[a_wolly]

Hi, this thread seemed most relevant to an issue I'm having so thought I'd post for any thoughts. Recently I started up my 2010 523i F11 and noticed my iDrive had died. No boot sequence, no parking sensors, no radio, etc... I tried system reset (hold radio power button for 30s) and disconnecting the battery for ~1hr; neither had any affect.

I took the car to our local indie who checked all the fuses (none were blown) and said their diagnostics tool wasn't connecting to the HU, so said they'd need £300 to remove the HU and dig deeper to diagnose. That seemed ludicrous, so I removed the HU myself and didn't notice anything odd (annoyingly, our indie won't let me drop off the HU for testing). I noticed there seems to be what looks like a fuse visible when the main cable is removed (see circled area in pic). If so, I'm thinking this might be worth checking.

Given a used replacement HU from eBay can be had for under £200 i figured maybe the next step should be to get one of those and fit myself. Would also be useful to know if alternative part numbers can be used; e.g. a newer HU model?

Anyone have any other ideas what I could try before doing this and/or able to point me in the direction of someone who might be able to code a replacement HU in (again, my indie won't do this for 'insurance reasons')? I'm in south west Surrey.

Thanks in advance.