in his truck. I said, okay, he changed it and that was it.

Used the car on Wednesday, car started right up, no problems.

Then today I tried to start the car. It was dead again, but the airbag light stayed on when I tried to start the car. I waited about 30 seconds and the dome light came on, I tried starting it up and it started, but everything wasn't normal.

The entire instrument panel was messed up. Three gauges worked, the speedometer, temp, and mpg, but the fuel and tachometer stayed on 0 and didn't move. Additionally the entire OBC shut off and no mileage information was displayed either. I confirmed that it had something to do with the computer because on the radio, I couln't use any of the OBC functions either, even the clock didn't work. But the radio and the AC controls work.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I am going to bring the car in tonight to the dealer and hope that BMW will take car of this, because it seems that their roadside assistance person is responsible. Normally, I would never take my car to a stealership.

By the way, it is an 2002 3.0 with about 45K. Any ideas, suggestion, etc would be great. Thanks.