My 2005 X5 Aftermarket Radio Install Thread

[Crowz]

26 hours till the daughter is divorced...

I need a vacation after all of this.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by Crowz

26 hours till the daughter is divorced...

And less than 2 hours from a brand new Seicane S6902 compliments of daddy!

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by Overboost

And less than 2 hours from a brand new Seicane S6902 compliments of daddy!

Oh hell no

She isn't getting my radio. Its safely back in my X5.

No toys for her till next year. My wifes x3/x5 money did the divorce for her so that's her present this year

But she did give it her best puppy dog eyes pleas while it was connected to her 528i.

I told her to be happy with the 6 disc changer she got from the X5 for her car for now.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by Crowz

But she did give it her best puppy dog eyes pleas while it was connected to her 528i.

LMAO

[txyaloo]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

All four audio outputs from the Seicane unit are producing sound.

And if you put everything back to stock, you still get no sound? I believe you mentioned the board monitor also doesn't turn on now?

Have you checked the 10amp fuse on the BM53 radio module in the trunk or has it been removed from the ibus loop entirely? It needs to be in the loop still for the DSP amp to turn on. If the fuse is blown, the amp won't turn on.

Also, IIRC, the board monitor won't turn on if the navigation computer MK3 or Mk4 is removed from the ibus loop. The BM is just displaying the interface received from the nav system. If you've removed the nav computer, you'll need to reattach it to verify the BM connections.

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

You can grab your speaker wiring, and do all your splicing in the back of the truck. That's where I will be doing it.

Yeah. That's my plan as well. What I intended to say is that I do NOT want to replace it from there to the actual speakers. A full on PITA.

How many amps/channels are you considering? I have a 4 ch and the single for the BSW. I was thinking it would be plenty- just link the speakers from each side into the 4ch, but I could *see* adding an amp for mids since I am getting deef. Any thoughts based on your experience?

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by PropellerHead

Yeah. That's my plan as well. What I intended to say is that I do NOT want to replace it from there to the actual speakers. A full on PITA.

How many amps/channels are you considering? I have a 4 ch and the single for the BSW. I was thinking it would be plenty- just link the speakers from each side into the 4ch, but I could *see* adding an amp for mids since I am getting deef. Any thoughts based on your experience?

The sql setup I have that won so many sql events in the 90's uses a 3 channel approach.

Bass, mid-bass, high's.

This was done with a hifonics amp setup using the following.

600 watt true rms mono amp handling anything un 70 hz

400 watt true rms 4 channel amp with built in electronic cross over handling the rest.

mid was 70 hz to 5000 hz probably. I cant remember exactly.

and the rest was 5k hz to 20k hz

This drove 6 speakers.

Two 12" Kickers

Two 6 1/2 " kickers

Two infinity reference series dash speakers.

This was in a trans am. The t/a's unique interior shape made this system work. I have tried many times to replicate it in other vehicles with no luck. I always ended up having to use more speakers to come close.

I plan on replicating this one day in the X5.

So I will go with the JL Audio stealth sub for my low range bass.

I will do the mid bass using the current door speakers and use dash and tweet pods for the voice / highs.

I will need 3 amps to achieve this with the speaker setup the X uses.

One mono amp and two 4 channel amps with electronic cross overs built in. Then a real dsp unit to handle the sound curve and ambience effects I want.

I'm with you on the speaker wiring. No more power than will be going to the door speakers I cant see much of a point redoing them.

The fun part will be hiding all of the amps. I am hoping since I removed everything from the drivers side hatch compartment that I can get it all in there with some fans to keep it from melting.

[scourtaud23]

I'm jumping in after 89 pages and I've browsed the over but didn't see a definitive answer or not the one I'm hoping for :

I have Nav (MK3) and DSP in my 2002 (built very end of 2001), is there any hope for any Seicane unit to work?

Thanks for any replies, I'll admit if I can avoid removing the DSP it would make the whole process easier.

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by scourtaud23

I'm jumping in after 89 pages and I've browsed the over but didn't see a definitive answer or not the one I'm hoping for :

I have Nav (MK3) and DSP in my 2002 (built very end of 2001), is there any hope for any Seicane unit to work?

Thanks for any replies, I'll admit if I can avoid removing the DSP it would make the whole process easier.

That's a tricky question right now.

According to seicane yes.

According to bcredliner's results no.


I have successfully put my seicane radio in a dsp car and it worked. But that car didn't have nav.

bcredliner's x5 has nav and he hasn't managed to get it to work. But he doesn't have the radio I have that's discussed in this thread.

So if you do it your gambling. I wish I had a nav x5 to test with that has dsp to be able to answer that for you but I cant.

At least not yet.

[scourtaud23]

Sadly that's what I thought was the current state of affairs...

I'm wondering what the issue is and how to solve it maybe globally for any head unit. Information sadly is scarce but I'm guessing the issue is powering the DSP amp and keeping it alive. Would some custom power source that would use standard amp powering on one side and power the DSP on the other side work?

I might look for a BMW to ISO converter so I can try an alpine head unit to see if I can get it working. Might require some form of Arduino board with coding but this is cheap and simple to do if I can figure out what needs to be done.