Weird '03 325i behavior.

[aresfiend]

For some some back story, I have recently moved a few hundred miles away. I've got a gutted project E46 that I planned to prep to move this weekend. All was well, got back here Friday night, picked up stuff to change the oil on my E39 and E46 with it. Drove it yesterday morning a bit as well.

My problems started last night. I drove it a bit to warm the engine and oil before doing the oilchange on it. Parked it, and ten minutes later walked out to do the oilchange. My gauges lost their collective shit, and it had "PPPPP" on the OBC. I did the oilchange anyway, parked it, then pulled the battery for a couple of hours. Fired it back up and my instrument cluster was no longer illuminating at all. I left it until this morning when I looked it up a bit more, and started trying plenty of tricks to reset it. Eventually, through trial and error it worked better with new fuses to replace the non blown ones in certain spots. It got to the point where everything worked properly except the gauges and OBC. Pulled fuse 43, forgot to put a new one back in, and started it up and it was perfect! Everything ran fine, and I was absolutely surprised. So I shut it off, put in a new fuse for 43, and turned it back on to what it would be stuck on. The dome light also flickers at random. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.



I replaced most of the fuses just because I was sick of playing musical fuses. So far here's everything I have done:

-unplugged battery for hours
-Replaced all fuses related to OBD/OBC/gauge cluster/lighting/engine management
-Checked all the wiring I could get to
-Unplugged the gauge cluster (at one point the car was refusing to start with it until I unplugged it, removed the OBC fuses, plugged it back in, then replaced the fuses after attempting to start it)
-tried using the battery from my E39

I haven't seen anything on the cluster other than the abs light or random flickering since I put fuse 43 back in. I've tested every fuse, and at one point did have the cluster working.

EDIT: I chose to resolve the issue by selling the car. I haven't seen it since I made this post.

[MIKYZZ4]

Your pulling the battery, but forgetting the next important steps,
taking a voltage reading and hooking it up to a battery charger!

[aresfiend]

As I'm in the process of moving, my meter and tender are over two hundred miles away (I use the meter for hobby stuff, the tender is just in case I need it there). My best option was to use the battery from my E39, which I did.

I also should note that the headlights and taillights always work as they're told, the wipers and interior lights work just fine until the car is running then they act weird, and the gauge cluster isn't working at all aside from the ABS light, which is new.

[MIKYZZ4]

It's common for electrical gremlins, electronic anomalies,etc... to appear when batteries/vehicles are left unattended for long periods of time.
Another possibility is a failing ignition switch, or a faulty LCM. Let's not forget checking all engine grounds for clean, snug connections.
A BMW scan tool couldn't hurt either.

[aresfiend]

I'll have to work on it when I'm back up in a month. I might have a family member trailering it down for me before then, but as of now I'm not going to personally be able to do any more work.

From what I can tell though, the LCM is functioning properly and even with it completely removed the instrument cluster just isn't working. I'm not really sure how the ignition switch ties into it, but that also seems to be functioning properly. It's never hit or miss on starting the car. I'll have a friend go through all the grounds this week for me, but I won't be able to personally verify how well they're done. I did go through all the grounding that's visible in the car. The thing that gets me is that it was working just fine Friday night and Saturday morning when I took it out to run errands because I missed it. It wasn't until later Saturday night that it decided it no longer wanted to work right.

Obviously anything I have been doing isn't really measurable other then "it seems to be working", but it's the best I can do at the moment. If I can get it down to me and get too frustrated I'll probably just gut all the wiring and set up a standalone ECU and gauge cluster. I wanted the OEM cluster, but it really doesn't matter at this point, especially since it's just going to be a street legal track day car.

Or I'll sell it and buy an E36. Who knows what's going to happen yet.

[dhurley34]

Possibly the ignition switch. If you pull the drivers visor down, do any lights on the dash come on or go off?

[aresfiend]

It's gutted. There is no visor. There's currently the driver's seat, gauge cluster, LCM, sunroof plus controls, dashboard, and climate control. Everything has been pulled, the windows are sealed shut. I haven't finished cleaning up the wiring because by the time I got to that point in the summer I had some things go down, but it all looked good.

If it helps to figure something out, fuse 43 was getting VERY hot. Not blowing, but very hot.