Upgrading from MK3 to MK4 unit - straight swap?
 

Hi everyone. I have found the navigation function on my MK3 unit fitted to my M3 to be near useless without postcode searching. I really need to upgrade to a MK4 unit.

I have the BMW television function and telephone kit installed which work through the unit. Will I lose any functionality?

When I spoke to BMW main dealers they thought it would not be a straight swap but online research seems to think it will be.

Can anyone give me a definative answer? How easy is fitting?

Many thanks

Neil

Welcome to the fourm Neil,

See you found your way over from mtorque :)

OK, sounds good so far.

No, all the functions that you have now will still work, just the nav computer and functions are upgraded.

Dealers are usless when asked something a bit out of the ordinary.

Yes, you can swap the mk3 for a mk4, I've done this and it plug and play, it takes less than 10 minutes.

*before* you unplug the mk3

Goto the car open the drivers door,
Then goto the nav computer, press eject on drive,
Eject the map disc,
Wait for the red led on the drive to go out,

Use some radio pullers (or small screwdrivers) to get the nav unit out.
Unplug the old and replace with the new.

If you don't follow the steps above the you risk damage to the mk3 and it may leave the mk3 in a "funny" state, bad news if you are going to sell it on.

HTH

Thanks mate - yep, I got a bit of a grilling on Mtorque for even discussing disk upgrades (despite owning legal copies)

Many thanks for that advice? Really 10 minutes for the head unit area? Where do you start? Is there any risk of me breaking any fitment pieces at all?

Yeah, take care on there they really come down hard, I know :(

Jump in the car, open the boot, open the flap (left hand side), eject the map disc, wait till the red led flashes then goes out, grab some radio pullers or 2 small screw drivers, slide them into the holes either side of the nav unit and pull out (gently), unplug the 2 cables/plugs and remove the nav unit, plug in new mk4 slide home (take care with the cables) and insert the map disc, (you can use the cd that you got out of the mk3 in the short term), and thats it job done.

It's as easy as that mate, very lttle risk in breaking anything as there is not much to break.

If you have trouble and are anywhere near brighton, I'll give you a hand.

Thanks - I was under the impression the head unit needed replacing as well! Thanks a lot :)

Nope, just the nav unit :)

It is a straight swap. I had trouble removing mine by inserting rods in the holes so I pulled the trim back and unbolted it, it took about 25 minutes all up.

It will work straight away as a plug and play change over but it should be coded to the car by the dealer through the retrofit option, NOT a firmware upgrade. These are two different things that I had to explain to my dealer!

You can also code the unit using navcoder, that's what I did when I bought mine, it's a fairly easy, a 5 minute job :)

What pupose does 'coding to the car' serve? I bought a MK4 unit from ebay recently and managed to fit it with no problems. Halfords sell a very cheap extractor tool which made removal simple.

I am currently running it with a 2008-2 CD (not a DVD) and it's working fine. It's also upgraded to v31 firmware. ccfj1 has been a big help as well.

Am I missing something with not having it coded to the car?

No, not really, it's just that it adds the cars vin number in the hidden menu setup, the nav computer will work as is without any problems or reduction of function.

If you go to the dealers it may register the mk4 in some of the other i-bus connected devices and update the cars ecu/memory as being retrofitted, but TBH it's no biggy.

When i had my car coded for LEDs, I checked the status of my mk4 with the autologic programmer and it had the retrofitted status, so the navcoder looks like it does the same thing as the dealers programmer.

If you are ever in my neck of the woods I'll code it up for you, no problem.