Instrument panel display weirdness

[Bottomfeeder]

Well, I went out to the garage, pulled the cluster, switched the two bottom bulbs, reinstalled, and the problem disappeared altogether. Go figure!

Relieved that it doesn't require any repair, but I'm going to pick up a pack of bulbs as a preemptive measure. :-)

Here's a pic of what it looked like before the "fix" - pretty bright.

Best regards and thanks to all,
Chris

[andrewwynn]

Eyes can play tricks on you. Good chance the non bright side was just dim and re-installing cleaned some contacts. That said it also is possible depending how wired, some bulbs were getting over current until you reworked them.

Very good that it's straight for now and I would definitely not veto swapping out the bulbs. You can always keep the old as spares in case you get some premature failure.

[andrewwynn]

25k on an e53. That feels like a record.

[Bottomfeeder]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Eyes can play tricks on you. Good chance the non bright side was just dim and re-installing cleaned some contacts. That said it also is possible depending how wired, some bulbs were getting over current until you reworked them.

Very good that it's straight for now and I would definitely not veto swapping out the bulbs. You can always keep the old as spares in case you get some premature failure.

For sure ... and my eyes aren't as good as they used to be. I did check it out in sunlight, at night, with the brightness all the way up and all the way down, and that one area always looked bright and all other areas looked evenly lit.

I've never had an automotive bulb fail in this way, but I've seen a few household incandescents flare up and get brighter right before going out. But I always attributed that to poltergeists. :-)

I suspect I'm going to need those new bubs sooner rather than later.

Thanks again,
Chris

[Bottomfeeder]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

25k on an e53. That feels like a record.

Kinda shameful, I know. I bought it in 2018 with 20,100 miles. My wife liked it so much we decided if we found another nice, low-mileage E53 we'd get one for her, too. I told her not to hold her breath.

Amazingly, a few weeks afterwards I found a one-owner 05 3.0 on trade-in at the local BMW dealership with 17,000 on the clock. So she got hers, too. I'm either blessed or cursed, time will tell. :-)

Thanks again,
Chris