I measured things up and figured out how the LH and RH brackets will fit in the opening to make sure that I can handle the absence of an upper bracket. Seems easy enough to make 2 angle brackets out of aluminium to take up the top of the side brackets and anchor them to the plastic cross brace a the top.

Being me, I will probably take the screen out of my 03 and make sure I know exactly how to position the top of the brackets. Also want to look for a hand tool to cut the dash rather than a recip, which seems overkill for fairly soft plastic.

Somewhere between helping my spouse in the wake of two surgeries, a day job and the kids, it is tough to advance but I hope to get it back together over the weekend.

Finally, now that I know what comes in through the red NAV connctor I still wonder which cable/partnumber to use. I can't find anything in the parts data base which the BMW parts guys show me. Problem is that the connector in my 03 (and a 2005 which I looked at) which connects this cable to the vehicle harness already taken in my car. The cable that is there goes to the TCU (telematics). I have no idea why the TCU would be connected to speed and reverse.....

Is there a cable that twins that connection? I can't imagine just splicing in the cable from the Nav to the cable from the TCU? I'd like to have this done OEM style rather than breaking out the soldering iron....

A thread on the e53 forum asking for help unfortunately has not yielded an insight yet. Just need somebody to glance at this cable in an 06 with OBM and TCU.

Assist needs this cable for the same reason as the nav - for dead reckoning when the Assist has no GPS signal

Splicing is going to be easier than running new cables.
Connectors are available at a breakers yard or ex BMW

Forgot about the assist function, makes sense. I will probably ditch the assist function as I don't use it anyway.

You don't work for the bomb squad do you? Because it just occurred to me that this would probably make a pretty good training exercise.

I drive a desk for a living but that is a whole another story.

Last night I did the needfull! Straddled the shifter (the seats are still out) and took the hacksaw to it. This project is not for you if you are sensitive to your neighbours' stares...... They are still wondering when we'll buy a respectable car....like a Lexus Hybrid or something, not a growling V8 with oversized rubber and clear boy racer aspirations.....

Anyway, I was weary of using a recip and bought a handle that takes recip blades. The plastic is not that hard and a sharp blade makes quick work, even by hand. It avoids accidentally cutting the bottom of the opening, I know I would have had problems with that using a recip.

The instructions are clear and correct but the only thing I did not do are the cuts for the top bracket since it is not available from BMW anymore. I simply used a 5/8" wide file to deepen and widen the notches already in place so that the 2 brackets fall into them. I attached the bottom but not yet the tops of the brackets as you can see in the pictures. I compared the upper position to the '03 and, once correct, the notches for the brackets are about 12mm deep.

The cuts to the tabs on the side are not that critical to the whole thing so I scored them with a Stanley and snapped them with a sheet metal bending plier (the 4" variety for HVAC duct work.....don't ask...). The only problem I still had after all this was that the sides of the old opening still stuck out above the brackets and the OBM falls flush with the brackets. So it was wobbling a bit and not fitting well top and bottom. To correct this I scored the plastic (using the top of the bracket as a guide) and snapped the pieces off, then smoothed the surfaces with a Stanley knife.

Since there was no wild action with an electrical recip a hand towel at the bottom of the radio opening sufficed to catch the debris, the towel catches the shavings nicely, kind of clings to it. Last picture is the OBM in place!

I just have to figure out now how to attach the tops of the brackets but for the moment I will focus on finalizing the connections to the speakers and getting the interior back together so the car is not such lump sitting around. Then the GPS antenna has to go in place and after that I will finalize the OBM installation.

Hope this is usefull to you all, I am enjoying it even if it is taking some time. Wife is not driving yet and I am using the '03 for the moment so all is well.

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Great stuff. Did you take any shots of the space with the OE unit removed so we could see what needed to be cut. It occurred to me that perhaps a smaller amount of cutting might be required if one would want to install and on-board monitor from say an E46 that has a CD player embedded in it rather than a tape deck.

The retrofit instructions from BMW show this in detail and I thought I could not add much by taking pictures. If the OBM w/ CD mounts to the same points as the X5 OBM, the brackets would be the same and therefore the cuts would also have to be the same is my feeling. I saw a picture of an OBM w/ CD an it looked very similar in shape and size anyway.

The mid-range speakers in the back are not connected to the speaker plug on the amp but separately through the main plug using thicker wire. I cut them from the old harness and left them at the B-pillar. Now that the new harness speaker wires terminate in the same place I used .11" spade connectors that fit the original plugs in the new wiring harness perfectly. If I ever feel like opening the doors I can simply remove the old speaker wires and plug in the new ones, for now they are coiled up under the seat.

Hardest parts of the interior are back in, the b-pillar trim is hard to put back. The design is awful and why BMW uses different fastners for amost every piece is a mystery to me. The way this is done dates back to the 70s.... Only thing left to do today is complete the sides of the console and put the seats. Then more work awaits in the trunk. Inside looks like it never all happened....

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Hope you have an airbag reset tool :-)

Seats out with battery connected and key on = 100% Airbag fault

Dang, didn't see that coming! No biggie, it has to go in for the coding anyway.