GPS Antenna, No Nav

[srbaker]

Heya folks,

While I was rummaging around in the rear driver's side compartment of my car, I found a unit that has what appears to be a GPS antenna attached to it.

My car doesn't have a nav system, but this antenna is there. When I scroll through the computer on the dash, it says "Arrival Time". Is this normal? Does this means I can more easily retrofit a nav system?

My stereo component is full of dead pixels, so I have a hard time using it at all; if I can easily (and economically) retrofit a nav system, I'd rather do that.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[UCrewX5]

The GPS antenna for E53 X5's equipped with navigation is located in the spoiler above the back window. I'm not sure what component you are looking at.

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by srbaker

Heya folks,

Hi back. Now that you've been here for almost a year...help us help you better by creating a signature that has your model/model year/build date info...or add it to where it would appear in the upper right.

That way, when you ask kind of obscure questions that could have multiple answers based on how your X is equipped...we can at least have a base of knowing where you fall in the production run from 1999-2006.

BTW, the ARRIVAL TIME that you see...is one of the OBC features that you can call up when you press the BC button on the right side of the MID. When you enter the (mileage) distance (DIST) into the OBC and then start that feature...the OBC will calculate your arrival (ARR) time based on your speed & miles accumulated.

If you press the MID's BC button (lower right icon)...then you get the OBC features you see in the image below. The MID is where you start/stop/set/reset all of the OBC functions...the MID (or Nav monitor) is the default display for the OBC (not the display in the instrument cluster):

If you press the MID's clock-face button (lower left icon)...then you get the "timed/timer" features of the MID to appear:

[srbaker]

Ah, thanks. The pixels are so dead on the stereo on mine, and have been since I got it, that I just simply haven't touched it except to scan radio stations. I'm very unfamiliar with what's available on the MID.

Mine's a 2002 4.4i with 205000 miles. Is there a sticker somewhere that will give me a list of equipment, or can I search by VIN for that?

I've attached a picture of the thing I'm looking at. Upon further reading, I suppose it could be the FM antenna, but unplugging it did not change the sound quality from the stereo, and all of my stations continued to work. And ti doesn't look like any antenna I have.



My car has the CD player in the dash, as well as a bunch of CD caddies in the console. I know this sounds dumb, but since I can't read anything on the screen of the stereo unit, I don't know if this is a CD changer or just storage. :P

[srbaker]

That picture is kinda big. Yikes.

[TerminatorX5]

could it be the digital lead of the DSP system coming from the CD changer?

for the equipment - go to bmwvin .com, plug in last 7... if it doesn't work, i have access to russian site that spits them out in english - post or PM last 7 of VIN, i can look it up... the russian site requires registration - rubmw .ru

[Qsilver7]

Ditto TX5. From the pic, you have 3 harnesses on your amp..which means you have DSP. So the small cable you have circled is your DSP cable.

The thing below your center armrest is a CD holder. If you had a CD changer, it would be next to your amp that you took a picture of.

BTW, yep...your pic was a big one...10.2 MB (2448x3264). You may want to download an image app (if you use a mobile device) or consider running your large images through one of your image apps on your CPU when you're going to post them on the internet. Normally...an image about 800x600 works well for a forum like this. For instance, I resized & cropped your image to bring it down to 116 KB (935x745)....and it's still pretty large