I have a 99 E36 convert. 91,000 mi. No accidents & no recent repairs.

Tonite, after several flickers, the heat/AC control panel display went dark, fans off, no heat/AC controls of any sort - although the backlighting for the buttons work (when headlights on, of course).

Given the flickering first, I assume not a fuse. Connector - loose/dirty?, then where? Or fatal - need to replace some unit???

Thanks in advance,
Mike.

Sounds like a faulty IHKA unit. Not uncommon on an e36

Might be able to repair the unit itself. A lot of these had issues with the capactor failing in them and usually they kick on and off. You can opt to repair it yourself or send it off to get fixed for around 40 bucks or so. Check on Ebay, several folks advertising on there and most will show you how to remove the unit in their ad. I had my son's 96 318i fixed that way,a s I did not feel like soldering in a 400 dollar unit. Later we replaced the final stage unit, which also failed, however it controls your fan, not the entire thing. Pretty sure your control is similar if not the same. Unhooks in a minute or two. If I am wrong on this someone please correct me. A 1999 should be the same setup.

Try this,this may help.
http://www.macadamizer.com/bmwfix.html

Many thanks for the responses...on further search I found the http://www.macadamizer.com/bmwfix.html page. Got a 1.0 uf tantalum capacitor for ~1.79 at Radio Shack, put it in per the instructions at the aforementioned link (aka Richard's Web Site). Worked like a charm...getting the circuit board out just a bit tricky, but all the rest, fine. Note I was an electronics repair tech many moons ago, so the soldering was also a breeze - for me - YMMV.

Thanks again...Bimmer's now happy (and driver's coool, or warm and fuzzy, as necessary!)

Mike.