Have you tried going through BMW NA for a good-will repair for the bad-pixel issue? When I got my 02 x5 the cluster was pretty bad, I did a little research and contacted Leonora Vlaovich, a BMW NA rep who handled these things... if you search through the threads a lot of people have done this as well... My X was out of warranty, but BMW NA did a one-time goodwill repair for this, paid for the part, cost my 1hr labor at my dealer.

Here's her email,
[email protected]