[john330i]

Hi,

Picked up my new car yesterday which is a Sparkling Graphite 330i SE saloon with plenty of extras - i Drive, professional sat nav, electric memory sports seats, i pod connection, 17" alloy wheels and all the usual SE extras. Drove it 7hrs home from Surrey yesterday and absolutely love the car.

However, for some reason, the car does not appear to have the bluetooth phone kit, which seems like a very odd accessory not to have specced??

Is there any way of checking whether my car is pre-wired for the Bluetooth phone kit (the buttons are on the steering wheel and the i Drive has the relevant phone menus but they just aren't accessible) and if so, does anyone know how much it costs to buy the kit/where to get it from - as I plan to fit it myself (as BMW seem to want a fair bit of cash to do what looks like a fairly straight forward job). I realise that I will have to pay them to reprogramme things once the kit is fitted.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

John

[MEGA]

Given that call quality is not great anyway I'd personally recommend going for a far superior parrot kit for a fraction of the cost... Thats just me, I know it doesn't look stock obviously.. So is a downer for some.

[xenon]

Must be something wrong with yours, Mega - the sound quality of my BT is perfect. I'd get it looked at if I were you.

Given the expense of a retrofit you might prefer a Parrot anyway but the way the OEM integrates with the iDrive is excellent.

[MEGA]

Well I hear other people fine, but people complain to me that the noise cancelling is too sensitive, IE it sounds like the phone has dropped whenever I stop talking; and sometimes if I mumble I drop out.

Maybe I should get it looked at it...

[Dr Dave]

Same here, the audio quality of my factory BT connection is superb!

[Carrera RSR]

Originally Posted by john330i

Hi,

Picked up my new car yesterday which is a Sparkling Graphite 330i SE saloon with plenty of extras - i Drive, professional sat nav, electric memory sports seats, i pod connection, 17" alloy wheels and all the usual SE extras. Drove it 7hrs home from Surrey yesterday and absolutely love the car.

However, for some reason, the car does not appear to have the bluetooth phone kit, which seems like a very odd accessory not to have specced??

Is there any way of checking whether my car is pre-wired for the Bluetooth phone kit (the buttons are on the steering wheel and the i Drive has the relevant phone menus but they just aren't accessible) and if so, does anyone know how much it costs to buy the kit/where to get it from - as I plan to fit it myself (as BMW seem to want a fair bit of cash to do what looks like a fairly straight forward job). I realise that I will have to pay them to reprogramme things once the kit is fitted.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

John

I think pro nav should have Bluetooth as standard. Maybe wrong. Does your car have the shark fin on the roof? This usually shows you have the telephone ariel and therefore BT. Do you have a phone cradle base unit within the armrest?

Can't remember where but there is a menu under communications for BT connection. Make sure your phone is activated and it may try to pair up.

[snipersix]

I believe there is a bluetooth retrofit available
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3540

[illingworth22]

Originally Posted by snipersix

I believe there is a bluetooth retrofit available
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3540

There is also one for sale on E-Bay, sorry item ended but it was here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260408041306

[trixman]

Originally Posted by MEGA

Well I hear other people fine, but people complain to me that the noise cancelling is too sensitive, IE it sounds like the phone has dropped whenever I stop talking; and sometimes if I mumble I drop out.

Maybe I should get it looked at it...

I used to think that, with people not understanding me. Finally realised it was my Brummie accent.

[xenon]

Originally Posted by trixman

I used to think that, with people not understanding me. Finally realised it was my Brummie accent.

Oh ar. that would do it. Tra a beet!

[john330i]

Originally Posted by carrerarsr

I think pro nav should have Bluetooth as standard. Maybe wrong. Does your car have the shark fin on the roof? This usually shows you have the telephone ariel and therefore BT. Do you have a phone cradle base unit within the armrest?

Can't remember where but there is a menu under communications for BT connection. Make sure your phone is activated and it may try to pair up.

The car does have the shark fin, but in the Communications menu, the only option available is to bring up the local BMW assist phone numbers. Can't see an option to pair my phone to the car. In the arm rest there isn't a cradle (there was in my previous Alpina Roadster), just a rubber tray where the cradle would fit.

