[MB London]

Have my car booked in for next wednesday @ BMW Barons Farnborough £471 fitted

Will post some comments once installed

[TMP]

Originally Posted by MB London

Have my car booked in for next wednesday @ BMW Barons Farnborough £471 fitted

Will post some comments once installed

Hmm, thats a good price for a dealler - is that inc vat and did that take some haggling?

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by TMP

Hmm, thats a good price for a dealler - is that inc vat and did that take some haggling?

Sheesh, almost worth me taking the drive up there - the kit for an E90 is £300-ish inc the trims, so £471 fitted all in is a great price.

[richd]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Sheesh, almost worth me taking the drive up there - the kit for an E90 is £300-ish inc the trims, so £471 fitted all in is a great price.

I got a great price on the labour part of the Ipod retrofit kit when I had it fitted at Barons Farnborough. Seems they are offering reduced labour rates on this sort of fitting.

I fitted the Alpine kit myself though, fancied the challenge.

[illingworth22]

Originally Posted by richd

I got a great price on the labour part of the Ipod retrofit kit when I had it fitted at Barons Farnborough. Seems they are offering reduced labour rates on this sort of fitting.

I fitted the Alpine kit myself though, fancied the challenge.

What was the I Pod retro fit? Can you give any details and part numbers... Oooo and how much?

[MB London]

Originally Posted by TMP

Hmm, thats a good price for a dealler - is that inc vat and did that take some haggling?

Yeah price includes vat. Someone on this forrum suggested I give them a call. It is a bit out of my way as I am in East London and the dealer wants my car all day. But as I was being quoted circa £800 from local dealers I thought it would be worth the trip.

Sold it to the wifey by saying if she follows me down we could all (4 yr old) spend the day in Lego land. Everyones a winner

[richd]

Originally Posted by MB London

Sold it to the wifey by saying if she follows me down we could all (4 yr old) spend the day in Lego land. Everyones a winner

Word of warning, Legoland has been packed over the summer holidays, car parks full and ride queues out the entrances. No idea if it will be as bad now we are getting to the end of the hols...

[MB London]

Originally Posted by richd

Word of warning, Legoland has been packed over the summer holidays, car parks full and ride queues out the entrances. No idea if it will be as bad now we are getting to the end of the hols...

Thanks for the warning

Dont know how she will take staying in the showroom all day

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by richd

Word of warning, Legoland has been packed over the summer holidays, car parks full and ride queues out the entrances. No idea if it will be as bad now we are getting to the end of the hols...

I was there with wifey & kids last week for two days.

All I can say is GET A Q-BOT! Saves queuing for up to two hours for the popular rides.

I was impressed with the car parking - I was able to pick and choose my place to park, right on the end near to kerbs to no chance of careless door opening onto mine!

Another tip - get there early - arrive 9.00am and wait for the outer gates to open at 9.30 and the park opening at 10am. In that time get your q-bot. Money well spent IMO.

[Steveo]

Are there any instructions/pictures on how to remove the door panels, sill covers, back seat and any other bits that need removing for the install?

Maybe gonna attempt this myself

[illingworth22]

Originally Posted by Steveo

Are there any instructions/pictures on how to remove the door panels, sill covers, back seat and any other bits that need removing for the install?

Maybe gonna attempt this myself

Loads on here do a and the answers are there. I did the front doors and added the tweeters from all the info on here!

Good luck, you won't need it if your half way any good at this kind of stuff, but if your unsure then pop in to the Stealers!

[_Si_]

Originally Posted by Steveo

Are there any instructions/pictures on how to remove the door panels, sill covers, back seat and any other bits that need removing for the install?

Maybe gonna attempt this myself

Theres loads of info in here..
Pop out the silver trim and remove 3 torx bolts ( i think they are t25's) then the tricky part is unclipping the card from the door. I used a flat head screw driver covered with insulation tape so I didn't scratch any paintwork. Once you unclip one the rest will come out by pulling with your hand. The passenger door differs slightly as you have to unclip the front of the handle.
Back seat is really easy, just lift from the front and it clips right out.
The only problems I had was finding the splice points which didn't actually exist on my LCI model!
Otherwise its pretty easy. Ive never touched a car before and I had no problems.

[MB London]

Originally Posted by MB London

Have my car booked in for next wednesday @ BMW Barons Farnborough £471 fitted

Will post some comments once installed

All sorted, picked my car up from Barons in Farnborough on Wednesday. Job done to total perfection (as expected) and cost was £471 as agreed.

So, was it worth it? BIG time, the sound is a massive improvement, for the first time since owning the car I am really enjoying listening to music in it. Of course, it should have been like this from stock – but that’s life.

I have been trying to think of a comparison between the new sound and the sound of old. I think the improvement is comparable to watching tv in non HD and then watching it in HD (hi def).

For anyone who is contemplating doing this, either themselves or via a dealer but is wondering whether the cost is justifiable (I was this person for a couple of months) I can categorically say it is well worth the money. WELL PLEASED.

