the temp sensor might be broken or a wire loose somewhere...its near your driver side foglight most likely...what kinda bmw did he buy?
and tim i hope that the code isn't on the radio b/c then if someone steals it what's the point of having an anti theft code? lol...i know it sounds dumb, but the previous owner of my car wrote the code on the radio with a sharpie, had to scratch that out =]