My BMW 645 is suffering from total electrical shutdowns - what could this be?

On three occasions over the last nine months my 2004 BMW 645's dashboard has started to flash, the steering gets heavy and all sorts of alarm warnings come on. Eventually the car will shut down. 10 or 15 minutes later I can restart it and it will be ok. I have looked at your FAQ and it could be the CAN wiring fault, but how do I know and what do I do? My local BMW garage appear uninterested in finding out. They have tested the alternator and battery and are now suggesting they do a drain test. Should I do this or is there some other path to a solution?

Asked on 22 August 2010 by rx2cre8

Answered by Honest John
You need to find an independent BMW specialist prepared to run a full check of the car's electrics, but this could still be time consuming and expensive.
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