I contacted "repairitdontreplace" on ebay and gave them my symptoms that i was experiencing. they reported they can rebuild the cluster for $380, no coding will be required.
BMW x5 Series E53 Complete Instrument Cluster Speedometer Repair Service | eBay
Will be shipping off the cluster this weekend. Ill post up my experience with them, they seem to have good reviews working on various makes / models of vehicles.