Hi Colin - Awesome info. I bought my first BMW yesterday night (an 04 X5) and noticed this ticking noise this morning. I have to be honest, I freaked out thinking I had bought a car with a broken HVAC.

Is it easy to remove the climate control panel? Do you have instructions to do it or do you know somewhere on the web I can find them?

In fact - when I woke up this morning the cars climate control was set to maximum values of 31c although I know I set it to 21c last night. Could this be because the fun is broken and the sensor was not getting the air it needed so it just reset the whole system to 31c or something?

Cheers,
AAK