2005 X3 Electrical Gremlins

[Ozzycat]

Hi everyone. Just looking for a bit of guidance with a strange electrical issue that started today. These are the symptoms/issues that have come up now.

1. The clock display is not showing up on the radio when its off. The LED is blacked out but works fine when I switch the radio on.
2. Steering wheel controls are not working at all.
3. Interior lights are coming on an off at random.
4. If I turn the headlights on, the interior lights come on and goes bright and dim and bright again. Odometer also going bright and dim.
5. Windscreen wipers are acting weird. If I turn wipers on they start, move a bit then stop and repeat this cycle continuously. Sometimes they will wipe the screen fine and then go back to stop-start behaviour. This happens on all of the wiper cycle options. Rear wiper works perfectly fine.
6. Central locking works intermittently. Thought it was possibly the key battery dying as car is 17 years old and then it works perfectly for a few minutes then not at all.

Any assistance and guidance would be appreciated so I can try sort this out asap. Have a great festive season and drive safe.

 

[Peter@AEW]

Hi everyone. Just looking for a bit of guidance with a strange electrical issue that started today. These are the symptoms/issues that have come up now.

1. The clock display is not showing up on the radio when its off. The LED is blacked out but works fine when I switch the radio on.
2. Steering wheel controls are not working at all.
3. Interior lights are coming on an off at random.
4. If I turn the headlights on, the interior lights come on and goes bright and dim and bright again. Odometer also going bright and dim.
5. Windscreen wipers are acting weird. If I turn wipers on they start, move a bit then stop and repeat this cycle continuously. Sometimes they will wipe the screen fine and then go back to stop-start behaviour. This happens on all of the wiper cycle options. Rear wiper works perfectly fine.
6. Central locking works intermittently. Thought it was possibly the key battery dying as car is 17 years old and then it works perfectly for a few minutes then not at all.

Any assistance and guidance would be appreciated so I can try sort this out asap. Have a great festive season and drive safe.

All of the above gremlins will be resolved once you resolve your bad earth issues.
BMW has a tendency to cluster multiple earths on a single point so I would start in the interior under the dash and progress to the engine bay.
A tedious process if you are going to diy

 

[Ozzycat]

All of the above gremlins will be resolved once you resolve your bad earth issues.
BMW has a tendency to cluster multiple earths on a single point so I would start in the interior under the dash and progress to the engine bay.
A tedious process if you are going to diy

Thanks for that Peter. Would a diagnostics scan show a bad earth or would an auto electrician be able to find it easily. It's been suggested to replace the BMC which BMW quoted R10k for plus coding.

 

[Peter@AEW]

Thanks for that Peter. Would a diagnostics scan show a bad earth or would an auto electrician be able to find it easily. It's been suggested to replace the BMC which BMW quoted R10k for plus coding.

A good electrician will trace it
A Body control module will do little if the earths are bad.
Diagnostics will help you trace the fault but as with everything the user needs to know what he is doing and unfortunately the agents are not known for having knowledgeable people on staff.

 

[Solo Man]

I had a bad earth on a E53 X5 some years ago and eventually decided to just start at the battery and tighten all earth bolts and other connections as far as i could see. Started off in the boot by removing the cover over the battery and was fortunate enough to soon find that the nut holding the earth wire to the body was slightly loose. Could turn it about a full turn with a ring spanner and sort of immediately knew i had found the problem. Everything was working normally again after that. So yes, check the car for loose connections/earth wires.

 

[Ozzycat]

Just a bit of an update on the issues. Auto electricians pointed to the BCM being at fault so I had another newer body control module fitted and coded by BMW and this did not sort out the issues. BMW diagnosed a faulty clock spring which accounts for the lack of horn and steering wheel function controls as well as faulty drivers door window switch and possible a dead battery in the key as remote locking wasn't working. These things are fairly easy to sort with replacement parts etc.

The problem of sticking wipers and the interior lights still remains and they can't figure this out. This is what's happening -

All of the interior lights are coming on and off and on and off when the headlights are turned on. This is only when the headlights are turned on. I've disabled the interior lights for now for driving at night.

The front wipers start then stick then start a few sweeps then stick then start again etc and the rear wiper doesn't move yet you can hear the motor going and the wiper arm has to be manually taken through a cycle by hand to get it to stop. Unless this is done the motor continues when the car is switched off and on again. Could the wiper switch be the culprit here as everything mechanically seems fins.

Any suggestions to fix this? BMW couldn't find the fault so i'm at a loss now.

 

[getty150]

Battery fully charged?
If not disconnect then recharge.
Connect again...now try it again.

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