Finally the X5 is here, hello everyone.
 

I'm saying finally because when I test drove the car the SES light came on and the previous owner had to fix it before I get the car. Turned out that one of the O2 sensors was bad and needed replacement. Now I'm new to the X5 family but not to BMWs. This is my 7th but first X. So far I love it, and my wife likes it so much she said she will sleep in it the first day we got it.

It's nothing too fancy, but it has almost everything that I wanted and the condition of the vehicle is really nice. I bought it from the second owner, who got it from the original one at the end of 2009 with 100 000 miles and service records since the car was brand new. Unfortunately the second owner didn't keep many records, but he kept the car in a nice condition for the 60 000 miles he owned it.

Now the two questions I have right away are: first what is the best way to fix my MID display cause almost all of the pixels are gone and its driving me nuts? And second, when I shut off the car a message comes on the dash that says "check side lights" I believe it was. Now I did notice that the angel lights never come on so I guess their bulbs are burned and probably thats causing the message but wanted to double check.

Here's couple pictures, before the car goes to the detail guy to work his magic on the paint :)

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/...4e88c459_b.jpgPhoto Sep 22 by alex_at

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3908/...001a042c_b.jpgPhoto Sep 22-2 by alex_at

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/...29d614e2_b.jpgPhoto Sep 22-3 by alex_at

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3914/...35de7fa4_b.jpgPhoto Sep 22-4 by alex_at

nice score! looks damn clean

looks really nice - welcome to the forum

the "side lights" are the angel eyes... consider LEDs since yours are probably both burned... originals cost about $15-20 a piece, so LED replacement might not sound too expensive... lol...

with the MID - you might have corroded ribbon cable inside - do a search on the forum for DIY or there are folks out there (on ebay?), who do it for money...

you clearly have a facelifted 3.0 with about 160k miles - might want to come up with a signature line, so people would give an advise suited to your car, should you ever ask a question on the forum, and they would not guess if you got a V8 or I6 or whatnot...

again, welcome aboard

Welcome! Your X5 looks nice.

clean ride! welcome!

Welcome! Looks very nice.

Glue on the ribbon cable deteriorate and will start to loose contact and cause loss of pixels. I haven't open MID on X5 since my unit doesn't have the issue but opened one in Jaguar and Audi due to bad pixels. I added pressure where the ribbon cable contacts are by wedging in folded paper between the ribbon contacts and rear bracket that secures ribbon cable. It works perfectly after since the pressure created good contact again. Backlit LCDs are all similar in design so might work for X5 MID.

Clean! Nice trick for MID, Jungerishere.

Looks like you found a nice example, Alex, congrats. From the pix, it looks like you have an 04-06 3.0L auto tranny version, with 160k miles on the odo, but, as recommended earlier, add the specifics to your signature so folks here can better help you as you have questions.

If you aren't handy with the tight work to open the cluster or MID, repair guys on ebay do it for about $95, I had my speedo done last year, perfect job and added silver rings in it as well.

Check side lights should be your angel eye bulbs, take the opportunity to upgrade to LED versions for about $50 and do both sides.

Nice looking facelift on the pre-facelift Style 69's....

Thank you guys, for the warm welcome and the tips. I actually already purchased LED bulbs for the angel eyes of the X from a forum member but one of them came broken so I'll have to get another ones. And I have no problem fixing things, I'll just go ahead and order new cable for the MID screen from ebay and replace it. Hopefully that solves this problem.

Now I did see that ecstuning is a sponsor on here, do we get any discount if we order from them? Theres some plastics in the interior that I want to change cause they are worn and I see that ecs carries all of them, so would they be the best place to order?

And since some of you guys here are also e30 owners I thought I'll post a picture of mine. It's currently abroad but I'm planning to bring it in the States at some point.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/...7e6a2e76_b.jpgPhoto Sep 14 by alex_at