SOLVED - Stereo quit - lights but no sound?

[ChevDog1]

And the is the original X5 amp

[ChevDog1]

I just received this email from my local BMW dealer:

Good morning! Thank you for contact us with your questions in regards to your 2001 BMW X5. The amplifiers for this year of vehicle do not require coding or programming unfortunately, they are strictly plug in and should work instantaneously. I would recommend a new factory amplifier, assuming that that is the problem with your vehicle. I may also recommend diagnosis to confirm your concern, as we do not want you to put in money to something that may not fix your concern. Please let me know if you have any questions!

This information conflicts with what I'm finding online. Does this guy just not know what he's talking about?

[ChevDog1]

I just realized that I hadn't followed up on this after I got it resolved. I ended up taking it to the dealer to have the amp recoded for a non-nav stereo, and it now works fine.

Unfortunately for me, this required a trip to the dealer - which resulted in me blacklisting them. I was so pissed by the time I left there that I will never again give them any of my money.

What should have been a 20-30 minute appointment to re-code my amp turned into an all day event which ended with me getting my car back with a non-functioning gas gauge and an estimate for $5,000 in "needed repairs".

When I told them that I was leaving the next morning for a 400 mile trip, and wanted my gas gauge returned to working condition before I left, the service adviser just told me that I would have to go "old school" and watch how many miles I had driven.

He was happy to offer to schedule an appointment to look at it when I returned from my trip! I told him that I would fix it myself, and that I would never again bring one of my BMW's to their dealership.