2001 E46 - Changed battery and now instrument cluster playing up

[thatsteve]

As title, I had the battery changed on Friday and the cluster is not right since. See the following video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaWaFW26LWo

Any ideas? The mechanic used a gizmo to keep electrical continuity while he changed the battery. Car drives absolutely lovely since having the new battery in, it's just this weird thing keeps happening when I start!

[bmwdirtracer]

Sorry to tell you, but the "electronic gizmo" which supplies power backwards through the OBD port is a BMW's worst enemy. It's known to kill computers, and it looks like it might have toasted your instrument cluster.

I can't tell you why this happens, but I've heard of it happening many times. I find it hard to believe anyone would use such a thing, because they're too lazy to reset the clock.

I do not think it's going to fix the problem, but you could TRY undoing the battery negative cable for a few minutes.

[thatsteve]

Thanks for the info. I didn't see exactly what the mechanic used or where, I just dropped the car off and came back round an hour later. I asked if he was able to keep electric continuous or did the radio need unlocking, and he said he had used a tool to keep power in the circuitry. That's all I know. I'm seeing him tomorrow and will feed back what you say above. Cheers!