It is possible to have 2 failures at once.

The A/C only turns off the compressor when the gauges drop to zero. When the gauges come back, so does the cool air.

After I got home last night, I opened the hood and let it sit for several hours. After spraying the ABS module (behind the headlight) with quick drying contact cleaer (just for the cooling effect), I cleared the codes and started the car. Everything worked fine for about a minute, then went haywire again. I double checked this by cooling the module again, with the same results.

It certainly appears to be a heat related issue with the ABS module. If the car sits overnight, I can go about 20 minutes without any issues before it gets warm enough to fail. After that, the unit is so heat soaked that it can only be temporarily revived for a brief period. I am supposed to receive the cable for my Peake reader tomorrow. Should I wait and pull codes, or just pull the emodule tonight and ship it out for repair tomorrow?

I have seen mixed reports of whether or not it is OK to drive the car with the module unplugged. If I do this, I will probably have to put 300-400 miles on the car while the unit is out for repair, and I don't want to end up with a tamper dot on my cluster. I am perfectly capable of driving without ABS, DSC, etc - I drove for probably 20 years before I had my first car with electrical nannies, so I'm not worried about that. Just don't want to cause additional issues on the car by doing so.

The following link appears to stock repaired modules: BMW X5, E38 & E39 OEM Radio Display Pixel & Speedometer Cluster Repairs

The cart detail seems to indicate you send them yours and they fix and return it but if that is the case there would be no reason to list it in stock. The are showing a sale price of $239. If the policy is not to ship a repaired one until they get yours maybe you can negotiate a core charge and overnight shipping.

They did a great job on my cluster & mid. Via eBay they accept offers well under their site prices.

how quick was their turn-around?

They are in California so they should still be open for a call.

They got it noon Pst Tuesday, returned to me in the am, I had it back Thursday.

I just spoke with them. Very helpful guy who seemed to know a great deal about our cars.

He said that my problem is NOT the ABS module. He said that based on my symptoms, my instrument cluster is acting up. Suggetsted that I disconnect the battery and clamp the + & - leads together for 15 minutes, then hook them back up , cycle the key 3 times, then start the car. If I have any "coding gremlins" this should erase them. If this does not work, I may have to get the cluster re-coded to the car.

He said that my symptoms are exactly what happens if you take a good cluster and install it in another car without coding.

T^hank you very much for the tip to call these guys - I feel that I am much closer to solving this and getting my car back. I am already tired of driving the wife's SAAB 9-7x - not even close to same thing...

I will report back to the board later tonight after I have tried what he suggested.

He was great. Both my LCD boards were bad. He charged 1/2 price for them.

When did you install a used uncoded instrument cluster? I musta missed that post.