Emailed BMW last night about the cost of retrofitting bluetooth and they quoted a tidy £2000 including fitting and VAT!!

Looking at some of the info on line, the fitting process looks pretty straight forward and I really struggle to see how BMW can justify £2k for the retrofit. They claim that the kit is £950+VAT and then the additional charging kit is a further £400 and then you have 8hrs fitting time on top of the parts.

As nice as it would be to have the phone integrated into the i Drive, I think at £2k I will be giving it a miss.

Any recommendations on after market bluetooth kits that you can integrate with the steering wheel phone controls?

Thanks,

John

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by john330i

The car does have the shark fin, but in the Communications menu, the only option available is to bring up the local BMW assist phone numbers. Can't see an option to pair my phone to the car. In the arm rest there isn't a cradle (there was in my previous Alpina Roadster), just a rubber tray where the cradle would fit.

The shark fin is also the GPS antenna, so you will have that with NAV.

If you don't have the cradle contacts under the armrest either, it seems like the car doesn't have phone preparation.

BTW the bluetooth pairing is not in the communications part of the menu. It's buried away in the vehicle settings area.

[monteeyah]

hi john330i

I have been looking into this - some e90's have bluetooth with out a cradle. I believe that the minimum hardware to get this running should be:
bluetooth aerial
harness
ULF bluetooth module

then programming

I have been popping in to my local bmw but still cant find a tech/parts guy who is even abit intersted in lookin into this. but i agree - it shouldnt be 2k!!

i have idrive, pro nav and it is a shame to not have BT. there is a guy on ebay usa who can tell you if your car is prewired ( using last 7 chassis digits) and sell you a kit approx 1k dollars and $60 post. you gotta programme though. I still think this can be beaten though. i think UK cars dont come prewired.

thom

[E92 LeMans]

Mobridge will do and is about £600

Also gives you i pod connection too.

[john330i]

Originally Posted by E92 LeMans

Mobridge will do and is about £600

Also gives you i pod connection too.

Ironically, Mobridge are based in Surrey which is where I collected the car from on Monday and then drove it to Edinburgh. Which unfortunately means it is no longer very handy for getting the kit fitted. I had spotted that they offered this kit last night - looks very good.

[gIzzE]

You can buy the bluetooth module off ebay for around £100.

Loads on ebay.de usually.

The wiring harness is around £90.

You can then call autologic and ask who has their coding system near you, it takes anywhere between 10 minutes and 8 hours to update and add the bluetooth, depending what firmware you have on teh car now, as you have to upgrade to the latest version.


I would tell BMW that your radio keeps turning off, or the iDrive keeps resetting itself and you have to pull over turn the car off and restart it to get it up and running again.
They will then update the car to the latest version, you can then fit the kit and take it into an autologic dealer to code it in for an hours labour at most, so around £60.

[illingworth22]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

You can buy the bluetooth module off ebay for around £100.

Loads on ebay.de usually.

The wiring harness is around £90.

You can then call autologic and ask who has their coding system near you, it takes anywhere between 10 minutes and 8 hours to update and add the bluetooth, depending what firmware you have on teh car now, as you have to upgrade to the latest version.


I would tell BMW that your radio keeps turning off, or the iDrive keeps resetting itself and you have to pull over turn the car off and restart it to get it up and running again.
They will then update the car to the latest version, you can then fit the kit and take it into an autologic dealer to code it in for an hours labour at most, so around £60.

Gizzie your an F'ing Genius

[john330i]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

You can buy the bluetooth module off ebay for around £100.

Loads on ebay.de usually.

The wiring harness is around £90.

You can then call autologic and ask who has their coding system near you, it takes anywhere between 10 minutes and 8 hours to update and add the bluetooth, depending what firmware you have on teh car now, as you have to upgrade to the latest version.


I would tell BMW that your radio keeps turning off, or the iDrive keeps resetting itself and you have to pull over turn the car off and restart it to get it up and running again.
They will then update the car to the latest version, you can then fit the kit and take it into an autologic dealer to code it in for an hours labour at most, so around £60.

Are our cars pre-wired in any way or do you end up having to run cables all over the place to install the kit or is there some existing wiring in the car that we simply need to tap into?

Thanks,

John