I went forward with my E90 alarm install, and took some pics along the way. I would say that it is an easy install, as long as you have some mechanical confidence and experience. The "hardest" part is removing the left rear wheel to install the siren. Since our cars do not come with a...

I'm thinking about ordering the alarm for self-install. 330's are all prewired, right?

You have to goto the dealer no matter what CIP you have. The dealer will have to update your CIP to the latest because the computer wont let them enable it if its not upto the latest version.

I think, not 100% sure, all cars come prewired.

Thanks!

my 300xi was completely pre-wired

I have a question for you guys who have already done the install. Apon re-connecting the battery are there any codes for resetting the idrive/nav or radio? I was talking with my friend who has a TL and he said make sure you have all the codes to reset your Nav and Radio. Is this the case for us? or do they just come back on like nothing ever happened?
Other question, do you think it matters or would hurt the alarm if I hooked up the hood sensor, and the interior motion sensor with out unhooking the battery?
Also do you think it matters if I hook everything up, except the siren, might be a week or so till I can get to my friends garage. Figured in the mean time I could the other stuff installed.
Thoughts?

I just installed mine. Thanks for this thread. It was awesome. Alarm was $250 out the door at my local dealer.

Some points (I have a early Sept. build car):

-I did it without disconnecting the battery.
-I did it in reverse order-siren, hood pin, interior
-Mine didn't work until I had all the pieces connected
-Once I got the last piece in, clown nose started blinking
-I tested it as follows-rolled down the windows, locked the car, waited for clown nose to stop fast blink, reached in and unlocked the car with the button on the center console, opened the driver's door from the inside-instant siren.

However, mine does not chirp when I lock the car, one of the key features for me, grrrrr!

I do not have Idrive.

You need to have the dealer activate the alarm in order for the chirp sound to be active when locking the car using the fob.

I bought my alarm system from the stealer for 330 after tax. Installed and to my surprise I have to get it activated
They are going to charge me $125 + tax to update my software and make the alarm work with my car. Man, maybe I should have just paid for them to install everything...

Dont pay. Either tell them it should only take a half hour to activate it or go to another dealer.

Software update is supposed to be covered by warranty.

*UPDATE* I made a huge mistake. Completely forgot to connect the wire to the ultrasonic module. I just did it this morning and red clown nose starts blinking. I rolled down the window and threw a towel inside and alarm goes off.

I too do not have the arming noise when alarming my car but I don't really care about that. Thanks again for the awesome DIY instructions

Thats $125 plus tax saved for dealer software updates.

That's robbery! Shop around, it should not cost you more than 30 minutes of labor. When I had my alarm activated, the BMW service center (New Century BMW) only charged me $50.00 + tax. The dealer where I bought my car wanted $150.00 + tax.

The alarm IS active. Perhaps they can control the lock/unlock settings described in the manual that are unobtainium in real life?

It took them 3 hours to do mine, so my SA covered it under warranty.

So did anyone NOT have the clown nose start blinking and siren working right away? I installed the alarm, but nothing works. I'm wondering if I did something wrong, although I cannot imagine what that could be. It's just not that complicated.

Thanks for the DIY on this. I Bought the alarm from Pacific BMW for 250 including shipping. It took me about an hour to install it all. The dealer said that they would activate for 90 bucks. The clown nose started blinking right away but no sound from the siren. Thanks again.

330i sparkling graphite, terra, sport, premium

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I did the self install myself and initially nothing worked. I later realized I had forgotten to connect the wire to the ultrasonic module in the interior of the car. Once done the clown nose started blinking. Everything was working except the beeping. I called the dealer and they quoted me at $125 plus tax to install. So I talked to my service advisor and after making it a point on how my car was an 06 (i.e. a new car), he said he would cover the install under warranty. So I lucked out.

Everyone should at least try to reason with em before paying the software update fee... G/L

Cool thanks for the insight. I will try and negotiate with them

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got my alarm activated today, $45.00, WOOHOO. However, did anyone else notice after they recoded your car, the radio didnt display station names? EX. in my area there is a radio station, 93.3WMMR, and thats how it used to show up in Nav screen. Today its just 93.3
Anyone else have this issue?

what cip?

My bad, forgot to come back and post, everything is working fine now, all I had to do was re-program the stations, and the tags came back.

Good to know. I wonder why it lost the tags though....