BMW Bluetooth Retrofit

[pedro444]

First of all, apologies for a fairly lengthy post!

I thought you might be interested in the bluetooth system I've fitted to my 75. It's fully integrated to the car and uses BMW components.

After a bit or research and reading of BMW forums, I decided it must be feasible and decided to have a go. (I think a link from Keith ages ago to the Bimmernav site started my research!)

I had already upgraded a few of the sat-nav compents in the car (Mk3 BMW drive, 16:9 E46 monitor, BM24 tuner etc.) and was impressed how everything seemed to work as soon as you connected it.

First of all I worked out that there are a couple of pre-requisites if you want to fit this:

1. High Line Sat Nav System
2. BMW BM54 Tuner

As far as I'm aware these are the only two things you must have. The BM54 tuner is needed as it has a dedicated telephone input whereas the BM24 version and the Rover tuner don't support this. This together with the adaptor loom for the different tuners is the most expensive part of the retrofit.

One comment on the BMW tuners - I was amazed at how much they improved the sound quality over the Rover tuner! One of my first upgrades was the BM24 tuner and this made a huge difference to the quality of the sound - much more bass availalbe and sharper sound, even with the standard speaker. The BM54 is similarly as good, if not a little better.

The components I needed were (in addition to the BM54 tuner):
1. BMW ULF unit - this is the 'brains' of the telephone system (about £50 on eBay)
2. Microphone - standard BMW item
3. Wiring loom to connect to tuner in the boot and ULF unit. I got mine from this guy: http://www.bimmernav.com/index.html
I must say Martin from Bimmernav was most helpful and I’d definitely recommend him. I think the loom I got is actually intended to retrofit the system to a MINI with sat-nav.
4. Bluetooth Antenna and lead (came with the loom from Bimmernav)
5. Pairing Button (again from Bimmernav)


First step was to locate the ULF unit in the spare wheel area. I choose to mount it on the back of the tuner as shown below. In truth there wasn't much choice as to where to put it as the loom was fairly short!

The loom provided plugs in between the existing harness and the radio module and provides the connection to the I-Bus, power etc. There are also two separate audio wires that you then feed into the tuner connections.

Once all the wiring was neatly tied up, the original black cover fitted back and you'd never know anything different was behind it.





Once this is mounted and connected, there are only three further items to install. First is the bluetooth antenna. I mounted this on top of the sat-nav drive in the boot as it was about as far as I could get the cable to reach and there were handy mounting holes:





Next there is the pairing button. This connects to the twisted wires you'll see in the first photo. I decided to mount this in a spare spot in the centre console so I had to extend the wires. You could actually decide to leave the button in the boot as I think you only need it when you want to add a new phone to the system.

Finally then it was the microphone to mount. I routed the wires for this through the boot, under the parcel shelf, then up behind the headlining on the driver's side of the car and finally behind the sun visor to the centre light unit. I felt this was the simplest way of routing the wiring without taking too much trim apart! The microphone clipped straight in to the light unit - as though it was made for it!



You may notice two red wires connected to nothing it appears at the top of this photo. These happened to have the exact same connector as the microphone. Following this wiring back I found it to just be a pre-installed extension that ended at the base of the windscreen pillar on the driver's side. I suppose it was some pre-wiring for the original Rover phone system? Also while poking around behind the screen pillar trim I found another much meatier connector that appears not to go to anything. Anyone any ideas?



Then, put all the bits of the car back together, turn on the ignition and here you go:





I have to say it is quite a good system. And it means you can use the phone button and see those LEDs at the top of the screen working if you've upgraded to the 16:9 monitor!

The telephone (ULF) module is supposed to have integrated voice control, but I'm yet to experiment with this. I think I might be able to use the pairing button (that I mounted between the cruise and rear blind switches) to activate this but haven't been successful yet.

Hope you find this interesting!
Pete

[Rosebank]

Hi pedro444

I was certainly interested in your project description. Some of the aspects you dealt with have a bearing on a recent post of mine - "Handsfree telephone Installations" and I intend to check into this further.

Regards

Rosebank

[Keith]

Well done Pedro I was hoping a volunteer would try this
I had been waiting to pick up a BM54 at a sensible price before trying it myself.

Do you want to edit the post to add anything? what is shown on the screen during a call or if the telephone menu is chosen what options are there etc?

I will then post this in the Howto forum

[Alex30013k]

Did wonder what that red wire was for, my old car had this, but my 03 don't, thought it maybe something to do with the sun roof switch or illumination,

Very good install, Well done,

[JohnDotCom]

That will be a very Useful HowTo.
Well done.

[pedro444]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I'll take some pics of the various screens you get with the system and add them to the thread.

Pete

[Jontie]

Hi Pedro,
I've just returned from a weeks holiday and I'm catching up on the Forum. I'm in the process of upgrading and this is one of the options I am hoping to fit, so I can't believe my luck when I spotted this!! Thanks for a great How To.....
Regards
John

[Departed]

Originally Posted by pedro444

You may notice two red wires connected to nothing it appears at the top of this photo. These happened to have the exact same connector as the microphone. Following this wiring back I found it to just be a pre-installed extension that ended at the base of the windscreen pillar on the driver's side. I suppose it was some pre-wiring for the original Rover phone system?
Pete

The wires were orange / orange black. Maybe they changed, but yes that's exactly whate they were for.

Originally Posted by pedro444

The microphone clipped straight in to the light unit - as though it was made for it!

It was! The original phone system used BMW components, just like the satnav. New software was developed for the phone unit to go with the symphony, but the version for satnav was to be completely carry over. Short sighted management dropped the project.

You might be surprised how much BMW / Mini / Componentry works. After all, the same people designed the 75 and the Mini!!

[pedro444]

OK, here are a few more pics. I haven't got a 16:9 TV module in the car at the moment hence these are displaying in a 4:3 size on the larger screen.

First of all, you need to pair your phone with the system. You only have to do this once and to do it make sure your phone's bluetooth is activated and set to discover then hold the pairing button down as you turn on the ignition. You should then see this screen:



If successful the monitor will display 'Pairing Successful'. You'll then need to turn off the ignition then back on again. From now on your phone will automatically connect when the ignition is on.

Selecting the Telephone option from the main menu gives the following telephone menu:




You can use the right hand rotary button to move around the screen and enter a number manually, just as you would with the sat nav. Once a number is entered you can either use the phone button on the monitor or use the control to highlight the picture of a green handset and select this. (This means you don't have to have the phone button on your monitor - the standard 4:3 screen for example doesn't have that button.)

Alternatively you can look numbers up by going to Directory. The first time you do this it will transfer you phone book over and the screen will look like this whilst it is transferring:



And if someone calls you, the phone will ring through the car's loudspeakers and you will get this screen appearing:




And finally two other pictures that someone might find useful. Firstly the three adaptors that you need to fit a BMW flat pin radio module. From left to right are aerial, audio in (CD changer and monitor tape) and main audio connector (power and speakers etc.)



And here side by side are BM24 and BM54 tuners (BM54 on the left).




Hope you find these useful! If anyone is interested in the various part numbers let me know and I'll dig them out and add them to this thread.

Pete

[Rob Bell]

Originally Posted by Alex30013k

Did wonder what that red wire was for, my old car had this, but my 03 don't, thought it maybe something to do with the sun roof switch or illumination,

Very good install, Well done,

I agree - cracking install there - nice one!

So the red wires have gone on 03 model year cars? Great. Another Project Drive deletion