[poggy]

Hi

I've installed my Alpine amp in my car and i'm having issues with it causing interference with the tuner - anyone else have this problem? It's definitely the amp causing it because if i disconnect the amp, the problem goes away.

Thanks

[Dr Dave]

Make sure the earth connection is clean and tight.

[Mike in Hampshire]

Originally Posted by MB London

All sorted, picked my car up from Barons in Farnborough on Wednesday. Job done to total perfection (as expected) and cost was £471 as agreed.

So, was it worth it? BIG time, the sound is a massive improvement, for the first time since owning the car I am really enjoying listening to music in it. Of course, it should have been like this from stock – but that’s life.

I have been trying to think of a comparison between the new sound and the sound of old. I think the improvement is comparable to watching tv in non HD and then watching it in HD (hi def).

For anyone who is contemplating doing this, either themselves or via a dealer but is wondering whether the cost is justifiable (I was this person for a couple of months) I can categorically say it is well worth the money. WELL PLEASED.

Hi there MB, glad to read of your positive experience. Like you, I get nervous about removing trim, splicing wires and all that. I just know it would go wrong! So I've booked my E92 335i in for the end of this month at Barons - mostly based on your review (no pressure .
They quoted me £392.50 + VAT = £451 ish which I think is very fair.
However, being a born worrier, I'm wondering why it is a little less? Is yours an E90 or E91 with the extra door trim? The parts guy put me through to service, who seemed unaware of what he'd quoted. Did you get them to confirm the work in writing? I guess I'm just after a little reassurance!

Any reassurance gratefully received.

Cheers, Mike in Hampshire.

[MB London]

Originally Posted by Mike in Hampshire

Hi there MB, glad to read of your positive experience. Like you, I get nervous about removing trim, splicing wires and all that. I just know it would go wrong! So I've booked my E92 335i in for the end of this month at Barons - mostly based on your review (no pressure .
They quoted me £392.50 + VAT = £451 ish which I think is very fair.
However, being a born worrier, I'm wondering why it is a little less? Is yours an E90 or E91 with the extra door trim? The parts guy put me through to service, who seemed unaware of what he'd quoted. Did you get them to confirm the work in writing? I guess I'm just after a little reassurance!

Any reassurance gratefully received.

Cheers, Mike in Hampshire.

Hi Mike

I can totally sympathize with your train of though as I was very much the same. I was even concerned about how well they would do the job, what would happen if I got half way around the M25 and the stereo started whining in unison with the throttle. I even rang them twice during the day to see how the job was going…………FREAK.

They was very honest with me and explained that there was a bit of complexity with the wiring and it took them a couple of attempts to get it 100% spot on. When I collected the car it was fully cleaned in and out, and the only way you would no any work had been done was the small tweeters in the A pilers with the alpine branding (a real sexy touch). Of course when you turn the car on, there is a delay of about 2 seconds and then amp fires up and as mentioned in my previous post, the sound improvement is instantly noticeable and I spent the whole journey home blasting out Green Day.arty0030

My car is an E90 and I don’t know if the kit varies from the one needed for your E92, but I genuinely believe you are in the best capable hands. Bare in mind that it is not easy to get the nod to be a BMW dealership and any work they carry out HAS TO BE 100% and it will.

Look forward to hearing you comments once done. Hope this helps you sleep a little easier.

MB

[markymark34]

Originally Posted by Steveo

Are there any instructions/pictures on how to remove the door panels, sill covers, back seat and any other bits that need removing for the install?

Maybe gonna attempt this myself

All the info you need is on here and if you want more do a search on google. Found some good stuff at babybimmer. Took me all day sat to do this and to be hosest it isnt that tough its just fiddly when you dont know what your doing.

[Dr Dave]

Plus it's all here in the How To section!

[poggy]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Make sure the earth connection is clean and tight.

I had the earth connected directly to the battery originally. i've now moved the earth to the place indicated in the instructions and i'm still getting the same thing. Anyone have any further ideas?

[Mike in Hampshire]

Originally Posted by MB London

Hi Mike

I spent the whole journey home blasting out Green Day.arty0030

My car is an E90 and I don’t know if the kit varies from the one needed for your E92, but I genuinely believe you are in the best capable hands.
Hope this helps you sleep a little easier.

MB

Cheers pal, exactly what I was hoping you'd say!
Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing something like Green Day properly; the standard system is PANTS for a £40k car I feel. Not too keen on the latest Green Day album however; prefer American Idiot.....think I'll try Marbles by Marillion going back down the motorway (best album in the history of the World IMHO).
Back on topic, I think the E90 is a bit pricier because the tweeter trim is more involved than with the E92 coupe. So that makes sense.

Finally, your post could be entitled "MB finds great value and service at a BMW stealer".........not often you hear that!

Thanks again, will post a follow-up once the work is done.

Mike.

[Steveo]

Finally installed in an E92 M3 by self, (took approx 6 hours)

Holy sh** this thing is loud now and the bass is

Had to turn the bass to -1, was at +3 before

Well worth the money