E60/61 DAB, Bluetooth etc

[Gad-Westy]

Afraid this is all a little secondhand in terms of info as it's not my car. A family member has a an E61 with iDrive but not DAB, Nav or Bluetooth.

Are there any good upgrade options out there now that would give him DAB and Bluetooth phone stuff without effecting OEM look and functionality? Nav would be of secondary importance but would be nice to have. Car not worth a fortune so although the budget isn't fixed, it seems crazy throwing huge money at it.

Also, I'm told the centre cubby hole thing around the armrest is a mixed bag of trays and phone cradles and not much use for anything. Can that be swapped to a conventional storage compartment?

And lastly, the car has no 12v socket in the front of the cabin. Just the rear. Is that right, seems odd. But any neat ways of getting a discreet USB phone charging socket up front somewhere?

[Toltec]

Does it have the Aux In audio socket in the arm rest cubby?

I put a Pure DAB 400 in my E61 a couple of months ago and used one of these-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075YFWZTG

hooked up to one of the rear 12v sockets. Pure recommend using their 12v to usb power adaptor as they say it is designed for noise rejection.

It gives you DAB through the Aux input and you can pair your phone via bluetooth to send music or indeed satnav audio through the car system. The Pure can do more music control if you have Spotify, otherwise you just select music on your phone.

It can do the transmit to FM if you don't have an Aux in and the Pure 600 adds handsfree for the phone if the car doesn't already have it.

ETA: I bought the Pure as a refurbished from the eBay pure outlet which saved £30

Edited by Toltec on Friday 4th May 13:33

[Gad-Westy]

Toltec said:

Does it have the Aux In audio socket in the arm rest cubby?

I put a Pure DAB 400 in my E61 a couple of months ago and used one of these-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075YFWZTG

hooked up to one of the rear 12v sockets. Pure recommend using their 12v to usb power adaptor as they say it is designed for noise rejection.

It gives you DAB through the Aux input and you can pair your phone via bluetooth to send music or indeed satnav audio through the car system. The Pure can do more music control if you have Spotify, otherwise you just select music on your phone.

It can do the transmit to FM if you don't have an Aux in and the Pure 600 adds handsfree for the phone if the car doesn't already have it.

ETA: I bought the Pure as a refurbished from the eBay pure outlet which saved £30

Edited by Toltec on Friday 4th May 13:33

Thanks for this. Have passed it on. Though I think he is looking for something a bit more OEM ideally but if those options are poor, then this might be a good alternative.

[Craikeybaby]

An Alpine Ezi DAB is another option, I fitted one to my E87, it is just a little box/aerial on the windscreen and all the cables are hidden.

[gizlaroc]

Dension 500S BT and the Dab add on will do it all.

Or he could retrofit the oem stuff, but a bit of a ball ache to code it all.

[Gad-Westy]

gizlaroc said:

Dension 500S BT and the Dab add on will do it all.

Or he could retrofit the oem stuff, but a bit of a ball ache to code it all.

This looks promising. Any first hand experience of installing or using?

[Collectingbrass]

Gad-Westy said:

gizlaroc said:

Dension 500S BT and the Dab add on will do it all.

Or he could retrofit the oem stuff, but a bit of a ball ache to code it all.

This looks promising. Any first hand experience of installing or using?

The Dension is the best answer and goes in place of the CD changer in the glove box and is plug and play - if you or he ever fitted a Halfords Special in a rusty Ford Astra GTi in your youth it is the same.

There are only 2 watch outs. 1 is the car needs to be capable of playing MP3 files if it was one of the first (I think pre 2005/6 but am not certain), you can check this by putting a disk in with MP3 files burnt on. The second is that you need to buy the Dension box and the coding dongle they also sell, but it is very simple.

[rubes78]

Collectingbrass said:

The Dension is the best answer and goes in place of the CD changer in the glove box and is plug and play - if you or he ever fitted a Halfords Special in a rusty Ford Astra GTi in your youth it is the same.

There are only 2 watch outs. 1 is the car needs to be capable of playing MP3 files if it was one of the first (I think pre 2005/6 but am not certain), you can check this by putting a disk in with MP3 files burnt on. The second is that you need to buy the Dension box and the coding dongle they also sell, but it is very simple.

I have the Dension in my B5, great bit of kit (din't go for the DAB add in as use internet radio). Had it fitted so the USB and aux are in the sunglasses compartment next to the steering wheel, nicely hidden away and fully integrates with the iDrive. I've since also had the CIC retrofitted when the CC developed a fault. All looks OEM.