what big screen radio fits my bmw e46????

[DarrenC87]

Hi ,

I have a BMW E46 318i 2003,

I have been looking at big screen radios but i heard that only a handful fit the centre console.. ??

Please can anybody with an e46 big screen radio, be able to tell me what one to get??

I have seen brands called pumpkin, eonon and dynavin??

Please can somebody tell me what one will fit my car and is pretty good? my budget is £200-£250

[J8 SVG]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-3-Series-Double-DIN...

One of those adapters and any double din head unit you like (With the relevant wiring adaptors to go with it)

https://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-kenwood...

[SebringMan]

I'll detail more as I'm doing this very conversion myself. However, the above suggestion will not work without potentially compromising the heater and making a cage/base for the double DIN HU to sit in ; that will be gone when you remove the factory HU and heater mount cage unless you modify that

To summarise

-The Chinese lookalike units fit but was questionable on their reliability and actual operation. They also don't have great aftersales stuff ; if it goes wrong you're dealing with people who only know how to sell the gear. The Dynavin P9 is one exception
-Almost all Double DINs including the above item will require you to chop the dashboard up behind and have compromised heating to the feet and/or the windscreen. There are kits available which allow you to keep the feet heater but of course the heater box will require modification. You'll also need to either modify your existing radio cage to accept a Double DIN thus meaning you'll have to buy another Heater/Radio cage when you come to sell the car or buy a cage base to allow the Double DIN to be secured. The Fascia adaptor for these is actually a fascia ; it doesn't secure the HU. There is one kit out there which is a cage and Fascia in one (read on).
-A handful of double DINs besides the aforementioned Chinese items allow you to fit them without cutting up the heater box. I'm in the process of doing this myself. It's on my M3 thread below

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

The HUs that fit without the need to chop the dash up are:

-Alpine iLX700 : This is Apple CarPlay only and has a radio. It's a lovely looking unit however
-Alpine iLX702E46 (the non E46 version doesn't fit unless you want the screen to partially block your centre vents ; it could be mounted as a Single DIN unit) ; this is a plug and play unit in E46 form. This has built in Sat-Nav, Bluetooth and I believe DAB. The E46 version is not what you'd call a bargain however.
-Parrot Asteroid Smart ; This does CarPlay and Bluetooth
-Sony XAV-AX100 ; This has Bluetooth and is to the only HU in this list to have a volume knob. It can do CarPlay as well as Android Auto ; a bonus for the Android users here. I have this unit.

Your budget is a little slim though! All of the above are higher than that. The Chinese units are cheap but of course there comes a risk. The Sony is £300. With the fascia in the above post and your ashtray panel modified to accept the heater control panel you could get away with a £20 Fascia and then modifying your heater/HU cage to accept the Sony unit. However, the changes would mean if you went back to stock you would have to buy another heater cage. An installer down South has been doing something similar.

My kit from the States is £80 landed but it comes with a heater control relocation panel and to my knowledge it's the only plug and play kit out there for a Double DIN head unit once you exclude Alpine's £750 option.

I'll provide an update on mine but I'm awaiting a fitting kit from the US which is why I haven't updated it yet.

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 13th February 08:59

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 13th February 09:00

[SebringMan]

This will probably be one of the longest posts in PH history, but seeing that I did my research, found out some things that are not discussed regarding installing a Double DIN into an E46 I figured I'd share my thoughts.

Yes I should have bought a car with Nav but TBH I remember them being crap back in the day and modern stuff is very intuitive and flexible in comparison:

This has been discussed here many times over the years. Some things to me weren't clear which I discuss in my build thread. I never realised that installing a Double DIN HU would require a chunk of fabrication, even with the shallow depth units.

We all know that conventional Double DIN headunits will not fit the car without compromising the heater function, specifically the foot and window demister function. Furthermore it will require a bit of cutting of the heater box. While you can buy kits to make the heater box functional again it does add cost on and further work to make it work. This of course leaves you with two choices:

The Choices:

1) Get one of the Chinese E46 Lookalike HUs. These seem to have a variable reputation with some being better than others like the Dynavin and the Eonon. These can work with Android phones however.
2) Consider Alpine's iLX-702E46. This does DAB, has built-in Sat-Nav and has Bluetooth & Apple CarPlay. However, it is rather expensive at £750. It is one of the few plug-and-play conversions out there.
3) Look at the Alpine iLX-700 and Parrot Asteroid Smart. Both have their pros and cons. The Alpine doesn't have Bluetooth, and the Parrot is a little pricey in addition to some people not getting on with the interface; it seems fine from what I've seen. Both however will still require fabrication of the cage to actually mount them. Some people use the fascia which looks like it was never designed for that kind of job, others modify their single DIN/heater control unit cage to mount the lot while others will get a metal cage for around £60 to mount the HU on. If you pay someone to install it that cost naturally will increase significantly.
4) Get the Sony XAV-AX100. With the Enfig kit this is a plug-and-play affair, circumventing the need to construct cages etc. and the fascia kit for this HU from Enfig is of a very high quality. If BMW did a factory Double DIN Conversion like they did for the Single DINs it looks like it may have been this. Most people out there could install this.

