Rain is killing me

[Bananafone]

I thought I might be in the clear but this AM with about 3 inches of rain I'm back to the same errors, weird blinker skipping, and iDrive screen flicker.

The two wire harnesses that run across the engine were mostly dry, a couple drips of water on them maybe. The connections under the climate filters also pretty dry.

What I did notice is both firewalls are pretty soaked, is this normal? Am I missing a part or something that seals the microfilter housing covers to the windshield?

these:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=64_1569

I'm about to rip out the glove box and see if anything is getting wet back there.

Daytona thank you for your suggestions. I'm almost thinking that water is getting past the firewall somehow like through the boots or something

WontonMH I'll definitely post any progress

[Daytonawim]

My guess could be that you have a problem with the plastic cuver at the windscreen.

When not all the water is routed as suppoost, it could run behind the cuver, and streams along the firewall.

One the picture you could see how the water should leave.

On the other you could see were water is going, when its routed behind the windscreen trim

There is a trim along the window, an big cover on top, en a cover where the filters zitting in. No other parts.
If you feel on the edges on the topcover and window trim, you could feel that it’s a bit soft. If that hardens out you could easy get on wanted gaps.

Hope it’s of some help

[Bananafone]

progress update
checked both firewall boots behind the drivers side and passenger side footwells, both were dry.

while beating my head against the wall, I opened the rear doors and water fell out of the right door between the two weather seals. found the carpet nice and wet! pulled the trim and definitely water had been leaking here... might have been the culprit the entire time! drying it out in the garage as I type.. really hoping this clears it up and also hoping the cat doesn't find his way into the x5. Will have to repair the vapor barrier on the door before it rains next.


Recap: by this point I have unclogged the front firewall drains and have unclogged the rear and front sunroof drains and pulled the rear headliner to visually inspect those rear drains... AND sealed the vent in the body panel below the fuse box in the trunk as that was also leaking when hosed down. surprisingly the rear tail light gaskets were not leaking at all. I pulled all the wiring harnesses below the microfilter and the same errors were still persisting although a myriad of others since I had pulled the DME connectors and the IPM plugs.

wantonMH: check your carpet in the rear by the door sills the next time it rains or better yet hose down the windows and you should be able to see relatively quickly...!

BF

[ard]

There are modules on the floor under the passenger seat. you may wish to focus on drying them out and cleaning those contacts.


FWIW.. there is massively thick paddingunder the carpet- Ive had to remove seat and pry up the carpeting, prop it up, then place a fan and heater for a few days.


GL

[WontonMH]

Mirroring our issues with the wet firewall insulation pads and dry wiring harnesses unfortunately. Mine also did not appear to be problematic. That’s hopefully a great smoking gun you found on yours. It rained a bit yesterday here, so I just went out and checked my carpets and they’re pretty dry. I might hose it down before I load it up on the trailer as a last ditch. Otherwise, I’m throwing in the towel here and dropping the car off at an Indy shop today. We’re going out of town on Thursday and I’m currently on leave so I’d rather just pay someone to get it right. Hoping that I can walk them through everything I’ve done and get them to a solution either. Or maybe I just didn’t check something correctly.

Either way, I will let you know what they identify as the problem on mine is so that you can look there and hopefully find a solution.

[Bananafone]

Appreciate the helpful input here!!

I ran a fan overnight after pulling up the carpet. More of an observation but that giant bundle of wire below the fuse box in the trunk runs right under that door, so the same errors when that is flooded are found here probably, and consistent with my experience.

I also found my battery voltage quite dead, around 11.9-12.0. charged overnight as I think that can also cause gremlins.

Started the truck this morning, still definitely some humidity and some errors. Blasted the AC out of the rear vents for 30 minutes and boom, zero DME errors and the iDrive screen finally stopped blinking. I think it helps that when the b pillar vents are closed it blows under the carpet (by design!? Nah..)

I’m guessing just a slow leak through that carpet can cause this headache of an issue.

I pulled the door card off and, not surprising, the vapor barrier basically came with it. Butyl tape arrives Thursday.

Going to button back up probably this weekend and pray this solves it.

Good luck wonton.

Edit: I should add it effing poured yesterday which probably lead me to finding the water.

[Bananafone]

I spoke too soon. This morning: christmas tree dashboard, no communication from dashboard to DME, aircon started blowing hot air and idrive screen blinking. maybe there's more water under the carpet or I'm still not getting to the root of the problem. ugh.

Weird thing is I drove about 100 miles yesterday without issue, and we didn't have rain last night.

Battery was down to 12.3V... charged back up to 12.6 still having issues.

Ard perhaps I should listen to your advice and pull up the passenger seat and check the connections... a bad module wouldn't take the entire system down though, would it?

[andrewwynn]

Anything on the can bus can short out the whole system


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Daytonawim]

If the stuf under the carpet is soaked with water, it’s a lot of work to get it dry, that will take more than a few day’s to dry out.

The insulation works like a Sponge.

[ard]

Originally Posted by Bananafone

a bad module wouldn't take the entire system down though, would it?

ABSOLUTELY can


Intermittent signals on one modules buss connection can cause all SORTS of sporadic errors in other modules.