[RustyBMW]

So here's the story. I had a short circuit in my car for my horn. I found a group of wires (fog lights, temp sensor, some ground wires, horn wires, etc) accidentally pinched behind a metal part on the car that I took off and replaced. I fixed the short circuit and before I found this short circuit, let me not forget to mention that I disconnected my ABS module as well.

When I fixed everything and connected the module back, the car started, horn worked now, but some of the lights were on (ABS, Traction, Airbag, Brake, and Seatbelt) and the windshield wipers came on. I didn't note anything of it since it was getting pretty late and I was getting tired. Next day I drive out to get my inspection done (couldn't pass because of the horn issue) and as soon as I was driving out, the lights came back on and wipers turned on again. I took out the wiper relay so that I wouldn't look like an idiot driving with my wipers on without any rain and came home.

I recall driving around for several miles with those lights on until one day (after about 100 miles of driving) the airbag and seatbelt lights went out while I was driving and the speedometer began to work along with the fuel gauge (since it didn't work before). I stopped the car and restarted it and right away I noticed that I didn't have to press the ignition switch twice to start it like I usually did. Anyway, I started it and the lights went out! Everything seemed fine until after a short period of time they came back on again.

At some point, I do remember disconnecting the ABS module once again and spraying some electronic cleaner in the contacts and some ground connections and I do remember that right after doing that the problem seemed to go away. Maybe it was a coincidence?

Anyways, I got a new battery since the one I had was probably the original one from 2007. When I drove out of the parking lot, all the lights were back on and none of the functions mentioned above wouldn't work. I took it to a friend of mine with a good scan tool who seemed to know what was going on and told me that I had to register the battery which is what he did and the lights all went out. The Service Engine Soon light was on but that's unrelated. I came home, the car was driving fine, parked it. And then the next day the lights were back on.

This is an intermittent issue. After about 10-15min of driving, the speedometer kicks back in and some of the lights go out and then sometimes they stay off until I park and restart the car or sometimes they come back on when I'm driving.

Any help? What can it be? What can I do? Should I ask my friend to scan the system again? Maybe it's a bad ground connection? It can't be a bad battery since the one I put in is new. Bad alternator? Bad ABS module?

[Debacle of Mass Eruption.]

A similar thing happened to my car, the speedo going out, the lights, my battery dying, all that. I made a post about it yesterday. Did you ever resolve your problem?