[Murf]

My bluetooth microphone has always sucked, callers always complain about noise and difficulty understanding me. In the past I didn't really care but now I am commuting both ways 1hr + and it's become an issue. Is there a way to upgrade this microphone to something with better noise cancelling? I have the factory installed system...

[BOTUS]

Originally Posted by Murf

My bluetooth microphone has always sucked, callers always complain about noise and difficulty understanding me. In the past I didn't really care but now I am commuting both ways 1hr + and it's become an issue. Is there a way to upgrade this microphone to something with better noise cancelling? I have the factory installed system...

how old's the car,

early ones didn't connect the shield wire at the mic end and later mic's were better quality... But I' can't tell you when this happened.

I can say I have the later mic and the shield connected and callers say if I get excitable and speak in a way I describe as mildly loud, they get distortion.

Again at high speed if I talk "clearly" to get above the road / engine / wind noise they say its harder for them to hear (due to distortion), when I start to think I'm talking too quietly they are ok with it (but I feel odd)... so it seems the gain is wound up too much on the way BM do it

[rowingone]

If you upgrade the mic . . you would just have to make sure its the same impedance. If you have idrive . .can you try changing the mic settings?

[Murf]

It'a a 2008. The mic's (as a replacement part) are $60 bucks or so and seem to have the same part number for the entire model run. Not sure replacing it with another stock part would help but maybe worth a shot.

Originally Posted by BOTUS

how old's the car,

early ones didn't connect the shield wire at the mic end and later mic's were better quality... But I' can't tell you when this happened.

I can say I have the later mic and the shield connected and callers say if I get excitable and speak in a way I describe as mildly loud, they get distortion.

Again at high speed if I talk "clearly" to get above the road / engine / wind noise they say its harder for them to hear (due to distortion), when I start to think I'm talking too quietly they are ok with it (but I feel odd)... so it seems the gain is wound up too much on the way BM do it

[Murf]

Originally Posted by rowingone

If you upgrade the mic . . you would just have to make sure its the same impedance. If you have idrive . .can you try changing the mic settings?

Car is a 2008, no ability to change settings unless it's something I could try to code...

Not sure where to even get an upgraded mic, that's why I posted!

[BOTUS]

Originally Posted by Murf

Car is a 2008, no ability to change settings unless it's something I could try to code...

Not sure where to even get an upgraded mic, that's why I posted!

I think that age u'll have the "old" mic..


found this but I think its back to front

(1) Green - Updated microphone
(1) Black - Original microphone

[jwong77]

I did a retrofit of my bluetooth a couple of years ago (2011), which probably means I bought the updated mic. The quality sucks, every conversation over bluetooth results in the other person saying "What? huh?". I am very interested in connecting this shield wire. Can anybody provide any details on it?

[jpope42]

I retrofitted mine last year, got the mic from Tischler's (OEM). If I remember correctly all you do is solder the ground to the cable shielding, but then some days my memory's like Swiss cheese! Anyway, you should be able to search for the answer.

[BOTUS]

in this pic 2 wires connected... but mic has three pins... as I had to add the wire myself and used proper quality mic wire not the garbage BM did, I'm not sure if there's any termination on the stock loom (I thought I remember a pic where it showed it taped back) but I guess if not the shield is under outer sleeve and you could connect it using 61 13 0 006 663 or I think lighter gauge wire 61 13 0 005 197 about 1 dollar from stealership




black
yellow
clear = shield

on the mic front one face is coloured rest of moulding black plastic, is it
black = old
green = old
grey = current? p/n 84.31.6.938.762 (quote from BMW expert "These are also a good plug and play upgrade for older model cars like E39 and E46. Improves sound quality on the other end a lot")

[jwong77]

Thank you Botus jpope42. Too bad I'm away from home, I can't wait to look into this. It really pissed me off after all of the work I did to retrofit the OEM bluetooth that it worked so poorly. Hopefully, this is all I have to do to get it to work better.

[Murf]

I have the .762 mic. According to realoem.com thats the microphone for all N54 & N55 builds.
I'm confused as to exactly what you are saying here. That there is a better mic than this or that adding a wire to the current mic will somehow improve it. Where would this wire terminate?

