E53, X5 Radio Replacment..?
 

I've seen a couple of nice looking replacement units for the X5 with navigation. My screen is dying and I'm considering replacing the screen or entire unit.

Question is, if you replace the unit, I assume you loose the on board computer display? Do you also loose the DSP and amp functions too?

Are these aftermarket units nice units or is it best to fix the screen for $200?

Thanks!

The aftermarket units with nav etc... are garbage to say the least. Mrbmwx5 and I just recently had a conversation about this topic. He has purchased 1 or 2 things that are on ebay And they are not so good very cheaply made and too expensive for the lack of quality.

I concur with Rich. Also, that nav unit is interconnected to the X. It controls everything in the OBC. Meaning it controls your range, time, date, etc. It makes a big mess of things. Just look at the recent posts with people who have done it.

There is someone selling an entire unit for $1000. Screen, computer, I mean everything. But if you can get the screen fixed for 2 beans, do it.

When my car got off the boat in Moscow, the screen was dead - the LEDs (or CCFL?) that light up the screen kicked the bucket... i filed insurance claim and they replaced the Nav (MK3) with a new Nav (MK4 with cyrillic support) and the monitor. all the functions were there, and the local guys "rusified" the X - all my functions are in Russian, including the verbaige on the screen, the verbal directions by a Russian speaking girl, I can enter address either in English or in russian. The Voice Recognition is in English, as the BT unit is still the same, from the US. Unfortunately for me, I got kicked out of russia before I was able to convert everything back to english... lol...

It has NEVER crossed my mind to stick one of those DO-IT-ALL chinese ebay units, even though the specs on those chinese things look very nice... Too many functions are tied in one spot for me to severe the head from the spinal cord...

Russifying MK3 on 2001 X5
 

Do you think it is possible to russify standard (MK3?) module on 2001 X5 3.0? You mentioned it was done on your X5, but using MK4 with Cyrillic support... Just curious - if possible would go for that just for fun :)

even with MK4 the first unit did not take the cyrillics - it spoke in russian, but displayed latin letters for english and some weird characters for cyrillics. so, the guys replaced the newly replaced MK4 with another unit, and the nav took the modified firmware. it might work for MK3, i never tested it. when in the US, i used latin letters for nav, business as usual, but the girl spoke directions in russian - i needed to replace the firmware but never got around to do it...

try this link

GREN.RU