MOST ring/ASK unit diagnosis

[lanceboyle]

Hi all -

I just picked up a super clean 2003 E66 from a dealer - it's a 745Li with 68k miles. Elder owned, gently driven, garaged, 100% stock and serviced regularly. I was pretty thorough when I test drove it and checked every single iDrive function, and everything worked.

Anyway - the day after I drove it 2 hrs home, I went for a drive, and inserted a CD into the single CD player in the dash. No issue at the time, but it got stuck and wouldn't eject later when I tried to do so. The CD still played, so I just left it as-is and figured I'd mess with it later. The next time I drove it, I noticed none of my audio (FM, AM, CD, weather, PDC gong, door chime, etc) worked, I can't view the service intervals/messages, and the navi screen also won't work. The CD option is also now greyed out in the iDrive menu. So far, I have tried:

• Pulling the MOST loop jumper in the glovebox. There was no light present, so I'm assuming there is a fault earlier in the system
• Unhooking the negative battery terminal for ~ 1 hr, and re-connecting

These items have done nothing to help, however the Check Engine Soon light has now also illuminated, I'm guessing as a result of the battery being disconnected. The car still starts and drives perfectly.

From what I have gathered, the culprit is likely to be either a failed unit w/in the MOST ring (Logic 7, navi, etc), or a bad ASK unit. I've already ordered the loop connector to begin jumpering out each module by itself to trace the fault. However, I have questions I'm hoping you experts can help with:

• If I get a replacement ASK unit, does it need to be from a 2002-2005 (I believe that's when they were facelifted), or can I use one from an 02-08? There's one at a junkyard near me but it's an '07.
• Do I need to code a new ASK, or is it essentially plug-and-play?
• One thing I did was shampoo/extract the carpets when I got it home to freshen it up. There was a somewhat stubborn stain in the driver's side rear footwell (directly by the seat and door) that I extracted. I don't soak carpets when I do it (spray with a spray bottle, agitate with a drill brush, extract w/ water only). Do any of the fiberoptic cables run along the floorboard in that area? I'm wondering if there is an offchance something might have gone haywire at the time. Other than that, I haven't touched a thing in the car (besides leather conditioning and general detailing).

The selling dealer agreed to have me take the E66 to my indy shop for diagnosis, and I'm waiting to hear back from them. However, I'm just trying to get my head around what next steps I'll need to take. I generally do most of my own work so I'm just trying to be prepared.

Thanks so much!

[jclausen]

The car is highly complex. Wait for the results from the shop