Very strange thing happened with my car yesterday..

Zitat von BBMatic;114123

Should I worry?

Why not?

Bit of a murky situation. Has occurred elsewhere but was never pinpointed. More often than not it was the instrument cluster, sometimes possibly/likely rather related to the EKM.
If it continues to fail you will at first replace all fuses that may be responsible, secondly remove the cluster and go over the PCB with a magnifying glass and soldering iron to make sure you don´t have hairline cracks or cold solder joints. Then there´s some caps to replace. If this fails to bring remedy you´ll be looking at a replacement of the cluster with another used one - you will need to make use of Revtor´s great tool NCSDummy here.
Once this replacement failed to yield you´ll be dealing with everything the EKM can throw at you, amongst this dry caps, cold solder joints or general need of replacement

Nothing to worry, really
Reinhard

Were just the gauges affected or the trip/odometer as well?

If the worst comes to the worst, there is a matched instrument cluster and EKM on UK Ebay at the moment.

Keep in mind that if you take over both EKM and instrument cluster from another car, you also take over its vehicle identification number (VIN), central coding key (ZCS) and... mileage. You definitely don't want that. In many countries it's even considered fraud.

It's highly unlikely both EKM and instrument cluster are bad. As long as only one of both is bad you can replace it with a new part and the replacement will learn it's coding automatically from the other part. The problem is that this mechanism only works with new and unused parts ($$$). After 8 operating hours an EKM or instrument cluster is considered used an permanently bonded to its counterpart. If you put for example a used instrument cluster in your car, it will refuse to work. The odometer will show "EEEE" and the gauges remain dead. Luckily the used flag can be cleared so used instrument clusters and EKM modules can be given a second life. For instrument clusters clearing the used flag is very simple although you need access to a computer running BMW Ediabas/INPA (more particularly ToolSet32) and a working interface to the vehicle (ADS or yellow head). More information in instrument cluster swap. I haven't found a software solution for clearing the used flag on the EKM, though. At this moment the only way is by using an EEPROM programmer. It's not that difficult, but requires opening the EKM, soldering and obviously an EEPROM programmer which is probably not standard equipment of the average BMW enthusiast... Note that you only need to clear the used flag of the (used) replacement part - not both.

Anyway, before getting into detail it's important to figure out which of both is bad - EKM or instrument cluster. If the problem does not return, good for you, but if it does try to gather as much details. Does the trip/odometer still work, do the instrument cluster warning lights still work, does the MID still work (check whether the clock still advances and reset one of the information screens like average speed or fuel consumption and verify it gets updated correctly),...

This was almost the same problem that I had. Only exception was that I think I had the tachometer.It failed for about 6 months. leapt in to life again for a month and then failed , once and for all. Was your fuel gauge working?
We spent hours trying to diagnose the problem to no avail. Checked all caps and these were within spec. Put a scope on the relevant signal cables but nothing seemed untoward. Eventually I purchased a replacement cluster and the rest as they say is history! ...with a bit of help obviously.