Without warning, the dashboard lights and indicators go dark. the vehicle can be stationary or in motion when it happens. i have contacted the dealer, fields bmw, twice. the first time the service department replaced the battery on my remote key control, the second time service told me it was a known problem at bmw and they were working on a software fix. my second contact was probably six weeks ago, but it happened again two days ago when my wife lost the dashboard lights in the evening. it is very startling (and unsafe) to lose the dashboard lights and indicators, especially at night. neither bmw nor my dealer has informed me of any pending software fix.
The issue is becoming more systemic and occurs more often. issue is as follows: 1) while driving, digital instrumentation will go completely blank for a period of time. this includes speedometer, tachometer, clock, cruise control information. basically, anything that is on the screen disappears. 2) in addition to the instrumentation malfunction, the following system failures are intermittently occurring (no pattern detected yet): all wheel drive system failure (while driving) - when display does resume, vehicle warning system indicates the vehicle may be driven, but the all wheel drive system is inoperative. park distance control (occurred while vehicle was stationary) - when display does resume, vehicle warning system indicates pdc system is inoperative. auto start/stop feature (occurred while vehicle was stationary) - while at a stop and the failure occurred, the engine did shut down incorrect average mileage display - normal mpg for the vehicle is currently around 24.2. vehicle was reporting an average mpg of 9.7 prior to one failure.