Replaced the ribbon cable in my head-unit this afternoon. I bought the solder-in style from someone in Canada for about $25. Directions said 3 hours start to finish and that was fairly accurate. I finally have all of the pixels working again.

Hopefully this is a one time job; it's tedious to get the unit apart.

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12 E70 3.5i xDrive
03 E46 330i ZHP
01 E53 3.0i
98 E36 323is
12 Audi A4 Quattro
79 Triumph Spitfire
73 MGB