Yes, the TCU's were always able to be reflashed with newer firmware, however they had to go back to the supplier (Motorola) for this to be done. It was not possible to do this in the field or at the dealer.

For newer MOST based cars, flashing the firmware in the field is possible.

With regards to your 6/12/2004 TCU ... this falls under the period when BMW were only installing Assist units without Bluetooth. I know there maybe a BT sticker on the TCU itself, or even a passcode ... but its disabled.

Now a question to Jose. With this new TCU, it doesn't give you SMS does it ... or is that still disabled?

I'm not so sure about the last comment. My TCU of that date (6/12/2004) DOES have working bluetooth. I use it all the time.

Thats interesting. Did you retrofit it, or was that the unit that came with the vehicle. Can you let me know the part # by any chance ... you've got me curious now.

Actually scratch that. Thats the 6th December 2004 - yes. For some reason I was reading that as June ..... hence my original comment.

Hey apw, The build on my X5 is also 12/04 and it came with Bluetooth. It was the non-voice version...

Now to your question. No, the new system doesn't have SMS (or it's still disabled). The one thing I discovered yesterday is that it now shows you when it's searching for your phone. So, if you happen to get into your car and press the phone button too quickly, the system will flash (SEARCHING...) to let you know it is still pairing and its not ready to call. As soon as it pairs, it moves to the DOWNLOADING PHONEBOOK! screen we all know.

This also works when you are pairing a phone for the first time. It's pretty cool that they finally took the mistery out of the pairing process. Before you had to guess if the car was searching for a phone.

Jose

I too think it's Dec 6th and not June 12th. The build date of the car is 2/2005. In case you still want it the the p/n is 84 11 6 946 993.