Add me to the list. 03/04 X5 4.4 - I had asked about this in another post, another board and got strange looks too. Living in Dallas and I must say some days are much worst than others. Sometimes 5-7 seconds lag, other times very little 2-3 seconds and somedays normal. :dunno: My other car, (company car) a Pontiac works flawlessly everyday as far as tuning RDS stations and displaying info, absolutley no lag what so ever. My "radio unit" died after muting for a BT phone call about a month ago. (everything else still worked, BT, Nav, trip) It was "replaced", although all my nav history and trip history remained, even my DSP settings, BUT all my preset stations and time had to be reset. It also looked like my screen did not change, as it came back with the same tiny blemish that it had since new. So what they "replaced" I dont know.

I know what you mean about the "surfing" thing as my wife does it constantly and remarks about the delay all the time. I try to listen to CD when she rides.

I never tried turning the RDS off, but may give that a try next time.

We can't be the only ones with this issue. It's almost too silly to mention at the dealer, but I will next time.

[QUOTE=elm3c]I have an 02 4.6is, with nav/dsp, and also in the SF bay area. Same issue, although it only happens with certain stations, not all. Very annoying, as a station surfer. Did not realize that it was associated with RDS.

Hey I think I'll try turning this off as 103.7 seems to have this delay issue.

Follow-up: When I mentioned the delay in the radio tuning, the service advisor immediately knew that it was related to the RDS. With my radio, I was unable to turn off the RDS. The previous dealer who had replaced my radio unit did not set it properly to the US (United States) region. Now I again have access to the PTY and RDS functions, and the ST symbol appears on the display.

The service advisor told me that they do not have a fix for this issue, except to turn off RDS.

That's interesting to note. It seems like the encoded info sent from a station's RDS transmitter is not being properly decoded by the BMW unit. I'll ask the engineers around here if they have a fix for it. I've never had a problem with RDS on my '01 X5 w/ DSP.

JV

I never had any sort of delay in my 2001 radio module, nor have I had any issues with my 2003 radio module. Very odd indeed. :dunno:

JVZ104 - are u able to tune DC101 using RDS w/o a delay?

As a condition of employment, JZ had to have his radio custom modified to only tune in to Z104 when he is in the proximity of the Metro DC area. ;)

In the X5, I agree with you though I still have my 2001 radio module in the X5.

However, in the M3 with the 2004 radio module/Nav, with certain L.A. station, the RDS is slowing down the tuning.

The new JACK-FM 93.1 is the worst offender.

HA! I can get DC101 just fine with RDS enabled, in fact, every station I can tune in comes in instantly with RDS enabled. However, some stations will present their audio, and then up to a 3 second delay in displaying their info on RDS. It's gotta be a decoding problem within the BMW tuner. Our resident spark-chasers are trying to come up with a troubleshoot for me, so stay tuned. Ha.

JV

Okay... since everyone is talking about RDS, here's my question.

My '02 Ford Excursion stock stereo has the RDS function which is enabled. It also has a "traffic" setting which is also enabled. What function does the traffic setting serve? It's been enabled just over three years now and nuthin's ever happened. :dunno:

Thanks for the info.
Tim