Although these electrical gremlins are occurring on my 97 E38...the E39 can be afflicted with these odd/mysterious electrical gremlins as well. This is the reason I'm posting the video I made on the e39 forums I frequent as well as the e38 forums. I ordered a new ignition switch and it will be here next week. If I'm wrong...then I guess I'll look like a big fool!

It started with the DSP control unit...it went blank at the beginning of this week. Then mid-week, the airbag light illuminated on the dash, then the rear sunshade started moving real slow, then stopped working.

Then the MLF steering wheel buttons stopped illuminating and when I went to blow my horn...it didn't work. I then remembered that if you pull down the sun visor and open the cover to the mirror and odd things happened...the culprit is usually the ignition switch (yes, odd connection). I even mentioned this back in Oct/2007 after reading about it on one of the e39 forums: http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/430961

I know that the sun visor test sounds odd...so I made a short video this evening after work just to show how unbelievable the connections are of the components that are affected by the ignition switch. And no...it is not a prank (that's why I waited until after April 1st).

You can see the steering wheel move up/down when I open the mirror cover on the sun visor, and the interior lights fade on/off...and the radio shut off:

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Q {BMW CCA Member #191509}
2006 E53 X5 4.4i (Sterling Gray) 12/05 mfg date <<~>> 97 740iL (Arctic Silver) 3/97 mfg date
(SOLD)
99 540iT (Orient Blue) <<~>> 95 525IT (Alpine White)
91 735iL (Schwarz Black) <<~>> 85 325e (Bronzit)