So I'm driving home and all of the sudden I see christmas trees on my dash light up.

This is the strangest thing I've ever seen. The guages won't respond normally, they haphazardly swing. My wipers automatically turned on and wouldn't turn off. My blinkers won't work. The Idrive display showed some messages, now its completely blank. The 2 displays on the dash keep cycling every indicator I've ever seen. Weird stuff like that is going on all of the sudden.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? This is on a 2004 530i 6pd.

Thanks,
Alex

 

Yes, battery related, ie battery, IBS(negative battery cable), SBT(positve battery cable) or something in charging system.

 

Check for any water in the trunk; in the battery box. If so, it will cause all kinds of elec problems.
Either that or a random UFO in the area.

 

A few weeks ago I actually had a warning message pop up that said something about "Electrical Failure". The message went away after a few minutes of driving. I also think it was UFO-related.

 

It was weird. That evening the car was completely possessed. The next morning it was like nothing happened. <shrug>

 

Definitely check the trunk / wheel recess for signs of leaking into the electronics.

 

well i can tell you my story of a similar experience with my 04 545i.

simply driving down the road and get the xmas tree of lights, until i would get the gear indicator and have to pull over.
all i had to do was wait about an hour and I could get in and drive away, so it would happen quite often.

so went to local bmw repair, and they replaced the alternator. that worked for about 2 weeks till it started happening again.

had bmw replace the battery, didnt fix it, then had the other shop replaced both battery cables, still didnt fix it.
then had integrated supply module replaced, still not working.

so i took it to another shop, they immediately said alternator, explained the current one was brand new, but the insisted it was the alternator because they hooked a recording volt meter to the car and as it would run over time the voltage would drop from 14.7 to 11.2.
I explained the warranty company would not cover another alternator, but they said they would look deeper and talk to them.

end of the story is that my front valve covers were leaking oil and it was landing in the alternator, and because synthetic oil is conductive it was shorting the diodes dropping the voltage and therefore causing the lights.
they fixed the valve covers and got a new alternator, now all is well.

so hopefully all this info will give you plenty of place to look for problems.