Newbtooth
 

Hey guys, new to the whole X5 scene. Have a e36 and e39 in the garage but the wife wanted an e53. We found this weekend a low mileage 04 4.8 loaded so we picked it up. One of her first questions was about bluetooth. I have read through many of the posts and it seems that bluetooth wasnt installed until 08/04 units. What I am confused about is the one we bought was produced in 06/04 and there was a bluetooth card in the owners manual. I have searched through the pictures and it has the module in the back as well as the BT antenna, but it doesnt seem to work. There is nothing in the center console but after dissasembling it I found a couple of connections. If I can post pics of what I found I will. What I need to know is what is the most cost effective way of getting the BT to work in her car. We hung the dealership to put the bluetooth in and I specified OEM parts. I dont believe that they know enough about BMW's (acura dealer) to find what it will take. If anyone could tell me what its going to take and approx prices it would be greatly appreciated, and explain to me why its not working in its current state. BT with voice control is what we are hoping to get.

This is what I found in the back
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/P7110068.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/P7110069.jpg

This is the Card that was in the owners manual
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/P7110070.jpg

This is what was under the center console.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/P7110071.jpg

Again the most cost effective way of acheiving this would be great. She uses an Iphone so it needs to be compatable. Any help is appreciated

TIA
Dave

lift up the armrest in the centre console and take pics.... there might not be a phone snap-in connector which you need... on that is a button which does the pairing.

The last picture shows what is under the armrest, there is not a cradle under the top secton of the armrest. The cradles are only for paticular phones right? So it wouldnt work with the Iphone? Anything else?

yeah, thats what i meant, under the armrest cover, the inner one i suppose you could call it.

as far as i know, and please correct me if i am wrong, you can have any snap-in cradle there, as long as it has the button, which is whats required for pairing.

it might help to have an iphone one, but you would also need to mill down the sides to make it fit a 3G model. the iphone cradle only charges it i think, i dont think it connects to the cars aerial, but again, i could be wrong.

my 2G used to fit fine, i now have a 3GS but havent tried putting it into the cradle. i did sync it tonight to the car and it works fine.

Can anyone else confirm this, i dont want to spend money on something I may not need. I forgot to mention, I pulled the TCU module out and it had a part number of 84.11 6952218-01.

According to the documentation found on this forum, the 218 unit is not known to work...
Getting a new unit from dealer or online is best bet, use yours as the core, ~$320 I think people have said...
Read through this thread some. http://www.xoutpost.com/electronics/...i-bus-car.html
Hope that helps some...
Matt
BTW, The cradle mentioned above is for a ULF unit and shouldn't apply to the TCU I believe.

You have an Everest TCU with bluetooth capabilities.

No Bluetooth pairing button is used with that TCU, it switches automatically to pairing mode for the first 2 minutes or so after ign is turned on

So turn on the ign, and immediately start searching for bluetooth connections on your cellphone. See what you find!

I tried this using both the wifes Iphone, and my Moto I880 and neither would find anything. The only time I would see the unit "dial out" was when the SOS button on the upper console was pressed.

I have an 06/04 build as well, and i do not believe there is a way to get it to work without replacing the TCU. Check the thread listed above for more info.

I checked out the post above and it seems that I would need to buy this number module: 84.10-9 195 455 and at that point it will work. The post mentioned Ticher (sp) to buy it from and listed a decent price, but it brings up another question. My X5 has Assist, is this going to affect anything? and how do I know if I have an SES module so I can get the VR stuff to work? She is quite used to how it would work in her 08 Acura TL and would like to get it to work as close to what it does in that car. Also this Navicoder program was mentioned, and interfacing to the car, where do you get the program and the interface to do so?

Thanks guys
Dave

*edit* I just talked to the BMW dealer in my city and the parts guy claims that the number is good, but those units are not available in the US nor Germany......any help?

Read up on posts by kiwi and Brian here and on bimmerboard.com BT forums. They have done a lot of research on the subject. Kiwi developed the navcoder SW and you can buy a Resler interface or build your own from diagram on this board for $10 in parts from radioshack.

so this unit is confirmed not to work with BT? thanks

I have the same TCU (84.11 6952218-01) problem. Car was an 8-04 build date and the TCU is a 7-27-04 date.
The module has a BT board in it and it has the Farka connected to the TCU and the BT antenna under my armrest. It also has BT logo on it and all documentation was in the Manuals.
Talking to the dealer is like pulling teeth. I just wanted to know if it just needed recoding it to turn it on or not. What stumps me is the BT board in the TCU. Although reports on that model TCU say it dosent support BT, It makes me wonder why there is a BT board inside and it's connected to the antenna. I dont think Motorola would have made that big of a mistake with it when they manufactured it.
Funny thing is when I purchased the car new in 10-04, the window sticker showed BT/Assist and the guy even tried to pair his phone to show how it works, but he couldn't. I chalked it up to him being 65yrs old selling BMW's and at the time I didn't need BT. Unfortunately now I do.
Has anyone heard anything pertaining to this model. Would Navcoder be able to turn it on?

Smitty

You can try with NavCoder.

My notes show your TCU is probably too old, but hey, give it a try...

Thanks KiwiJochen,

I just find it odd that after taking the TCU appart, there's a BT board inside the TCU assist module along with the cell phone board for the assist. I find it hard to believe that Motorola made a screw up like that. I missed the production date with the new combo assist/BT by 1 month (9-04) my car was built late in the month of 8-2004.
If I knew back then it didn't work, I would have bitched up a storm since the sales sticker on the window said it was a combo module.
IF navcoder wouldnt do it, i believe somehow the dealer can do it with the MODIC computer, but they are playing dumb (or they really are).

Smitty

Could be anything:
Maybe production pressures meant BT wasn't ripe for market
Maybe too many software bugs meant they decided to turn it off
Or maybe we may be wrong and it may work

Use NavCoder, read the coding, report to me and I'll tell you if BT is switched on or not... what is possible depends on what the unit reports back...

Hi Smittyjf,

I know this post is old but have you ever got your TCU working? My X5 07/2004 and having the same TCU module as your but the date printed on it is 09-07-2004. I could not pair my phone with it via bluetooth.