Mine is a 07'. I purchased a used cluster off eBay and then used my IIDTool to re-flash the cluster to work with my vehicle. The only thing is you need to find a cluster that has lower miles than your current one as the mileage can only be increased and not decreased. I purchased the re-flash firmware from Gap Diagnostics.So you are saying that you did not have to purchase a brand new one, but just got a similar junk yard display and then were able to put your 3's software back in - as in overwrite whatever was in the old one. What year is your 3? Mine is 2005 and I thought the chips on the instrument panel were not EPROMs - well once only.
I did not think that could be done - I am impressed. I am learning something I did not know.