97 740iL

While I was driving in the rain this weekend I had set the cruise control. Shortly after this I hit the lights and all of the sudden the Cruise dissengaged, SRS light came on, lights on steering column and all steering column electronics (Tuner/Volume/Cruise/ect.)just quit working along with the horn. Car still drove fine and I continued on my 150 mile trip. The only thing I noticed was that the lights on steering column would flash intermittently and that when I hit the brakes the Nav Screen would seem to jump as if power was interupted intermittently.

On the way home a different story. Still had no electronics from the steering column and horn did not work but everything else seemed fine until I was heading through a mountain pass, the same pass where all my troubles had started, and the outide temp dropped. The electronics related to the Nav System and the radio started to go haywire. Nav screen started to act like a strobe light flickering on & off while the radio just flat quit working. Car was still running fine however and I did not want to stop for fear of not being able to get it going. After I got out of the pass I stopped the car and turned it off. Turned right back on, radio worked and Nav quit flicking on and off. However, no electronics to to steering column, SRS light still on and the nav screen still flickered when I braked or attempted to hit the horn which still did not work.

Original thought was that I most likely have a short or something in the steering column electronics, however, I remembered reading a post where someones battery started to go bad and without warning some electronics had went haywire. I am totally stumped and am fearing the thought of heading to the dealer.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful if anyone has experienced something similar. I do have some DIY skills and will look that direction first.

Thanks,
DJ
98IL 70,000 miles

Sorry for the double post