BMW Infotainment Display Gone Dark? Get Help Here

My 2004 BMW 3 Series 320d had the exact same symptoms last summer. The display would flicker and eventually went completely dark. Turned out the CCC (Car Communication Computer) unit had failed, it's basically the brain of the infotainment system. Took it to the garage and they diagnosed a faulty main board inside the CCC unit. They had to replace the entire unit as these can't be repaired component by component. It was quite a serious job since they also had to reprogram the new unit to work with my car's systems. The good news is that once fixed, it's worked perfectly since then with no recurring issues. Just make sure you go to a shop that specializes in BMW electronics, they'll need proper diagnostic equipment and coding capabilities to do this job right. For reference, I've put about 45,000 km on the car since the repair without any display problems. Seems like a common issue with these models as they age.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, it's super helpful since it sounds exactly like what I'm dealing with! Great to hear it was sorted properly with the CCC replacement. Would you mind sharing how much you ended up paying for the whole job? Also, has anything else electronic-wise acted up since you got it fixed? Just want to know if I should expect any other related issues popping up.

Hey there! Happy to give you an update. Took my car to get it fixed after our previous chat and you'll be glad to know everything's working perfectly now. The repair cost me 725 € for the display unit replacement. While it wasn't cheap, it was totally worth it, my audio system's back to working like new and that annoying flickering is completely gone. Since the repair a few months back, I haven't had any other electrical gremlins pop up. The radio, navigation, and all other infotainment features are working just as they should. Really glad I went ahead with replacing the whole CCC unit rather than trying any temporary fixes. My mechanic did a great job with the coding and everything, which I think made all the difference. I still stand by what I said before about making sure you get a specialist who knows BMWs, it makes a huge difference when they know exactly what they're dealing with. Hope this helps with your decision! Let me know if you need any other info about the repair.

Thanks for the detailed follow-up! Actually, I went ahead and got mine fixed too. Took it to this BMW specialist I found and they diagnosed the same issue, faulty CCC unit. Had to shell out around 800 bucks for the whole thing, bit more than yours but I guess prices vary. The repair process was pretty smooth though. Dropped it off in the morning, they had the new unit in stock, and got it back the next day. Everything's working like a charm now, crisp display, perfect audio, no more flickering. Such a relief! Funny thing is, while they were at it, they spotted a loose connection in the wiring harness and fixed that too, didn't even charge extra for it. Really glad I decided to go with a specialist rather than my usual mechanic. You were totally right about that! Thanks again for sharing your experience, it really helped me make the right decision instead of putting it off and potentially facing bigger issues down the road.