The MID wasn't working... Fuse Block under pass seat

[psjr]

My mom's car (98 740iL) had only the above symptoms.
Troubleshooting: Fuses had power, plug at MID did not.
I looked up what connections were between the fuses and plug for the MID, and the only ones were in the passenger footwell.
I had seen some water in the passenger footwell once when it had been sitting for 2 years, so I figured maybe there had been a bit of corrosion.

Pulled the carpet; this is what I was treated to:




That's not great, let's open things up a bit:




Oh no . How are the splices (what we came here to look at)?




And this is why the MID has no power:



The wires have corroded right off the connectors.


Cleaning in progress, will update when complete.

[franco90]

OH my god you must have a water leak some where get new used parts and clean it up good and see if there anymore damage

[xboss]

Holy cow that area is just plain messed up. Pretty much everything in there is shot.

Is there a hump that keep water that fills the rear foot well from getting to this stuff in the front? Because I'm thinking that I better pull the seat and check this out since my rear foot well was pretty full.

- - - Updated - - -

It's amazing that the mid is the only problem!

[psjr]

Made some progress today.
Haven't applied power yet (going to thoroughly clean the interior while the seats are out), but everything looks good.

Cleaned up all the splices; here is an example before:



And after:



Cleaned up the hardware in the fuse box:



Fuses back in (all new nuts):



Ordered new splices and splice connectors from BMW:



Replaced the splice and connectors on these primary fuse wires:



This splice didn't clean up too well:



So I replaced it:



And finally, replaced the splice and connectors that had corroded so badly the wires came off completely:



Fuse box in order (all new nuts):



All splices snapped into the trim:



Zip ties prepped on the trim:

[Binjammin]

I think that if it were me, and I had that kind of history of water damage in the car, I'd consider conformal coating everything just to be on the safe side. Well done, that's really looking promising.

[xboss]

Nice. You have inspired me to pull the carpet and see what's what under the passenger front seat. I had a sunroof leak that filled up my rear well. Really hope it did not make it to that area. No electrical problems but this thread worries me!

[psjr]

Nice. You have inspired me to pull the carpet and see what's what under the passenger front seat. I had a sunroof leak that filled up my rear well. Really hope it did not make it to that area. No electrical problems but this thread worries me!

Good luck! Let me know if you need any guidance.

[Qsilver7]

First...wow, what a horror to stumble upon! Second, what a terrific clean up job...with DIY pics to boot.

[TheLadiesMan]

Nice work

[RSharma]

Looks like some really great work. Good job and glad you got everything working again.

[caplt4]

you know, I have the problem of no power to the front passenger door,no door locks, no window and mirror don't work, I wash the car yesterday and after 30 minutes, everything worked, I got to open the door, which I haven't be able to do for a few weeks, everything worked for a bit, now it went back to nothing, now I see this and I think I have to check this, I even bought a door module from a member here. this is on every year e38 or just specific year?

[pizzaman09]

you know, I have the problem of no power to the front passenger door,no door locks, no window and mirror don't work, I wash the car yesterday and after 30 minutes, everything worked, I got to open the door, which I haven't be able to do for a few weeks, everything worked for a bit, now it went back to nothing, now I see this and I think I have to check this, I even bought a door module from a member here. this is on every year e38 or just specific year?

This could be an issue with any e38. It is a somewhat common issue for e38s to get clogged sunroof drains and that ends up getting the passenger foot well and sometimes the glove box all wet.

[xboss]

Yep. The sunroof's are killing our cars.

Some newer bimmers have two sunroofs! No tx.

[caplt4]

This could be an issue with any e38. It is a somewhat common issue for e38s to get clogged sunroof drains and that ends up getting the passenger foot well and sometimes the glove box all wet.

I haven't seen any water in the passenger floor, but im going to pull the carpet up and check to see if I have any issue on this part of the car

[xboss]

You dont have to see water. The carpet is rubber backed and then has thick foam under the rubber. The sunroof leaks travel UNDER the carpet and you do not notice it until you either smell it or you have so much water under the carpet that it finally is higher than the carpet level then it will sit on top.

[M I C H A E L]

nice work man. looking good.

[Mayorchuck]

Bump an excellent thread. This issue seems to be the flavor of the month.

[roys740]

awesome job and great work. all of these corrosion issues make me want to inspect my car much closer.

[big mike 84]

how and where does the water get into the car from ?

[BOBS750il]

how and where does the water get into the car from ?

Sunroof drains usually.

Sent from my iPhone5s using BF.com

[big mike 84]

Sunroof drains usually.

Sent from my iPhone5s using BF.com

is there a gasket there that goes bad? have part # wanna look this up on realoem

[xboss]

is there a gasket there that goes bad? have part # wanna look this up on realoem

There are four drain hoses connected to the catch tray below the sunroof that were only installed by push on pressure and they shrink over time and pull off. The way the sunroof is designed, it can leak all it wants since the water ends up in the catch tray below it and then it drains out.

[big mike 84]

There are four drain hoses connected to the catch tray below the sunroof that were only installed by push on pressure and they shrink over time and pull off. The way the sunroof is designed, it can leak all it wants since the water ends up in the catch tray below it and then it drains out.

thanks but some pics or a diagram would be nice

[daytonatrbo]

I have more info on this in my thread.

I dropped the headliner today to see where the water was coming in. Pretty hard to miss:



both sides were this way in the rear. It looks like the plastic tube has been working its way down into the C pillar and pulled itself loose from the drip tray. I'm guessing that thermal expansion is causing the tube to "walk", or it just shrank.

I tried pulling the tubes back up (gently) but they didn't want to move. I was afraid of dislodging them from whatever they may be connected to at the other end, so instead I cut the rubber connectors off and found some tubing that fit.



Sorry for the blurry photo on this one. It was pitch black and my iPhone was doing its best.

[jl01152]

Excellent work. Thank you for the guidance. Great pictures too.