I have a 2002 X5, no dsp, no navi. I got a TCU from my friends X5, with help from Brian-bmw and others, I managed to get it to work including voice recognition. I have not tried to upload the phone book yet, but everything else works great.

+1 to SLX5.

I have studied the wiring diagrams for the X5 and compared them to other models, and I have not discovered any differences. Furthermore, I have not found any documented issues that point to unique wiring in the X5 that prevents a Bluetooth TCU from working in the early model year cars. So, I would chalk-up the X5 TCU incompatibility wiring issue to urban legend unless we can get some confirmation (and with confirmation will come remediation).

Brian and SlX5,
Thanks for the update. The wiring issue is actually from BMW itself. This is part of the SIB for the later models that can have the TCU replaced. I am really considering going with this option. The TCU is about $350 which is a lot cheaper than the ULF. I am nervous that if I can't get it to work in my car, I will be taking a loss in reselling the TCU and still have to end up with a ULF. None of the vendors will accept a return on the TCU. There are also previous threads on this forum where people have attempted to do this retrofit with the earlier 2004 X5 that came with the TCU that had a bluetooth passcode but no bluetooth

Good news is you can easily sell the TCU to someone if it doesn't work... Maybe it you lose $50 on it or so, but its decent risk I'd say... Plus then others can benefit from hearing your results. ;)

BTW SLX5: Doesn't the phone book transfer automatically? Just hit the guy speaking on the steering wheel--the phone book should pop up on the radio display (if you have Nav go into the Phone Book directory)

Do you know the SIB number?

The only significant TCU SIB I know about is SI B84 13 04. This SIB discusses the upgrade and explains the production breakpoints for cars that had TCUs without Bluetooth and then TCUs with Bluetooth but not voice recognition. There is a statement about wiring compatibility, but it is not exclusive to the X5, and it does not preclude the TCU from being installed in an earlier car in general. This is the quote...

"For E46 and E83 vehicles up to 3/05 production and E85 and E53 vehicles up to 4/05 production, voice activation functions are not part of the TCU. A separate SES module can be installed. Refer to the EPC.

• E46, E83, E85 and E53 vehicles produced between 3/2004 and 8/2004 are equipped with a TCU that does not support Bluetooth. On these vehicles, the TCU can be replaced at the customer's expense with a 2005 MY TCU. Cradles may not be added to these vehicles because of wiring incompatibility."

This is referring to the handset cradle, but you would simply remove the cradle, if you have it. If you have any idea what the SIB was that talked about X5 wiring compatibility, maybe we can take a look and figure it out.

sna77, I tried to upload the phone book by pressing the "guy speaking" it didn't do it.

I have a Palm Treo 650, with the TCU 84 10 6963798 and I have a 2002 no navi or DSP, anyone know how to (or what buttons I need to press) to upload the phonebook?

I came across this on the BMW bluetooth

http://www.e38.org/BMW-03_00-Voice-Control-en.pdf

(pg 10)

The names and telephone numbers
entered in your voice control
phonebook are independent of the
telephone or SIM card memory of your
BMW car telephone or BMW mobile
phone.
In other words, it is not possible to call
up the numbers stored in the telephone
itself or on the SIM card by voice input,
nor is it possible to store numbers there
by voice input.


But people in here have being able to do it.

Cool, thanks for posting that info. That answered my question regarding having to retrofit a cradle with the BT button. Looks like I'm having bad luck with the TCU's I've bought so far. Will try having the bluetooth programming turned on as Killcrap has suggested.

You may have a bad TCU moule. It is possible to turn BT on and off with coding. However, if it was turned on previously, it should remain turned on when installed in your car. Check out NavCoder. Jochen as recently enhanced it to directly enable and disable a number of features. That is a lot easier than taking the car to a dealer.

Hey Brian. I did install (update) my mk4 with a ver that had the ///M logo that I dl'd from the M5 boards. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Unfortunately, navcoder is pc based and I'm a Mac user. Do you think if I just reinstalled he most recent mk4 software update it may fix my issue? Currently with the tcu I bought, it says "phone connected?" when you go to the telephone screen. Does that mean something? Any help is appreciated! TIA!