No Bluetooth Voice Control
 

I bought a X3 3.0d on August with option 644 (bluetooth). I also had to upgrade the radio an ordered BMW Business CD to work with the buetooth. I received the international version of the manual (extremely simplified).

When I connected my Nokia 6230i I could manage the agenda and receive-make calls. But there was no way I could use voice tags or commands at all. The buttons are on the steering wheel and when you press the button (with the talking face) it dials the last number or the one displayed on the agenda. If I hold the button down the same thing happens. I tried other phones with same result.

I asked the dealer (by the way is in Spain). He said on X3 there is no Voice Dial ???

The most disapointing thing is that with any other cheap standalone bluetooth kit when you hold down the dial button you can use voice tags.

Finally I took out and shot some pictures at the ULF. I noticed this version
84.21-987546-02 is mentioned on the page.

Has anybody an idea of waht's going on ...


Attachment 9858

I believe that in Europe the voice module is a dealer installed option.

Your Bluetooth module has the VR capability, but Euro cars have the feature disabled. Then, BMW charges a large amount to enable it (or install a separate module, I'm not sure). Anyway, if you could find an independent mechanic that could recode your Bluetooth module to its factory defaults, you would be set.

Done this myself with SA644 with 3ed Gen ULF MIt SES and Sat Nav retro fit and coded by the dealer and the printouts from the Techy indicate i now have SA601,609,644 and SA620 which is VR and i can use VR for both BT and Nav.... ie press speaker button say'Map' if on computer,BT menu or Television the screen changes to map... or say ' Scale 100 metres' the screen will change from 900yds to 125yds...(only problem is metric is only recognised for distances on VR and not yds!!!! can live with that....) by the way i do not have the voice input module either... just the bt ulf.... but on other forums people cant get the VR to work even if they have ULF mit ses from factory spec cars... weird....
UK Car. I know it is not alot of help but it should work, my coding was for retrofit oem kit... maybe that is the difference...

I have a 6th gen ULF mould that has the VR disabled, and I need to get mine re-coded. (I am using a 5th generation, for the time being, that has everything working.) Out of curiousity, what is the year and model of your car in which the ULF was recoded?

Brian-bmw My 2004 E46 ; does your 6th gen ULF state on the label also
ULF'ULF MIT SES'? Take it that the 5th gen ULF 945 387 does have SES on the label... and works with BT and Sat Nav with VR....

Yes, both of my ULF modules have "ULF MIT SES" printed on them. I had read that you can not recode a ULF in a car built prior to when these modules were first introduced. I have a 1998 E38, so based on that, recoding is not an option in my car. I was wondering if yours was possibly an early model, but the BT ULF was a factory option in 2004.

Coincidentally, my ULF came from a UK-spec 2004 E46.

is there a way to find out if i have this option for hands free in my x5-2001 3.0 i have the radio and cd player,no gps, how do i check to see if a have that bluetooth module install on my x5?,,i have the button on my wheel stering and the phone thing on the radio,,but i press them both and they dont work,,the one on the radio i pres also and does not work it has like a light led in the right but when i press no light is comen on? any suggestions how do i check to see if i have what i need to make this work,,, thanks

All US-spec cars and most Euro-spec cars are pre-wired for a phone system. However, many of them do not have the option instealled. So, your car would have all of the buttons and wiring needed, but it just lacks the control module and a few extra parts.

Check out www.bimmernav.com to see examples of Bluetooth retrofits kits for the X5. (FYI, I put one of those kits in my 1998 740iL.)

thanks for reply,
i looked on my x5 in the rear both sides right and left where the fuses are and the other side and found one unit that say"" alpine equalizer" thats it nothing else,,so that means someone have takeing the blue tooth and the gps!,damm,,,no will cost to much money to buy all that,,
but my my other question if i buy a cd/dvd player with gps will that work with the phone or must have the blue tooth also? thanks

Navigation is not one of those options that can be pre-wired. So, your car probably never had the navigation option in the first place.

Bluetooth is the same. BMW did not even offer Bluetooth when your car was manufactured, so it could never have been there in the first place. The plus side is that your car does have phone pre-wiring in place, which makes it very easy to retrofit the Bluetooth module.

If you buy an aftermarket radio with GPS capability, your best thing to do is shop for one that also has Bluetooth phone capability. That way, you do not have to worry about trying to integrate it with the BMW system at all.

so i know there are many gurus out there. can anyone clarify this issue to us: can we activate the VR feature if we have the BT module installed without buying the VR module?

any input will be appreciated. the VR is a great feature and most of us would like to have it.

