Squirrelly Radio/CD/GPS

[Ogopogo]

I’m about two weeks into owning a ’02 X5 4.4. So far it’s been a pretty decent vehicle, I had to address a spewing coolant reservoir, and will need to tackle a few other mechanical things. What I need help with is the entertainment/NAV system.

Issues


Radio: The Radio turns on and off just fine, trouble is about 50% of the time, the sound quality is awful and unlistenable (tinny, garbled, distorted, kazoo like). Power cycling the unit doesn’t change anything. You can only “reset” things by turning off the ignition, and turning it back on. I’ve dubbed it “Radio Roulette”. When it is working, it sounds alright, but I do notice some subtle volume variance on certain speakers.

CD Player: Readout says “No Discs”, in spite of the shuttle being full. There is power to the CD changer

GPS: When the GPS is turned on I can only see a naked map (just land mass, and water) no streets, or other details. There is power to the DVD drive in the rear, and it does have a disc in it.

Cassette: Not sure…Couldn’t find a cassette to test with.

Looking over the service history, it appears that this is a repeat issue. The PO had the Radio Bus replaced (P/N: 65-12-6-988-276) in May of ’08. I suspect that this may be the culprit again, but would affect all of the issues listed? I did pull both the Nav drive, and the CD changer to see if it might be a connection issue. I did the same to the RCM by the battery, but I only pulled the large 1” square plug to check the contacts, and everything looked OK.

Not entirely sure what to do from here. I’ve read that bad solder connections in the RCM are pretty common, and are sometimes repairable. I should mention that it is a DSP unit. I’m not a major audiophile, but would like an operable entertainment system. If this problem turns out to be an expensive PITA, I may opt to swap it out for a Hualagin (sp?).

Thanks in advance for the input.

[TerminatorX5]

congats on the buy, and welcome aboard!!!

so, the radio sometimes works fine, and the other times - not so good... When you went to check the radio module, were able to see if there is any water damage in that area? also, there are two "pockets" to the sides of the car, one is below the CD changer, where the DSP unit is, and the other one is on the right side... could be water there...

When you select the CDs, does the changer go from one disk to another? any motions back there?

Nav - is the disk that you have, original? what version firmware do you have for the nav? go to setting from main manu, look at the top right corner, it will have a number, like 4-1/40, or something like that...

[Ogopogo]

Thanks Terminator,

The firmware version for the GPS is: 3-1/50, and I do believe it to be the original disc. The CD changer doesn't sound like it's making much of an effort when I push the "mode" button on the HU. It does readily eject the CD shuttle, and makes a bit of a "whirring" sound when put back in.

I was wondering if it might be a bad connection (oxidation, etc.) on one of the cable connectors. I don't see any signs of water in the spare tire well, or anywhere for that matter. I have a hunch that it all might stem anound the Radio Control Module, down by the battery. Do I have to be concerned about any encoding issues if I pull that unit out entirely, to clean up the contacts, and open it up?

Thanks

[TerminatorX5]

no coding issues with the radio - it is recommended that you disconnect the battery before working on anything electrical in your car... i personally don't, but it is a bad example...

you have an MK3 nav computer which read CDs only. what kind of nav disk do you have? CD or a DVD? since it OE disk, what is the part number printed on the disk.

the CD changer might be mounted upside down - have you inserted the disks the correct way, whatever side the label is supposed to be? Can you have somebody change mode to CD and go from disk 1 through disk 6 by pushing the buttons on the headunit, while you are staying at the trunk, listening? as a matter of fact, the CD changer is supposed to go through the disk holders even if there are no disks in the magazine...

also, have checked the "deep pockets" below CD changer? notorious for the water damage and the DSP/amplifier is right there...

[Ogopogo]

The pat numer is: U0001-0018-103 BMW 2001.1 CD Package. I will look further in to the deep pockets under the cd changer. Is the amp/DSP fastend down, or easily pulled out? Something tells me it's going to take some "deep pockets", to get this problem sorted!

[TerminatorX5]

welcome to BMW!!! It is like a top model, always nice to show up in public, she is fine and polished (my grandma always told me, that a woman is the man's jewelry - you could be as ugly as nuclear disaster, but if your woman is fine - you are ok!), same with the car, you drive and she makes you smile...

but, like any top model, she is high maintenance, she can be demanding, unreasonable, expensive, others will be eyeing her up - i hope you will not shoot her through the bathroo.... er... i mean, the garage door... lol...

The MK3 requires a set of CDs that covered the entire US... I am not so sure about the Canada... it seems that the disk that you stuck into the nav computer might not have the map data for British Columbia... is it marked somehow, as far as what it covers?

[TerminatorX5]

here is a link to firmware upgrade disk
BMW Navi Software Update inkl 3D Ansicht CD V32 MK4 7er 5er E39 3er E46 X3 X5 Z4 | eBay

[Ogopogo]

Thanks for the link (and the laugh in the previous post), but I'm not sure there is much point in updating the firmware before determining why the NAV drive/CD changer won't talk to the HU.

Is there some sort of diagnostic process that I should go through in order to figure out which component is causing the problem?

[TerminatorX5]

Nav - since you do see the land mass and the sea, it means that the nav computer is reading the disk but does not pick up any street data off the disk - without the disk, you would not be able to get into the land or sea picture (when i was in costa rica, the US disk had to be in the drive for the nav to show plain yellow land backgroound)
what is the scale of your map that you are looking at? what happens when you try to change the scale, say all the way down to smallest and all the way up to the biggest?

Radio - have you pulled the big square plug and pulled the smaller plugs from the big one? Also, you looked in the battery compartment, no water there, i would suggest pulling the module carrier out and look at the radio module 's bottom, to see if there are traces of water damage.

same applies to the Amp/DSP in the left pocket - that thing is seriously buried in there, and looking from the top you can't tell if there is a problem. you need to pull it out and see if there is water stains or rust spots - the behaviour is rather consistent with failing soldeing connections or a component, that has not completely failed...

just let us know wht your findings are, and we take it from there... updating the firmware is always nice, that particular disk is good for MK3 and MK4 as well as for some newer Nav systems... granted, 40 Euros for a $10 disk is a bit too much, but you can not find it anywhere... as long as the seller sells ORIGINAL disk and not a burned copy. burned copy should be no more than couple bucks + shipping...

[Ogopogo]

Well Terminator, you are spot on once again!

I did delve a little deeper into the trunk well and found no signs of any water damage. I also pulled the RCM, and cracked open the case. Apart from a bubble gum sized wad of yellow transparent goo on the main board (which I'm hoping is meant to be there), everything looked good to the naked eye. After buttoning it back up, I did my best to clean up the blades on the plug. There did appear to be a little oxidation, but nothing serious.

I also messed around with the GPS, or the scale more specifically. When I changed it from 200m to 150Km, I could see some road data, and enter a destination for a city about 200Km from me (just nothing for my home location). Indicating to me that the NAV unit works, I just have the wrong disc for my location. I don't know how a firmware upgrade will help me much, and frankly I've got a mobile Garmin unit for when I need GPS. I'm more interested in getting the radio/CD player operating reliably. I'm starting to wonder if the failure to recognize CDs lies within the CD changer itself?

Cheers, and thanks again!