Ok, here's how this story concludes:
They tried replacing the BCM under the extended warranty, but the problem persisted.
After spending some more time, they were out of ideas and since the warranty only pays a given amount of hours for specific jobs, they didn't know what to do anymore.
So, they told me I would have to start paying, they were certain a this point that it was either a short somewhere (which the extended warranty probably would not have covered anyway) or a damaged wire somewhere.
I gave them the go ahead for a few hours of detective work. And what do you know they found something after 2.5 hours. The previous owner had bypassed the DRL relay and tapped their power directly to the IPDM power. The mechanic was impressed by how well the re-wiring looked oem. They would have never noticed it if not for following wires one by one.
I guess the previous owner wanted the DRL on all the time, but he should have taken power somewhere that is controlled by ignition. Instead, tapping into the IPDM power means the fog lights only shut down when the modules go to sleep, which can take up to 45 minutes i'm told.
In retrospect, I knew something was odd because they always came on as soon as I started the car (even with handbrake on) but since I couldn't compare with another, I didn't make a big deal out of it.
So, all in all, it cost me 3 hours, but i still got a new IPDM and BCM out of it, so I can't complain and it now runs as it should.
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