E46 ipod connection

[DBaldwin]

Hi guys, I'm soon to be the proud new owner of a BMW 3 series At 18 I must be the youngest BMW owner on the road! Anyway, I was wandering if you guys could reccomend me a good unit that would allow me to connect my ipod to the stereo. The one on my current car connects to it though the glovebox so its out of sight and its controllable via the radio controls. Is there a unit which would allow me to do this without having to buy a whole new head unit. Any reccomendations before I buy a pile of rubbish?

[carlejo]

I've got an Alpine CDE 101 for sale just come out of my 02 plate E46 a week ago.......complete with fascia to match in where BMW stereo would have been, 2 x looms,ipod lead and aerial lead, basically all you need........ cost me over £200 about 4 years ago........ selling for £80...... much better than stock BMW sounds.

Plays ipod, which in my car was locked in glovebox, plays MP3 discs, USB stick and CD's

All you need is to fit it, mint condition.

[johnnyboy666]

An aftermarket stereo will be the ultimate will will look terrible. If you don't mind that it will lool stupid then the alpine xda head units are the ultimate. If you want to keep it looking oem then have a look on car audio security. There is a 90 quid kit that works through your factory head unit and steering controls. I think it's made by DICE.

[Jobbo]

If your car doesn't have sat nav, I would recommend the Connects2 - I've tried the Intravee and Dice Silverline before it and also had a Dension Gateway 500 in my E60 5-series, and the Connects2 responds quickest, was simplest to fit (it goes on the back of the head unit), has no interference and to cap it all was cheapest (about £50+delivery). It doesn't try to display anything on the head unit but you can use the head unit or steering wheel for basic control of the iPod.

[anonymous-user]

I've got a Connects 2 aux adapter in my e46.

Plugs into the cd changer connection in the boot, does the job and it only cost me about £20 off ebay.

[AOK]

Intravee II via the Alpine KCA-420i... enough said...
...£150 worth of top quality ipod synchronisation solution.

With my nav screen all my playlists, song names, albums etc come up on the display. And I can scroll through using my steering wheel controls

Everything you need to know here http://www.intravention.co.uk/
Both parts (the Intravee and the KCA) come up used together quite regularly on ebay

[Jobbo]

champ54321 said:

I've got a Connects 2 aux adapter in my e46.

Plugs into the cd changer connection in the boot, does the job and it only cost me about £20 off ebay.

The Connects2 I was recommending isn't the same as this one - click here and look for the right one; most (all?) E46s use the 17 pin one (CTABMIPOD007.2) despite the date range given. While it still replaces the cd changer, it connects to the back of the head unit. I found fitting the DICE (which connects to the CD changer wires in the boot) more of a pain because you have to run a cable to the front of the cabin; and it suffered interference which may have been a consequence of the cable run.

Nice as the Intravee is, unless you have nav it doesn't add any functionality, costs about 3x as much, you have to source a used Alpine KCA420i (hasn't been made for a while now) which is about £40 on eBay and it doesn't charge your iPod.

[anonymous-user]

Jobbo said:

The Connects2 I was recommending isn't the same as this one - click here and look for the right one; most (all?) E46s use the 17 pin one (CTABMIPOD007.2) despite the date range given. While it still replaces the cd changer, it connects to the back of the head unit. I found fitting the DICE (which connects to the CD changer wires in the boot) more of a pain because you have to run a cable to the front of the cabin; and it suffered interference which may have been a consequence of the cable run.

Nice as the Intravee is, unless you have nav it doesn't add any functionality, costs about 3x as much, you have to source a used Alpine KCA420i (hasn't been made for a while now) which is about £40 on eBay and it doesn't charge your iPod.

Yes, mine is an aux connection, more suitable for me as sometimes I connect it to my Blackberry for mp3 and it uses the car speakers from hands free calls.

I only chose the boot option because I didn't feel like pulling apart the dash to run a cable from the back of the HU. Mine has been pretty good, no interferance. But I'll admit the ones which connect to the back of the HU do look a bit neater once properly installed.