A year ago I purchased my 03 s with 93k miles and it was working perfectly. About 6 months ago when the rainy season started I noticed water would collect in the headliner above the windshield on the drivers side. Shortly after this started happening, the car started giving me small electrical problems. First the heater stopped working, then the A/C stopped working. A few weeks later the car would not start at all. After a few tries I finally got it running but then the problems got worse. The power windows, hazard lights, windshield wipers, hatch release, door locks, and headlights stopped working.

The car ran for a few months with these problems happening intermittently. I removed the headliner to find the windshield seal was leaking down to the fuse box so I sealed the windshield with silicone for now to stop the leak.

I was hoping that if the car dried out things would start working again but unfortunately that didn't happen. A few weeks ago while driving on the highway both windows went down on their own. After a few miles the passenger side window went back up on its own and the intermittent problems are now permanent.

So far I have removed both side panels and checked the BCM and the fuse box. I opened the BCM to find it completely dry and free of corrosion. The fuse box had some minor signs of corrosion so I replaced it with a used unit from another 03's. While I was working on that I found the connector for the IKE unit was slightly corroded as well. I cleaned it as well as I could with electrical contact cleaner and corrosion inhibitor. I assume the IKE is in proper working order because IIRC the IKE controls the speedometer and the other things on the cluster which all work fine.

Right now the car spends every day in a dry garage. I ran a dehumidifier in the car for three days and I'm pretty sure it's all dry now but the window is still down, key transmitter doesn't work, headlights are on whenever the ignition is on, A/C doesn't blow but climate controls come on, turn signals don't work, hazard lights don't work, and every now and then when I drive it the traction control lamp blinks for a few seconds and I lose power. This only happens in first and second gears after you start the car.

I contacted the local dealership and the guy said he has seen water damage cost anywhere from $3k to $30k to fix.

Also, the only aftermarket electronics that have been added to the car are the hella fog lights. I removed the entire circuit to see if that made a difference and no it did not. Other than that the car runs great. It made 197whp/167tq on the dyno and is a blast to drive. I just wish everything worked.

Edit: Has sunroof but the sunroof does not leak. Checked all of the drains and everything is good and sealed.

 

try safe wash 2 spry on all electronics that have corrosion

http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/...aerosol-4050a/

 

Depends on if anything has shorted internally, of if wires fried internally in their sleeve. Electronics are a nightmare. Might want to find a wrecked mini with same options and grab the bcm/wire harness and go from there. You could spend days following each wire, and testing them.

I just looked this up on realoem.com, not sure if you have an r53 or not.

http://realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.do?mo...21&hg=61&fg=05