Playfuldodger - I registered just to reply to this thread as I have exactly to the letter same problem as you. I spent the weekend tearing the car apart to try to get to the bottom of the problem. Reconnected everything, made sure had all the parts etc, verified part number (we have the TCU module) but no BT connection at all to 3 different phones I tried. What happens me is if I drive for 5 mins then I get "Handsfree" come up on my phone(s) but it doesnt connect plus I know it should come up BMWXXXXX etc.

I even disconnected the module for an hour and reconnected to see if it was stuck in some way or if it could be reset. No joy.

I've had to face the fact that the TCU module is knackered and will need replacing. I called a few dealers as well as BMW, and these cost 1400EUR new or 610EUR refurbished. Ouch.

Would be really great to have it working to have everything integrated into the nav screen etc, but for that money it really is cheaper to go the retrofit route with Parrot etc. Only thing I havent tried is buying navcoder to play with some settings to try to see if something that should be there is not enabled etc, but not convinced it will work.

So frustrating not having it working when "activate phone" stares you in the face all the time, and expensive to fix!

Had you made any progress on this since your last posting?