Yes, a dealer or independent mechanic who is willing can activate the VR feature in the ULF module.

ok, thank's for the answer. my local dealer will do most of the legal things which can be done. but while they have all the bmw equipment, most of the time they lack the knowledge. do not get me wrong, they know all they need to know when servicing their customers, but when it comes to gadgets like navigation software update, ipod, bluetooth or TV module questions, they are just useless (because i am always the first/the only one to ask them to do that). yes, that's the reality in those parts of the world. so if someone can write a complete description of what needs to be done, i can then translate it to the BMW engineer and we can do it.
can anyone please help?

My understanding is that you need two things coded: first, you need the central personality of the car extending to include option SA620 (VR), second you may/may not need the VR activated in the ULF (only MIS SES modules include hardware and software for VR).

Central coding defines the localisation of the car (language, options etc) and includes car and key memory settings. Euro X3's spec'd with with BT but not VR from the factory have VR SA620 disabled centrally - this cannot be enabled through a retrofit update (yet) but instead requires a recoding of the central settings. Most dealers I talk to want stupid money to do this central recoding work.

Annoyingly, cars spec'd without any BT comms and all US cars do not seem to have VR disabled, hence a full BT/VR retrofit to these vehicles appears to automatically enable the VR as well as BT.

VR SA620 is the only option I can think of that does not require any physical parts for the retrofit. If you have a recent ULF you have all the hardware and software already. Might explain why BMW are not too keen on developing a software retrofit program that dealers could charge 30 minutes labour for when the factory VR option costs £275.

I think that when one does a retro fit using bmw oem bt kit.... (bought my car new without getting the option of BT at the time plus VR is another option price goes up) the ulf is not coded and will work with any specific car... and VR worked fine without coding... mine was only coded after retro fit of sat nav + tv hybrid.... i even told the tech that my BT was VR enabled.. and showed him it working... when the coding was done... SA620 and SA644 was on the data sheets for my car specific, for Euro cars it is definetly the case of pay more for your options... or disable them at factory ....:mad:

It was 3rd gen ulf 'ulf mit ses'

And i have VR for the sat nav not all but most and the scale is in metres:confused:
when my map screen is in yards... lol;) but it works and i am happy...

Unfortunately, all US cars do not have the SA620 option. I have two 2005 X3's, and did not purchase the ZPP package, and therefore did not have the BT. I used a ULF module and had the car recoded, but the VR was not functional. After talking with my dealership and seeing the retrofit instructions from the dealership, a new vehicle order was required. They wanted $700. I obviously passed.

Same here - "New Vehicle Order" means "Recode Central Personality Settings" -i.e. central coding of all vehicle defaults (VIN, language, country, RHD/LHD, car options, keys, DME etc) not module coding. Most dealers I talk to don't want to do this and estimate minimum of one days work ~£700. I'm not keen either as the potential for screwing up my car is huge.

Some have been lucky with full accessory retrofit of ULF, getting VR straight out of the box. BMW do not disable VR in the factory when the VR hardware was not factory-fitted in the car. They advertise the BT retrofit accessory as coming with VR - they couldn't make this statement if all cars were VR disabled.

Bottom line - if you're about to order a Euro X3 and are not sure about BT 644, don't order it - wait until you have the car, retrofit BT as an accessory and get VR for free. Otherwise order BT and VR together from the factory to avoid being locked out of VR forever.

thank you for reply. it seems to me from all the posts i have read, that first i need to check my BT module to see what generation it is and wether it is SES or not, right? what is SES? will it say on the module that is/it is not SES?

SA620 is coding AND wiring for voice recognition. Ordering SA620 gives you a 26 pin blue connector for VR.

On the other hand the solution is straight forward. You need new and uncoded ULFs to get VR to work in a car that is not equipped with SA620 AND you need the dealer to not mess with the car unless they want to spend the time to enable the coding for SA620 again.

If you purchase a ULF from Europe second hand, it is most likely NOT going to have VR. If you purchase a ULF module new/uncoded from the US, you whoudl be typically fine as long as you do not have dealer code the car.

I only get the new/uncoded versions as they are configured for BT and VR. It is the best and easiest solution to make sure it works as designed

Martin
www.bimmernav.com

Martin:

If you install a BT unit in an X3, the car needs to be coded to recognize the unit, or else the BT is not functional (assuming BT/Assist was not present before).

I've purchased a ULF -387 that I put in a e46 and the VR worked flawlessly. I put the same ULF-387 in my X3 and the VR is no longer functional. In addition, the car would not recognize the unit until it was coded. In addition, I do not have SA620

steering wheel control
 

Hi,
I have a ck7w bluetooth kit fitted and I have hear'd you can get a cable to hook up the un-used buttons on the steering wheel so I can have steering wheel control? anyone know where I can get one and how much?
2001 x5 4.4i no sat nav.
I live in Scotland UK.
;)