BMW X5 E53 Sat Nav Screen Fault?

[AlexMusoX5]

Hey Guys,

Just joined the forum and looking forward to catching up with all things BMW. I've got a very tidy 2005 Carbon Black X5 (E53) 3.0 D sport which I rather like but its developed a curious fault with the built in 16:9 Sat Nav Screen (Mk3 or 4 - not sure how to confirm which) which intermittently flickers/flashes off for less that a second and then is fine again. No systems are interrupted so music or radio continues to work and respond and the Sat Nav continues to guide. Often you just catch it flicker/blink out of the corner of your eye - blink and you'll miss it kind of speed. I've removed the unit and checked the ribbon cables and attempted to clean both those as well as any other electrical connections, and also gone in the boot and attempted to 'waggle' any cables from the DVD drive etc to try and force it to flicker but I've not had any luck narrowing down the issue. The only other thing I've noticed that although the Digital TV feature attempts to find channels nothing is found. Just wondered of anyone had any suggestions? Could it simply need a new screen/unit or could it be something like the TV tuner which I believe everything goes through before it reaches the screen? Really appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Alex

[wpoll]

Welcome...

Not sure on the flicker issue - could be a fault in the screen backlight itself.

Re. The TV tuner, are the OEM tuners analogue or digital broadcast ready? 2005 was period when TV was transitioning to digital broadcast. If the tuner is analogue and the UK has ceased analogue broadcasting (as we have in NZ) then the tuner is useless.....

[AlexMusoX5]

Thanks for your reply - appreciate it. The car must be Digital as it tries to look for both Analogue and Digital Channels...

[wpoll]

Well, that covers that off. I guess the next thing might be to check the antenna connections. If the tuner is scanning the right bands but not finding anything the antenna is the next thing to check. I'll look up the diagrams to see how it's hooked up? Are you familiar with newtis.info ? If not, have a gander - its a great resource.

[AlexMusoX5]

Thanks - appreciate that. I believe the TV module is in the boot, down by the spare wheel on the right hand side next to the Radio Tuner? I'll certainly check all connections etc in case something has come loose etc. Simply when I switch to TV mode, the screen has the usual 'snow' then when I scan it goes through all the searching and simply doesn't find any at all when it - but it certainly used to.

[Ryoken]

yup tv tuner is under spare wheel under the black plastic BMW cover,. bit of a pita to remove , but doo able .,

[wpoll]

Looks like the antenna is a diversity system with powered amps - one on each side side of the car under the rear side window.

From the manual...

Aerial diversity

The aerial diversity function integrated in the video module always ensures the best possible reception when the vehicle is stationary.

The aerial always finds the best reception on the basis of certain criteria. It consists of 2 window aerials with amplifiers and the diversity function in the video module.

The aerial amplifiers are powered short-circuit-proof by the video module via the aerial sockets.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...aerial/aeGEjPi

The two amps are called IO1006 and IO1007. Easy to check the connections and power etc. on these too.

[talljames]

Hi Alex, did you ever find the fault? Looks like mine is going through a similar issue.