Nav head unit coded?

[Salty B.]

Bought a used one off the bay of E that should arrive next week.

Are these code-locked in any way? I've had mine out multiple times trying to get the screen to work and it's never not worked otherwise afterwards (in that it'll play radio and cassette audio, just no screen).

[Qsilver7]

BMW stopped using "coded" anti-theft radios in the e38/e39/e46/e53. These audio systems used multiple component & were platform specific (e38 components don't fit in the e39 or e46 or e53 and vice versa). Since the MID and Nav screens were pretty much model specific...there was no need for the anti-theft code radios since they could no longer be used in any BMW...only the model/platform it came from.

[wpoll]

Great info, Qsilver7... never seen such a concise explaination of the "53" options.

My own car has a CD54 (Becker) - labelled as "Professional CD". I guess that's the next generation after the NG.

Never seen much info on the CD54...

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by wpoll

Great info, Qsilver7... never seen such a concise explaination of the "53" options.

My own car has a CD54 (Becker) - labelled as "Professional CD". I guess that's the next generation after the NG.

Never seen much info on the CD54...

If I blow some of the dust off my mind...I believe you're correct. The CD54 units probably showed up around mid 2003/early 2004 production dates. This puts them being used at the EOP (end of production) for the e46 & e53 eras. I would also venture that Alpine & Becker produced these units for BMW.



Are these the units that also could play MP3s and may have had aux inputs for hooking up an iPod? Again, asking because the dust build up on this part of my brain is thick.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

... Are these the units that also could play MP3s and may have had aux inputs for hooking up an iPod? Again, asking because the dust build up on this part of my brain is thick.

Not my CD54 (Becker) unit - I have tried both functions - nada.

Could be user error though...

[wpoll]

Qsilver7 - this PDF might help with the dust...

I've never seen this before but this conversation prompted me to dive a bit deeper into the interwebs....

https://share.qclt.com/bmw%E8%B5%84%...g_radio-en.pdf

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by wpoll

Not my CD54 (Becker) unit - I have tried both functions - nada.

Could be user error though...

It might also be the Alpine CD54 units which may have been used in the latter e46 3 series. Again, the memory about these units are fading slowly in my cognitive Rolodex.