[BickUW89]

Mrs. Bick and I took a road trip in our M550xi last weekend, and about 30 minutes into the drive we started smelling an electrical burning smell. Couldn't tell what it was coming from, or even if it was us, as we were in heavy traffic. The car seemed to be running fine. Eventually I pulled off the road and inspected the engine compartment, and couldn't smell anything odd.

Got back in the car, and we were certain the smell was coming from somewhere in the car, but we couldn't figure out what.

A few days later my wife happens to notice that the USB port in the charging tray beneath the dash was completely burnt out. Later she noticed that the neck chain she wears her office badge on had three charred spots, then realized that the chain had been up in that oddments tray while we were driving. It must have shorted the contacts on the USB, and fried the port.

Check out how much damage was done...first picture is the discolored chain that was shorting out the USB. Second one is the burned out plastic in the tray around the USB port.

Once we get that repaired at our next service visit, I'm going to cap that USB port with a plastic cap, or maybe a spare Logitech USB receiver I have sitting around.