well that was easy

[macca]

i lost the ability to read the total km count in the cluster i could just barley see it, it was very dim, through the forums i learnt that there are little bulbs in the dash that illuminate the reading, and one was probably blown.

my local BM dealer wanted $15 each for the bulbs,yeah right,so i bought them on the internet for $3 exactly the same Osram bulb.

two screws and out comes the dash, there are 3 connectors on the back , i only disconnected one, swung the cluster out enough to get to the bulbs, replaced the blown one and slapped it all back together, took me all of 5 minutes.

i bought sufficient bulbs to replace the lot thinking it might me a mission getting the cluster out, but as its so simple i replaced only the 1 blown bulb, and will keep the rest for spares

(probably never need them hehehe)

[MSPORTBMW]

Hey Macca......I think I have the same problem.....my mileage and clock etc is pretty dim. But the part which tells you what gear you're in (D,R) etc is brighter.....it seems the right hand side is brighter than the left. I presumed the whole LCD panel would have to be repaired or replaced. Is yours an x5 e53??
Do you think it's the same fault???  If so...can you give me the link where you got your bulbs.?

Thanks

[macca]

i got them from here, as described in my situation i had only one blown bulb and i could hardly see the total KM number and it was also marginally effecting the "km" for the trip counter, you may find someone on your Uk ebay that can match the price, but i found these guys good

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BMW-Beige-Da ... 33610201?_

[Don Coffey]

It's the fear off the unknown that puts me off trying to repair issues that arise.  Well done on going for it and how pleasing to find it actually turned out to be an easy fix. 

Don

[Rusty]

Well done on a now known to be simple repair. 

As Don says, the fear of pulling your car apart can be off-putting, but all was good

Did you not consider LED's instead of lamps?  Can you get to all the lamps from the back of the binnacle?


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[Horizon]

[quote="Rusty"]
Well done on a now known to be simple repair. 

As Don says, the fear of pulling your car apart can be off-putting, but all was good

Did you not consider LED's instead of lamps?  Can you get to all the lamps from the back of the binnacle?


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[/quote]

I asked at HIDS Direct, as its near to where I live, and was told that they had stopped selling them. This is because they are unreliable, and they sell via EBay, and a few blown bulbs would ruin their feedback rates, and the young lad behind the counter told me some cars are a 4 hour strip down to fit new bulbs.
So I didn't bother changing mine, even though I've removed the binnacle in 5 minutes flat.