Help! Electrical gremlins driving me nuts!
 

Hello guys!
I love my '02 X5, 130k miles and I need help from the Xoutpost gurus to help me troubleshoot my baby, I think it is a short because it happens intermittently, here are the symptoms:

It’s either the entire list below or none:
1. Seat Belt light on
2. No Steering Wheel controls (none)
3. No Wipers (front or rear)
4. No Horn
5. No lights on the vanity mirrors
6. The buttons where the heated seats and DSC cancel are not working
7. Tail Brake lights (sides and center) stay on all the time when the switch is on position 3.
8. Radio works independently from the car, it stays on after I shut off the engine but, stays on 25 min while driving and then shuts down, does not let me access the computer settings, not even set the time on the clock.

I have checked all the fuses and they are ok. I am thinking on two possible solutions:

1. Change the battery, there is no trouble at all when starting the car, not even in cold days but the guys from autozone checked it and the tester said bad battery plus the LED in the battery is not lit. ( I don’t know how old the battery is though)

2. Change the ignition switch, but I think it may not be it because the airbag light is not lit and when opening the mirror in the passenger side visor nothing happens (no steering wheel movement, nothing)


Last month during a heavy rain my interior lights were suddenly turned on and started dimming, the DSC, BRAKE and ABS lights also came on at the same time, along wiht the trans fail safe prog. Before that day everything worked fine.

Please share your thought with me, I try to ignore it but I can't it's just really annoying :rolleyes:

Update: Today I disconnected the battery for a few hours. After connecting it back the only difference is that now the seat belt light is not lit.... whether I'm using the seat belt or not.... :s The rest of the symptoms remain the same.

I feel your pain. I too am having electrical issues. And I'm going to change my ignition switch. I've done the battery reset thing and installed a brand new high quality battery. That made no difference so it's on to the switch. It's only $50 to buy a new one and looking in the Bentley manual it seems a straight forward job to do myself.

It's worth a try.

Good luck :thumbup: tell me how it goes!

What symptoms do you have? Did you tested your old batt?

I was going to buy a new battery this monday but I don't know whether to go for the ignition switch first...:dunno: I even thought on cleaning the I/S and if it worked just get it new and install it.

Rafa you have so many electrical gremlins that it must be a bad earth somewhere I would start with the one in the boot and work round cleaning and tightening them. Not a sparky but def sounds bad earth.

-Update - Solved -
Ok guys, finally I got rid of this problem...

Got the battery and alternator tested at local Autozone, both are fine. Initial test for the battery I got a 'bad battery' message, because the guy performed the test from the terminals in the front. Then we tested directly on the battery and it passed the test.

Next, test for parasite current (to discard a short). There was none.

Finally, following the advice in this forum, I ordered a new ignition switch from autohouse.com. It took me about 30 min to replace and now all the gremlins are gone. I have my steering wheel functions back, horn, wipers, vanity mirror lights.

Thank you guys for the help.

Next project: replace rear window regulator...

anybody know how to fix dimming radio lights. It seems like the stations and time are fading away.

I have another thread going on this, but I'm getting confused about the parasitic drain test procedure, and your comment caught my eye. Could you please describe in as much detail as you can the procedure you followed? Thanks.

I'm about to change my switch, the part arrived at the dealer today.

Can I ask. Did you come across any problems or tricky spots when doing the job ? How about removing the plastic covering behind the steering wheel for example ? Any difficulties. Because I'd love to get mine off without breaking it ! :D

exactly same thing happen to my car few months ago. i drove like crazy at nigh with all the lights on and sit belt sound on. it was nightmare. i didnt fix anything, it just turned ok in few days. i should change ignition switch too.