Mfrymier,

I just completed this on my 3-04 X5, the E815 pairs flawlessly with the TCU. Read the posts under Peter D, and you can see the trial and errors

Yes, you do need the BT antenna and cable. Contact Randy at EIS Kits www.eiskits.com he has the OEM parts at $19.50 for the antenna and $21.50 for the cable. Since you've got Assist, you've got the Mic. (TCU+antanna+cable+coding=done)

#1 Correct
#2 Correct
#3 I'm working on the cradle for mine, the "incompatibility issue" (as far as I can see)is that the antenna cable that runs from the snap in cradle in the console to the TCU has the wrong Fakra connector on it. The 04 cable has a male end, it was designed to mate to the female bumper antenna plug bypassing the ULF module.

It's a matter of changing the FAKRA connector from male to female via a patch cable to allow the antenna cable from the phone in the snap in cradle to plug into the TCU. All of the 05's are set so the cradle plugs into the TCU, BT and Assist share the same bumper antenna.

The Voice recognition in the module works great, just remember that the cars VR has a seperate phone book from your cell phones, You have to program it under speak and spell to load the names.

Hit the talking head till it beeps, then say, "say name" the Vr prompts you for a name and then number, at the end of the number you can say "save" and your done. You can also voice dial a number, again hit the head and wait, it will read you a list of commands you can give it

Good luck.