I found this on Roadfly Automotive Forums from Ken. Might give it a try.
http://forums.roadfly.com/forums/bmw...8291202-1.html
You pay $90 for one hour's labor and your dealer fixes the instrument cluster for you..
This has been posted all over, but here's the info you need... BMWNA has a goodwill replacement policy in place for the 5/7 series (includes the x5).... I recently had this done for my out of warranty '02 X5. In my case, about 50% of my pixels in the odometer were dead.. I paid for the the 1 hr labor charge, but the cluster was covered by BMWNA under this replacement plan. I've heard of some dealers charging 1/2hr, but this varies.... they take out the old cluster and pop in and reprogram a new one.
"Have the following information ready when you call BMWNA (details for that follow), which you'll also fax or email to them, as well.
Year and model of vehicle
Vehicle mileage
VIN number
Name, address and phone number of the registered owner
Name of your nearest/preferred dealer
Description of the defective unit (e.g., "Instrument cluster pixels" and/or "MID pixels", etc.)
Then contact BMWNA at:
Leonora Vlaovich
BMW North America (BMWNA)
201-573-7742
201-930-8362 fax
leonora.vlaovich "at" bmwna.com"