The Sony also comes with a couple of bonus features too. Firstly, you can buy a TomTom module from Sony to give you permanent Sat-Nav for £180 more, it has bluetooth unlike the Alpine and it can also do Android Auto. If its CarPlay is as good as it has been so far I would expect similar results on Android Auto. This is great news for people with a robot phone .

Anyway, it's time to bore you folks here with my experience.

The first thing to do was to destroy my dashboard:muttley:.



Now I was in a position to see what I was up against. With the Sony put into place I could admire some crap tunes as well. It was time to see how the Sony could fit into my dash.



I first of all did what anyone else would and ordered an el cheapo fascia for less than £30. This unlike a few also has the correct step built into it so that the heater vent can fit correctly too unlike a few versions out there.

AX-100 install by Charlieboy, on Flickr

However, the ruler in that shot highlights a few issues that I'd contend with regarding fitting the HU into place.

Briefly they are down to:
1) The lack of factory mounting points for a simple Plug & Play Double DIN installation
2) The low rent quality of a number of Double DIN fascias
3) Compromised usability of the Sony HU with the commonly available fascia adaptors.

The solutions are:
1) Make/buy a cage to mount the HU into but it will also be compromised anyway due to the above
2) Get a left handed fascia adaptor which will potentially work with a modified factory cage once a bit of trimming has taken place. The volume knob will still be compromised however
3) Get the Enfig fascia adaptor. This is the closest thing to a Double DIN Plug & Play kit with the Sony AX100 headunit. It also is a great quality kit and it shows.

For those seeking detail let's get into a mammoth long post. Stay awake at the back of the classroom now:muttley:.

1) From the factory the Double DIN Sat Navs have a chassis/cage built into them so that they fit the car. As a result you don't have a means to secure an aftermarket Double DIN bar the Chinese E46 Sat-Nav copies or the Eonon/Dynavin etc. This is a problem any Double DIN user will have, irrespective of if they go with a shallow depth HU or heater cutting item.

This leaves you with a few choices

i) Make your own cage mounts up to secure the HU. This is possibly the cheapest option but it will get time consuming, and add a chunk of hassle. One way this could be done is to butcher the factory Single DIN/Heater control panel cage. To get it to mount centrally will involve butching the thing alot. It will also lose your means to go back to a factory installation in the future too short of buying another cage to fit into your car.

CarPlay addition E46 M3 by Charlieboy, on Flickr

ii) Get a cage that bolts onto the factory bits take. The cage is also around £60 after delivery regardless of where you look. While it takes a chunk of fabrication out of the equation for something like the Alpine or Parrot shallow depth units it still potentially requires further fabrication.

https://incartec.co.uk/Pages/Product.aspx?P=3765



2)This fascia is not the best of quality and is primarily designed for HUs with button There is not much you can do about this but I'll come back to this point.

3)Because the Sony AX100 has a single DIN chassis that clears the heater box it introduces a new problem with the fascia which my previous photo alludes to. It can't sit flush with the fascia adaptor as its chassis rests on the heater box, removing any possibility of angling the HU to fit flush with the fascia. You're also left with a small gap between the HU and the bottom of the HU. You could file down to the recess towards the top of the fascia so that the HU sticks out slightly further. But then you'll always be left with another problem.

The volume knob will have no clearance on the left-hand side. Thus it will be tricky to adjust the volume with the HU unless you have steering wheel controls.

With this in mind I started trialing other options. What were the choices?

Solutions:
1) Offset the HU to one side.

AX-100 install by Charlieboy, on Flickr

IMO, with a left hand fascia adaptor this could work and you'd have room for the volume knob to work again. But the fascia kits aren't the best of quality still and depending on your preferences it does look strange with the HU stuck to one side of the aperture. Considering the look is part of the driving experience inside it's something you'll see all of the time. You can modify the factory Single DIN HU/heater panel cage a little to make this work and potentially do it cheaply. This is only my theory however:



2) Get the Enfig kit specific to this headunit.

