Dealer cracked gauge cluster window...

[truman_greg]

I brought in my X5 to the dealer under warranty to fix what I thought was a bad battery - I had to jump it one day, and figured I should bring it in. I thought it would be a 30 minute job, but it turned into 3 hours. They said the battery was fine, but after much testing, the final stage AC resistor was the culprit, as it was drawing power even when the X5 was turned off. So they replaced the resistor, which was great, until I got in the car and found 3 small cracks in the window of my guage cluster, and after 2 days they are starting to grow.

I showed the service rep the cracks immediately, and he agreed to fix them. He said to bring the X5 back, and he'll have a tech take out the cluster first to check the numbers on the back, then see if they have it in stock, otherwise they'll have to order it and install it later. I asked why he couldn't just check the stock first before I came out, and he said they have to get the specific info off the back of the cluster first.

Does it make sense to replace the whole gauge cluster to fix the cracks on the window? Does to also make sense to have to check the numbers off the cluster first vs just entering in the vin to be able to have the right part so I don't have to go back twice when the part arrives?

Greg