Thanks for digging into this so far. I'm an EE so your efforts aren't lost here. For me it comes down to available time at the time of the repair. If I have a backup vehicle and I'm not on the road a lot, I can afford to take the X5 down and do the repairs myself. I also have a neighbour who prefers to work with a soldering iron instead of a wrench, so I cook up the ideas and he makes them happen. Made up my first ADS cable for the E36 that way.
