Car Fix DIY Videos

John Tsamados says:

Nightmare best thing to do go down to your local Pick-A-Part take a battery with you so you can check the cluster if it's okay buy it for 40 bucks. That's if you have a 540i or 5:25 or 5:30 but if you have a M5 of course they wanted trick out the cluster so you won't find too many of them in the junkyard other than that normal guy will screw it up starting to Tinker around with it if he doesn't know what he's doing perhaps find somebody and pay them that knows how to do this disco or you're going to end up in trouble you're playing with one screw up and you're all done history and a big nightmare. Maybe perhaps you can call or text this guy and send it to him since he knows what he's doing but this isn't like working on a motor or transmission this is like real technical s*** later

BIMMERHEAD says:

https://youtu.be/o9dpgsR24Gk

M 5 says:

Thanks for the video!
(I hope that I won't be needing this instruction video in the near future)

Andrew Thompson says:

I did mine on my E38 about 6 years ago and it's still perfect and has lasted longer than the original one. I removed my needles so I did not need to drill. I used the better type of ribbon without the display. It was a huge job to get the ribbon to line up. I ended up plunging it into the car while I moved it around. I would highly recommend the ribbon with display. My mid is next…

TitanSilver354 says:

Interesting. I did this job, and the MID ribbon cable about a year ago. It's a cluster F' of a job. Pun intended.
The screen assembly didn't have any pins though, and the back of it didn't have what looks like bulb holders? Also I'm not sure why you drilled. No drilling was required when I did it. Mine's a 2001 523i. I didn't need to replace the screen, and so had to attach both edges of the ribbon. Lining the contacts up took an infinite amount of patience.
I ordered a repair kit from pixelfix in Europe. Nice guys. If I recall the contacts in their ribbon are high quality silver, and will outlast the car. There are cheaper kits from China made with an inferior contact material, can't recall what exactly, but they can breakdown in a matter of a year or two. False economy. They also supplied new silicone strips (they keep pressure on the contacts) and purpose made pointed plastic tabs for the credit card bit, etc.
The MID was a success. The cluster, not so much.
For some reason I had to remove the gauge needles, probably to remove the gauge face for access somewhere. I followed the instructions closely, using the needle puller supplied, and pop! the pin pulled right out of the gauge's motor, brass spring uncoiling and all. Temp gauge Destroyed.
I don't mind admitting I was devastated there for a minute.
I got on the phone with them, in a mild panic, Bulgaria I think, explained what had happened, they said the needle always pops off the pin without fuss, but OK, send it in for free repair. So I sent the entire cluster to Pixelfix in Bulgaria, via DHL, for the needle motor repair (I didn't know or trust anyone here in Bangkok to do such a delicate specialist job). $260 in shipping both ways. ffs.
I'd forgotten about the nightmare that was the epic gauge cluster repair fail until I watched this video. It's gotta be in my top 3 automotive repair screw ups – hey 20 years DIY'ing on cars, you're gonna have a few. A year on and all pixels still bright and working.
Sorry for the essay, but your video gave me PTSD lol