Better Bluetooth

[edogg]

My 2005 e53 has factory Bluetooth (no idea if its TCU or ULF or even how to tell the difference between the two). While it works, I think the sound quality out of the speakers sucks. And the mic doesn't seem to be much better as people on the other end of my calls sometimes have a hard time understanding me.



Are there any recommendations for improving the quality of equipment or software? It's bad enough that I've resorted to using my Jabra speaker box and I'd rather use the built in Bluetooth.




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[Quicksilver]

Same year and kind of vehicle. Mine works great. Maybe it's the device you're using. I'm using an iPhone 4S.

[edogg]

Interesting - thanks for the suggestion. I have another phone I will try today. My phone worked just fine in my other vehicles with built in Bluetooth (Ford Flex and Toyota Tacoma) and with my Jabra speakerbox thing.

[14thbmw]

2005 4.8is iPhone 5/5s crappy. Works great in the e70.

[btrvalik]

incoming audio is great.. outgoing suck unless you're sitting still iphone5s

[electricalserv x5]

mine works great, check to see it the anttena [purple cable] is connected.it is next to the GPS on the side.

[edogg]

Just tried a different phone (first one was HTC 8x and second is Nokia 920) and they both seemed to be about the same quality on my end in the car. My wife said that she was able to hear me just fine with the Nokia...but that was just one phone call.

The signal strength seems to be fine - no static or disconnects. Though I did notice with my HTC that if it took a while to connect, the sound would be particularly bad.

The sound quality of the speakers in the car is just kind of lousy. It sounds like the audio clips pretty heavily and there's not much "body" to the sound - it's very thin sounding so makes things hard to hear (especially female voices that are higher pitched to begin with).

I'll check the purple cable and see.

Has anyone upgraded any of their Bluetooth components?

[jgold47]

The only thing you can really change is the mic, there was an up rated model. I have an 04 but I did have the mic. Not sure if someone else did it or not.

[Junkycosmos]

I'm curios here too. My 2005 4.8is has had mixed results with factory bluetooth. At first it would not pair with iPhone 5s so I pulled fuses. Then it worked with mixed quantity for a few days. Then it shifted to only having audio from one front speaker. Pulled fuses again and it worked for an hour.

Last week I bought a soundicity 3 which is the same as the audiovox media bridge. It's my effort to replace the factory blue tooth. It sounds a bunch better but still not great for phone calls. The BT audio music from phone is great. It also added satellite radio which has good sound quantity but channel tuning is a bit tedious. Overall the media bridge is pretty good. Main issue I am having is sound level balance between the inputs (satellite input is much louder than BT).

I see the factory BT unit had two antenna ports, wonder which is which? I've also been wondering if newer BT module might work better.

[Junkycosmos]

I found this link with factory part numbers for TCU and ULF.

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/p...artNumbers.pdf

Also googling around the other forums it seems fairly common that the earlier TCU audio quality gets bad over time.

In my 2005 4.8is which has BMW assist button I found TCU 88146946993-02 in the rear. Looks to be the original 1st gen.


I have found that resetting it by unplugging it for 5 mins will let it pair and audio works through all of the speakers for a while (day to weeks). Then the unit will glitch and audio only comes from front right speaker.

Even while working the audio has some static in it.

Has me wondering if replacing the unit with newer might help.

When I checked the unit I also found a bunch of the plugs not used. Can anyone confirm if these plugs should be used or if the one connected is in the right location??






I have also heard there is a mic upgrade but the static I hear is iPhone to car.