BMW X5 E53 Instrument Cluster LCD Is Dark

[OMARS121]

This is my first post, but i know other people have this problem and consider sending it out for the 200-300$ for the repair and I felt I needed to post this to save people some money.

Difficulty level is 2 out of 10

My Miles, Temp, and Trip were all out. When i say "out" i mean that during the day you cant see them, but at night you could faintly see them if you squinted hard enough. There were no dead pixels, just the back light was out and it looked black like nothing was there. It started with my miles...i could only see half of them, the other half was dark...like i said they weren't dead pixels, just no back light...

This is how I fixed it in 10 mins

Go to the dealer and I hate to say this but its worth getting these from the dealer because you don't want to buy Chinese crap and have it burn out on you a few months later just to save a few dollars.

Part number
62111391260

They range from 3-7$ a bulb depending on your dealers markup

You need 5 bulbs for the E53, I'm not sure about the other bmws. REPLACE THEM ALL! if 1 or 2 start going out, all of them will go out soon.

Remove the cluster from the car by taking out the two screws at the top and wiggling out the cluster. putting the steering wheel down will help alot.

unplug the cluster. BE CAREFUL

if you look in the back on the bottom half of the cluster you will see 5 holes with brownish type bulb bases plugged in. take a small flat screw driver, spin them out using the little notch at the top of them and replace them with the new ones.
BE CAREFUL! the bulbs go in a certain way.

Plug the cluster back in, do a cluster test by putting the ignition in position 1 and holding the right button on the cluster until you see Test 1, then let go of the button, press it again and you will see test 2, then press the left button on the cluster and check to make sure all the lights are working. If not, check your connection or make sure all the bulbs you put in are locked in the right way.

Screw it back together...

Done...