It's a full days work to retro-fit the nav to the car, as long as you have ALL the parts.

When fitting to a vehicle with no nav, you need to use the retro-fit wiring loom.

Trying to fit a factory-nav wiring loom to a car with no nav is a massive job, and involves running wires to each speaker and more, and is thus MUCH more work than using the retro-fit loom.

My recommendations:
Start with a copy of the retrofit instructions for your car. PM me ofr a copy if you don't have one. The instructions list/show all parts needed for the job, plus tell you how to go about it.

Get all the hardware incl nav/radio/screen + brackets, nuts and bolts from the junked X5. You may also need the antenna amplifier(s)
Get the small cables such as GPS antenna cable and radio antenna cable as well.

Then get the retrofit-loom new (ebay, BMW).

I have an 01 X5 with the same question, err is it really that big of a job? :/ if so is it really worth it in the end?

BMW state (and I quote):

"The installation time is 7.5 hours but this may vary depending on the condition of the car and the equipment in it."

Is it worth it? That is very much a personal evaluation.

I know people who would never spend any more than $400 on a TomTom-type device, and I know people that say the factory systems are the absolute best and worth every penny.

Thank you

hey do you have examples of the retrofit loom? why is the retrofit loom that much better than taking the wire loom from a car? I have everthing - but now i'm curious why the retrofit is so much better??

are there instructions on both? can it be easily identified the difference?

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2005 LeMans Blue e53 4.8is
MODs
///LeMans Blue RBs///Intravee II///Sirius///ACS Spoiler///AiB v3///HID Fogs///LED Tails///
///215 20" Ferric Gray///MTEC Pedals///DVD Headrests///SMG M Wheel///AFE CAI Stage 2

To fit the retrofit loom, you only need to remove seats and a few panels and lift the carpet a bit.

To fit the original loom, probably all seats, remove carpet or lift a lot more, and also remove a lot more of the dash. Maybe all of the dash. And possibly unravel existing loom. I've never done it so I'm not sure exactly.

Remember, the original factory loom - which is for nav and many other things - is fitted to an empty metal shell of a car, and then everything added on top of it.

The retrofit loom is designed to be added to the car as an optional extra after the car is assembled, and is thus much much much easier to fit.

BMW issue retrofit instructions for their retrofit kits.
The do not publish instructions on how to replace factory loom other than their normal vehicle service instructions.

Refer to the WDS for loom layout and you'll see how the original loom is wired. Note location of connectors - and you'll get the idea as to where each wire goes, and what a job it would be to fit the factory loom. Personally - I wouldn't do it!

Hmm.. thanks for the directy reply, but I think I'll stick with the Garmin. I'm not sure it it is all worth at this point. It would be great if my car came with it, but I'm not sure if it's worth the time/aggravation/money spent/potential to break something else.

Thank you though!

I am attempting this mod very soon. Planing on taking 2 5-8 hour days to install. Can you email me the retro instructions for my X, thanks and any pointers would be great. I have read the threads and the BMW released install guide. Seems alittle confusing but worth it in the long run. thanks

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-2010 X5 / / / M "Monte Carlo Blue"
-2004 X5 4.4i DINAN Stage II

Did you already buy the kit? The instructions should have come with it. If not, check the home page, they are already posted along with a lot of other valuable info.