This is the most plug and play installation you'll get. Cheap however it isn't. I paid £80 to get the HU delivered to this country and Parcelforce robbed me for a further £24. Ouch! £12 of that was VAT and the rest was their 'handling fee'. Yeah, right.

This is a similar price to getting the fascia adaptor and Double DIN cage above. This fascia kit was almost a bargain if the heater relocation panel wasn't left-hand-drive specific. But it's time to install it. The first thing that struck me upon opening the kit was the quality of everything. It's something Enfig don't really show and the pictures don't do it justice. It has that rubberised coating feel and it all feels well made. It is a step up from other adaptors I have seen on the market for a long time. Not just the E46 but others in generall too.

https://enfigcarstereo.com/ENFIG_RMK_E46_XAV1.html

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

On the bench the Double DIN cage is easy to assemble with the handed plates being an interference fit into the back of the main frame, requiring two screws to keep them in place.

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

Once everything is mounted onto the cage and the HU connected up the whole lot can be bolted into the car. Note the use of the factory screw locations.

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

All that is left to do is put the heater vents in on top of the Double DIN chassis as per the factory way and then screw/clip the fascia plate itself into position.

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

There is of course one catch left. The heater panel relocation. The part supplied by Enfig will not fit our cars due to it being a left-hand-drive part

Sony XAV-AX100 installation by Charlieboy, on Flickr

What this means is Ms. Merkel had been meddling things for us long before Brexit! Basically, the heater panel curves differently. It' curves into a tighter line on the driver's side for each country. For people who drive on the right side of the road on the left (see what I did there?), it curves in tighter towards the bottom on the right. For people who drive on the wrong side it curves into the left. You can guess which side this panel curves into! But it is not the end of the world.

You can either buy this panel with an ashtray from BMW or without like the one above. You can also modify the original panel to accept the heater control unit (HCU) Basically you cut in two slots into the panel where the clips are on the bottom of the HCU. You will have a 3mm gap however between the HU and the switch panel once it is installed but it is one way to save cash here. Given how tired these panels get in E46s it is probably worth sourcing a new item.

And that is it! Besides mounting the microphone in a desired location like the steering column panel or up on the windscreen the job is done! And doesn't it look good and give you much improved usability? If you don't like Apple Maps Sony do sell a Sat-Nav module to plug into this HU for £180. It uses TomTom maps.

For the Android users this HU does also do Android Auto. I have yet to try that since my phone is obviously fruit based. I've got to get one of my 5-a-day y'no!

All in, this is another solution out there for people considering a Double DIN installation without alot of fabrication and with a good chunk of flexibility regarding the head unit.

That's all for now folks!

There is more to discuss and there is a difference in sound quality and what you can do with the sound between the HUs. But that is beyond the scope of this subject and possibly even the forum.

[DarrenC87]

Can I still in stall a touch screen radio when my heater unit looks like this?

Where do I relocate this to??

[J8 SVG]

Why don't you just fix a small android tablet with an Aux cable running to your current stereo? Get one with cheap data sim and you'll have all the apps and no need to hack your console to pieces or buy new heater controllers

[SebringMan]

DarrenC87 said:

Can I still in stall a touch screen radio when my heater unit looks like this?

Where do I relocate this to??

Mine started out like yours bit with a Single DIN Business Tape Player:

It then looked like yours but it was more of a faff to fit mine ; I have Harman Kardon and wanted to used RCA Low level inputs for the amp:

Pre-carplay by Charlieboy, on Flickr

You'll put your HVAC control panel where the sunglasses cubby hole is in the lower part, like I have. You can either modify what you have (cut in two slots behind it) so that it locates but you'll have a 3mm gap between the heater panel and the centre console/ashtray, like I have now. You can of course fill that.

The other choice is to get a new Ashtray/centre console bit from BMW. They're about £70-80 IIRC. Metra do one in as good a quality for alot less but to my knowledge it's for LHD cars only.

The HVAC panel is easy to locate down to there.

J8 SVG said:

Why don't you just fix a small android tablet with an Aux cable running to your current stereo? Get one with cheap data sim and you'll have all the apps and no need to hack your console to pieces or buy new heater controllers

There comes the faff of mounting it, and sharing stuff between two devices as well as remembering when to turn your diverting off etc. I debated doing the same but it seems that you save a bit of cash and time initially for quite a bit of faffing around.

Of course you could plug your phone in and use that but that comes with its own problems...