Originally Posted by BOTUS

in this pic 2 wires connected... but mic has three pins... as I had to add the wire myself and used proper quality mic wire not the garbage BM did, I'm not sure if there's any termination on the stock loom (I thought I remember a pic where it showed it taped back) but I guess if not the shield is under outer sleeve and you could connect it using 61 13 0 006 663 or I think lighter gauge wire 61 13 0 005 197 about 1 dollar from stealership




black
yellow
clear = shield

on the mic front one face is coloured rest of moulding black plastic, is it
black = old
green = old
grey = current? p/n 84.31.6.938.762 (quote from BMW expert "These are also a good plug and play upgrade for older model cars like E39 and E46. Improves sound quality on the other end a lot")

[BOTUS]

Originally Posted by Murf

I have the .762 mic. According to realoem.com thats the microphone for all N54 & N55 builds.
I'm confused as to exactly what you are saying here. That there is a better mic than this or that adding a wire to the current mic will somehow improve it. Where would this wire terminate?

as far as I know p/n 84.31.6.938.762 is the last available / latest mic. I have no idea if the shield wire helps all I know is early cars didn't have it connected at the mic end... it is on the other end in the boot using pin 19 on a MULF setup

my setup is perfect for me in the car as long as good quiet road and under 60 mph... after that it gets a little noisier but still perfectly easy to have a call at 90mph. Just occasionally I get told off for making it distort on the other end when I get excitable. No impact for me in the BM

[jwong77]

I looked at my microphone today and I figured out why my bluetooth quality sucked. During my retrofit, I had forgotten to remove a plastic piece inside the overhead console where the microphone sits. This piece had completely blocked off the microphone from the cabin. I removed it and now it's working really well! My people can hear me!

Some pics:
Pic #1 Is the Mic the part number I have is 84.31.6.938.762
Pic #2 Is Piece inside the overhead console still installed
Pic #3 Is the Mic wiring loom, I had the black and yellow wires in my loom attached to the microphone, I believe my car came prewired for bluetooth
Pic #4 Is the overhead console after I removed the piece that was blocking the microphone, you can see that its now exposed to the interior of the cabin
Pic #5 Is the plastic peice that I had removed

[jwong77]

I guess the point of my post is that if your bluetooth quality sucks, go check to see if that plastic piece is sitting there, blocking the microphone. Remove it.

[BOTUS]

Originally Posted by jwong77

I looked at my microphone today and I figured out why my bluetooth quality sucked. During my retrofit, I had forgotten to remove a plastic piece inside the overhead console where the microphone sits.

I don't think that should be possible....

the foam pad over mic aperture sits directly in contact with the cuts outs shown in this pic




surely if you did indeed leave the bit blocking the holes you never clipped the mic in place correctly first time?

and after checking you still didn't connect up the shield wire which that later mic was designed to have connected

[jwong77]

I forgot to remove that piece when I did my retrofit. I also realized I had the microphone upside down, which made it worse. I didn't connect the shield wire, but the audio quality seems fine now, so I don't find a need to do it.

[RMC]

I'm having trouble with my mic too - is there z DYI on how to remove the console so you can get to the mic?

[fazman]

Originally Posted by RMC

I'm having trouble with my mic too - is there z DYI on how to remove the console so you can get to the mic?

Flip both sunvisors towards the doors, on the inner holder of the sunvisor (on the headliner) there should be a hidden trap door that will expose a screw that you can use to remove the sunvisor holder to the headliner

Once that screw is removed, the sunvisor clip will drop down allowing some more slack on the headliner so you can reach a couple fingers between the windshield and the center FZD which holds the mic. There are two metal tabs that you need to push in that will let the FZD plop down (no effort required for it to fall down and the only thing keeping it from slamming to the ground are the connection wires). Be careful with those metal press tabs... they are sharp and can break your skin and cause you to bleed on your headliner

Is that what you were asking for?

[okicu]

Bumped post for future reference. 2016 F26 with same issue. Fixed in Idrive settings> tone> telephone> microphone.

It's a freaking setting! All good now