The ribbon will come with about 4 A4 sheets of instructions, written in German English with black and white photos. It'll get you about 80% of the way ... the rest is a bit of make it up as you go along.

Some things to note.

You will need a torx screw driver or two. The little screws in the instrument cluster have small torx heads. Once you've got the cluster out of the car (simple) getting the back cover off it is a pain in the ass. Having 5 hands would be useful because of various tabs and things that all need to be manipulated at the same time. Once that's all done you've to drill holes on the front of the cluster, tricky because you've to drill the holes behind the front plate but you can't remove it ... so you've to kinda lift it up a bit and drill behind it without lifting it so far as to damage the gauge needles.

Very delicate after this point. Remove the glass pixel strip and clean it. Also clean the contacts on the electronics board. It'll have sticky bits on that are difficult to remove. The old ribbon will have been baked on a bit and will leave a residue. I actually used a very fine grade sand paper to clean the contacts on the board side, filing down to reach bare metal so there would be good connectivity. Then used a fine needle to make sure the gaps between the little connectors were free of dirt that might short them out. I used an electronic cleaning solution to finally remove all residues.

Reassembly is tricky. The ribbon slots into designated lugs on the board side but the glass bit doesn't. So there's room for it to move. There's only a millimetre between contacts so you've really got to be careful lining up the contact points on the board and glass with the ribbon. They're near impossible to see ... you'll need a good light on the desk, that doesn't shine in your eyes and by tilting your head in particular angles to show up the contacts on the glass.

Getting the glass and ribbon back on the board is tricky. Scotch Tape helps, in fact I found it essential to anchor the ribbon to the board so it didn't move around. Remember - 1mm movement in the ribbon and your fooked.

Curling the ribbon is tricky. Again the Scotch Tape helps.

A small paint brush is handy for brushing away any shavings caused by the drilling. Plus any dust particles which become very visible when the whole unit is back in the car.

It took me three attempts (complete disassembly, re-seat the ribbon and reassembly) before I got it right. It was the Scotch Tape that saved the day in the end because I just couldn't keep the ribbon from moving just half a mm.

Gimme a message if you need help. And don't go at this job if you know you've to do something else later in the day. You'll need buckets of patience and perseverance. Take your time, keep calm and think through every move carefully. There are brain surgeons out there who couldn't perform this task !

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2001 X5 4.4i