BMW X5 Infotainment System Complete Failure, Solutions?

Hey there! I have some experience working on BMWs. I had a similar issue with my 2018 BMW X3 last year. The entire infotainment system went completely dark, no audio, no nav, nothing. After taking it to my trusted workshop, they diagnosed a faulty control unit in the MOST bus system. The repair set me back about 1000 Euro, but it fixed everything. These issues can be tricky to diagnose. Could you share more details about when this started happening? Any specific events before the system went down? Also, which engine variant do you have in your X5? This might help narrow down the specific control unit that could be causing trouble. Feel free to reach out with more details, and I'll try my best to help further!

Thanks for sharing your experience! My issue started quite suddenly last week while driving. No warning signs, it just went completely dark during my morning commute. I've got the gasoline model with 128075 KM on the clock, and it was running perfectly fine until this happened. No accidents or water damage either. The strange part is that it occasionally flickers back to life for a few seconds before dying again. Had my last service just two months ago and everything was fine then. Did your repair involve just replacing the control unit, or was there more to it? Really hoping I won't have to replace the entire system.

Hey again! Yeah, that flickering symptom sounds very familiar, exactly what mine was doing before it completely gave up. Based on what you're describing, it's almost certainly the same MOST bus control unit issue I dealt with. In my case, they initially tried just replacing the control unit, but they discovered the fiber optic ring was also damaged at one of the connection points. The flickering was happening because of intermittent connection issues in the optical cable. The repair ended up involving both the control unit replacement and fixing that fiber optic connection. The good news is that the KM reading on your X5 is pretty similar to what mine had when this happened (I was around 125000 KM), so it seems to be a common wear point. The even better news is that once it's fixed properly, it's usually sorted for good. Mine hasn't given me any trouble since the repair last year. Quick tip though, if you're taking it in for repair, make sure they check the entire MOST ring while they're at it. Would be a shame to replace the control unit only to find out there's a break in the optical cable somewhere else. Let me know how it goes, curious to hear if it's the same issue I had!

Thanks so much for all this detailed info! That's really helpful to know about the fiber optic ring, I wouldn't have thought to ask them to check that. I've actually just booked it in for next week at the dealership, and I'll definitely mention both the control unit and the fiber optic connection issues you experienced. It's weirdly reassuring to hear that yours had almost the same mileage when this happened. Makes me feel like it's just a normal wear and tear thing rather than something I did wrong! I'll definitely update this thread once I get it sorted. Really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and tips. Fingers crossed it's a straightforward fix like yours was. Just hoping the repair bill won't be too shocking! Thanks again for all your help.