Originally Posted by mrtm2008

Kind of funny that I just joined Xoutpost and I just happen to do this on my wife's '04 E53 X5. Just a short blurb first...we bought the X5 CPO without iPod & had the dealership install it. We dealt with the drawbacks for 2 years because the Dice I had in my E46 M3 was just ok & we also spent $800 thinking that maybe it was up to par, our bad!

Anyway, not sure if you have Nav or not (so this might make a difference) and I just purchased the Intravee II to replace it. As I wasn't too sure about what was involved in the kit or the installation of the BMW ipod set-up, I went in blindly. I knew that the iPod connection was in the glove box, so I went & took the glovebox out (not sure if there is a DIY on this here or not). After I got the glovebox out I found a small unit that the ipod cord connected to & another cord to go behind the nav. So I had to take the Nav out. Taking the nav out is actually pretty easy. The plastic piece around the front of the nav unit pops off (3 clips on the bottom, 2 on the top), just use something strong but thin & work around, pulling it up. Once you do, there are 5 torx screws to take out & then you can just pull the Nav unit out.

When the Nav is pulled out, I found a new wiring harness attached to the cord that went to the iPod unit and it also ran to another small (new) cable that went back toward the glovebox. Basically the new wiring harness pulled 3 wire connectors from one of the 2 main wiring harness connections (the black one) to the back of the Nav unit. THOSE 3 wire connectors need to be pulled back out of the new wiring harness connector & reinserted into the connector that goes into the back of the Nav. It actually becomes quite obvious when you see it. Disconnect the small wiring connection on the new wiring harness to the wire that leads back toward the glovebox. Then remove the new wiring harness because you don't need it anymore.

From here, you are done with the Nav unit. That one New cable that ran toward the glovebox needs to be taken out. I found that it is routed under all the lower door sill panels, under the rear seat, through a used wireing harness hole & into the trunk, under the rear spare tire.

So from there, you have to take out the spare tire, take out the air suspension frame bolts & nuts, put them to the side & unscrew the screw holding down a plastic cover that goes around the rest of the battery area (it doesn't cover over the battery itself). After taking that out, you will see a set of connection that the new cable finally connects to, as well as a connector that is no longer connected. Take out the new wiring harness connector & replace in the connector that is the same (white) color.

Now you system is back to the way it was stock!

I REALLY like the Intravee II system compared to the Dice unit I have had. And from what I've investigated, the new Dice Pro isn't much different from the dice I had. But that side of the coin will be up to you!

Hope this helps...if you have any questions, ask them here or PM me.

Marshall