Couple of quick mods
 

Got a couple of quick mods done today to my E70. I've been frustrated by the phone dock since we drove the car home from the dealer brand new. In principle it sounds great, but in practice... to simply listen to Pandora via the dock I have to: get in car, open console, take iPhone out of case, put iPhone in cradle, start car, wait for nag screen to go away, start Pandora on iPhone, select Apps from iDrive menu, select Pandora, drive away. With bluetooth... get in and start car, push shortcut 3 for BT Audio, Pandora resumes where I left off. Much, much easier. Forget all the other 'features' of the dock - definitely not worth the loss of storage space.

So I followed this guide:
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...-cradle-2.html

I bought the blank cover plate from Tischer, and 30 minutes later it's complete. Soooo much nicer inside the console! Just remember, unless you have more plastic skills than I it's not a reversible mod!

While I was at it, I ordered the non-smoker's package storage tray. It replaces the ashtray with a longer, deeper storage cubby. Big enough to hold a phone, leatherman, etc. The ashtray is pretty silly IMO, a throwback to a 70's era Cadillac. Too bad you can't option out the lighter and ashtray.

Anyway, a nice couple of mods and highly recommended if you a) don't smoke in your car, and b) don't use your phone dock at all. Pretty cheap couple of parts as well, total of around $35 with shipping I think.

Ashtray Removal...
 

What was invloived with the ashtray replacement?
Is it as simple as just pulling the ashtray out and putting the replacement in?
No trim removal needed or anything, correct?

Thanks,
John

That's correct - no work at all. Just remove the insert (it's already removable so one could clean out ashes) and snap the new one in. A perfect, easy one-for-one swap.

On the Tischer site search for: BODY HARDWARE / CONSOLE / FRONT CONSOLE / Insert (non-smoker). It's #4 on the exploded part diagram (no part number listed, sorry - anyone else that can help with that?)

Also, here are photos of the new storage insert as well as the console with cradle removed and cover plate installed:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ps52b00775.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ps36b4d159.jpg

The part number for the console cover plate is 51169115083. The part number for the non-smoker storage insert is 51166954946. Let me know if you have any questions!

Does the blank cap for the lighter come with the new non-smoking tray?

Thanks.

No, I stole that from M3 before I traded it in :)

I'm stumped on how to remove the phone cradle, I don't suppose you could detail how you went about it as it looks really clean on yours, I'm not bothered about saving it for the next owner

Lift up the cradle so you can access the 2 small torx screws on the bottom. Remove those so the cradle comes loose - it's still attached by the beefy cable. Now start to go to town on it with a screwdriver/knife. Just keep prying open the plastic and/or breaking it when you have to. It takes a bit of time but eventually you'll be left with a small-ish circuite board attached to the cable. Wrap that up in plastic wrap/rubber bands so you don't short out any contacts, then tuck it back into the opening the cradle was attached to. Then you can snap the cover back over it.

There wasn't much of a DIY to disassembling the cradle - I seriously just started snapping pieces off, taking care to not cut any wires or short out any copper contacts. Thanks to German engineering for making it so difficult. Hope this helps!

Jim

You didn't end up with any error codes did you? And does that plastic piece you need to buy from tischer just snap into place or does it need to be glued on?
Hoping to make a proper DIY guide with pics for this so I wanna get it right :thumbup:

Thanks

Nope, no codes or problems. For all it knows the cradle is still there. Just don't cut any wires or short out any contacts. And yes, the plastic cover just snaps right in - it was a perfect fit. You have to do a little coaxing to get the circuit board hidden in the whole but once that's done the cover seals everything up.

Cool mods. Would you mind posting the links from the Tischer website? I tried searching by keywords and the part numbers and no matches were found... thanks!

Confirm you're going to getbmwparts.com? On the main page there's a "search by part number" container. I just tried to cut/paste both numbers and it spit back the part with an add to cart option.

Searching without a part number is a pain - you have to figure out which category it's under then keep drilling down and looking at part diagrams. When I ordered both parts were under "body hardware/console/front console". For the non-smoking storage insert:

2012 BMW X5 Parts - getBMWparts.com - Exceptional Pricing | Unparalleled Service | Genuine BMW Parts

For the cover plate it looks like they've deleted it from their parts diagrams. The only way I could get it was via a part number search. Here's the link to add it to your cart:

BMW Parts - getBMWparts.com - Exceptional Pricing | Unparalleled Service | Genuine BMW Parts

Trust me, it's the correct plate. Hope this helps!

Jim

Thank you, Jim! Yeah I went to getbmwparts dot com.

No prob! Have fun tearing out that phone cradle. I mean it when I say you literally have to break it apart piece by piece - at least that was the most effective way I could find. I'm sure there are some hidden screws or rivets somewhere. Remove the two Torx screws to unbolt it from the console then snap away, just be careful when you get to the circuit board. I then wrapped that in a little ziploc bag and duct taped it inside the hole that remained. Piece of cake once you take that first step!!