I really doubt it's just a failing connection as I've seen individual pixels fade little by little over the course of 6 years. This is such a common failure for E39s and E53s that I'm sure BMW NA would love the issue to be as simple as fixing a connection. I'm sure their goodwill and warranty expenditures have been quite costly for the pixel problem.

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2001 X5 4.4i
2002 Honda S2000