X5 E53 - On board phone not working

[big bob]

You have a slot on your TCU? Got a pic?

[Stringbag]

Yes but I'm away from both the car and computer for a week. Pm me your email address and I'll send you a pic - they are on my phone, which I have with me (and am writing this from!)

[maxc]

this is my first post but I have navigated through this site and find it very informative. I am looking to retrofit my 2002 X5 4.6IS with bluetooth bluetooth. I cannot seem to find anything with TCU number 84 11 6 955 688 to see if it will work with my E53, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[big bob]

Where are you looking for a TCU, on eBay or in the car?

If you are starting from scratch, google BMW bluetooth retrofit. Pull out the carpet around the back of the car and see if you have a TCU fitted or the wiring for one. Any of the retrofit threads will have good pictures of the 54 pin connector and the TCU in it's mounting bracket on top of the CD changer.

[maxandfriend]

Hi all,
Sorry for late replaying but I was away for some vacation.

Well... first of all, a big thank goes to Stringbag for his kind offer.
Too bad I live quite far away from him as would have been really nice to meet in person.
Maybe I'd buy his TCU anyway, but I need to investigate my problem a bit more in depth because I was told thare is a wiring under the central armrest which fails quite easily due to the bending caused by opening and closing the armrest top over the years.
Too bad you need to completely remove the center console to reach and check it.

About Navcoder, it shows that there are NO errors stored in my TCU memory...

About the sim slot which is on the TCU, I dont know for sure if you can use it as a substitute for the one which is on the eject box, but it looks like that ...or better, I was told so.
It may be the one needed for BMW telematic services so, it worths a try... but it did NOT work in my case and the phone system kept asking for a sim card.

Big bob, the sim slot on the TCU needs an adapter to hold the sim card.
You may use the very same one that's in your ejectbox (number 5 here)... just need to get corners cut or it will not fit entirely in.

If you need pictures, I may get a few taken and posted for you... just ask

I'll keep you all posted about where the wiring check will lead me, in the hope that this post will be usefull for others as well...

[maxandfriend]

Originally Posted by big bob

Where are you looking for a TCU, on eBay or in the car?

If you are starting from scratch, google BMW bluetooth retrofit. Pull out the carpet around the back of the car and see if you have a TCU fitted or the wiring for one. Any of the retrofit threads will have good pictures of the 54 pin connector and the TCU in it's mounting bracket on top of the CD changer.

Err... IF you're talking about this TCU (the one this thread is talking about), that's NOT on top of CDC... it's underneath of it.
So, from top to bottom:
Bluetooth antenna (number 4 HERE)
Nav CPU (MK3/4)
CD Changer
TCU

You can find the TCU by opening the left lid in the trunk and looking at the very bottom as it's partially covered by a plastic stuff (number 6 HERE) which you need to take out if you want to reach the TCU.

Are we talking about a X5 E53, aren't we..?

[big bob]

Originally Posted by maxandfriend

Big bob, the sim slot on the TCU needs an adapter to hold the sim card.
You may use the very same one that's in your ejectbox (number 5 here)... just need to get corners cut or it will not fit entirely in.

If you need pictures, I may get a few taken and posted for you... just ask

I'll keep you all posted about where the wiring check will lead me, in the hope that this post will be usefull for others as well...

Interesting about the Eject Box SIM slot, I was emailing Stringback and we saw the Eject box on REALOEM and he showed me this picture of his TCU, where it can be seen a SIM card should go. Good to know the eject box tray fits in the TCU Right now it is a struggle to get any Bluetooth to begin pairing on both Stringbag's SIM equipped TCU and my non-SIM equipped TCU.

Originally Posted by maxandfriend

Err... IF you're talking about this TCU (the one this thread is talking about), that's NOT on top of CDC... it's underneath of it.
So, from top to bottom:
Bluetooth antenna (number 4 HERE)
Nav CPU (MK3/4)
CD Changer
TCU

You can see it by opening the left lid in the trunk and looking at the very bottom as it's partially covered by a plastic stuff (number 6 HERE) which you need to take out if you want to reach the TCU.

Ups, I don't have an X5, I have an E46, so I am probably wrong. I thought it was on the CDC.

[maxandfriend]

Originally Posted by big bob

Interesting about the Eject Box SIM slot, I was emailing Stringback and we saw the Eject box on REALOEM and he showed me this picture of his TCU, where it can be seen a SIM card should go. Good to know the eject box tray fits in the TCU Right now it is a struggle to get any Bluetooth to begin pairing on both Stringbag's SIM equipped TCU and my non-SIM equipped TCU.

Yeah..!
That's exactly the same as mine... the sim adapter you get in the armrest perfectly fits the slot pictured there. Just keep in mind you need to cut the two "ears" of the adapter as they prevent it from being completely inserted in the slot.
If you give it a try you'll clearly see what I'm talking about.... easier to see it for yourself than trying to explain on here.

About pairing, keep in mind that such TCU is NOT a real Bluetooth unit and will NOT pair with every BT phone out there... it ONLY pairs with its motorola handset pictured HERE.
If you mix them from different cars or buy separately, I suppose some coding will be required in order to let handset and TCU meet themselves and pair succesfully... not sure about it though.

Originally Posted by big bob

Ups, I don't have an X5, I have an E46, so I am probably wrong. I thought it was on the CDC.

No prob mate
I just saw that Maxc said he owns an E53 X3.

[big bob]

Originally Posted by maxandfriend

About pairing, take in mind that such TCU is NOT a real Bluetooth unit and will NOT pair with every BT phone aout there... it ONLY pairs with its motorola handset pictured HERE.
If you mix them from different cars or buy separately, I suppose some coding will be required in order to let handset and TCU meet themselves and pair succesfully... not sure about it though..

Hmm, Jochen and I were wondering if the WDCT and BT were simultaniously configured using a Software Defined Radio, which could expalin the trouble people have with it. as the TDD slot sizes and bandwidths of BT and WDCT unlielky to be natively compatible. SDRs are pretty hard to do, and very few if any have been released, let alow in 2004. We think there may be 2 radios in the 2.4GHz module to acheive asynchronsous BT and WDCT, so I will take mine apart again.

We think that the problem lies with the phone, as both Stringback and I have the iClown. I've borrowed a couple of other more basic phones to test now.

[maxandfriend]

Well, I was told this TCU (mine and Stringbag ones, I dont know about yours) talks with handset using a bluetooth connection.
Problem is that they make use of proprietary BT profiles instead of the standard ones.
A did some tests in the past, when mine was still working, with several phones (Samsung SGH-D500, Samsung SGH-Z560, Nokia N85 8Gb, Imate JasJar and Motorola V3X) and none of them did even recognize there was another BT a couple meters away.
Just note that if you turn handset off and then back on while ignition is on, handset display will show "reconnecting xxxx" (where xxxx is BT pairing code) and then it succesfully connects in a few seconds... no need to start a pairing procedure.
This behaviour makes me think that BT discovery mode should be enabled by default, so why other phones don't even see there is another BT around..?!?