[Joebie]

Went out to my car after work today (2018 OG), hopped in, started it up, and I was greeted by the LOUDEST popping sound from the speakers. I'm talking rock-concert 110dB ear damaging type of volume. Sounded like someone was taking a record player needle and running it over 60grit sandpaper and then injecting that noise straight into my brain.

After I realized what was happening, I tried turning down the volume, pressing the volume knob to mute, and turning the car off + opening the door to no avail. It just kept popping. LOUD! CRAZY LOUD! PANIC-INDUCING LOUD!

So I think to myself, ok, ive heard of the amps failing before, maybe this is whats happening to me. Ill just pull the fuse for the amp! I hop out, open the trunk, frantically pull out the trunk liner and fuse card (all in a panic while my speakers are self-destructing in front of me) and after 30 seconds or so i still cant figure out what fuse to pull and so i google it. Turns out it's fuse #122. Thank you McGary911 https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=11

So anyways, the amp fuse is out and the popping stops. The popping actually mostly subsided in the middle of all this panic, but pulling the fuse stopped it entirely.

I get home, remove my left side trunk liner - the amp and amp cavity/body recess is totally dry. Not even a spec of moisture anywhere to be found, or even a trace of any.

I remove the amp, take it apart, and everything looks great EXCEPT for this one little component here:



I can only assume that this is the failure point. Its a shame that just a little bit of corrosion like that can ruin everything. I'm a mechanical engineer but I have some electrical engineer friends that might have the tools and knowledge to repair this properly, if it even can be repaired.

So if it cant be repaired, what are my options? How expensive is a new amp that will probably have the same problem? What are some good aftermarket brands?

Thanks for the help!

[Joebie]

Upon further investigation, the component with the corrosion/failure is right underneath one of these holes in the amp, making me think that maybe a splash shield would have been my saving grace, had i had one.

For those of you without amp splash shields, this is your sign to get one installed!

[Joebie]

I found a local junkyard on that car-part said had a compatible amp from a mini cooper clubman. Well turns out it works fine. Got the used amp from the clubman, plugged it into my M2 and it worked completely fine like nothing ever happened. Cant believe the speakers survived that torture of the original amp blowing.