E39 infotainment/nav repairs or aftermarket upgrades?

[RoverP6B]

Having spent the last eight masochistic years in E39s, with an engine failure in the first and a gearbox failure in the second, I've just bought this bd thing. 540i Touring, mega spec, mega mileage, not much money. Yeah, I know, I'm daft, but God help me, I love the bloody things. Drives beautifully, apart from a droning wheel bearing and clonking front damper top mounts, but the radio/nav is ste - and that's when it works at all, which is very briefly on damp mornings following a blue moon...


It appears to be a Mk4 system of some kind, but it's truly woeful and rarely functions at all. Even when it does work, it's dreadful. Is this repairable to a decent standard, or is there anything I can replace it with, that isn't too much work? I want to keep it looking reasonably OEM but get something that actually works and sounds OK. The nav doesn't bother me as I've never had it before and never felt the need to use it, I reckon it's just a distraction from driving (and the robotised voice always reminds me of paranoid aircraft GPWS), but I do want a decent sound system. CD changer in the boot is dead too - not sure if it's the unit itself or a symptom of the problem with the radio head unit. I've got a spare changer unit from my old E46 that I've been meaning to get round to trying, but there's probably not much point considering I can't get sound out of the radio 99% of the time.

[Depthhoar]

This guy does that sort of repair work (upgrades also possible):

http://www.carphonics.co.uk/bmw.htm

[Mike335i]

What about something cheap and chearful like one of these

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

Looks relatively OEM but far more modern features.

[E-bmw]

Mike335i said:

What about something cheap and chearful like one of these

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

Looks relatively OEM but far more modern features.

Had one similar to this in mine, they are all much-of-a-muchness and do the job pretty well really, cheap as chips if a little dim-witted in certain respects they are fine for the money.

[Helicopter123]

RoverP6B said:

Having spent the last eight masochistic years in E39s, with an engine failure in the first and a gearbox failure in the second, I've just bought this bd thing. 540i Touring, mega spec, mega mileage, not much money. Yeah, I know, I'm daft, but God help me, I love the bloody things. Drives beautifully, apart from a droning wheel bearing and clonking front damper top mounts, but the radio/nav is ste - and that's when it works at all, which is very briefly on damp mornings following a blue moon...


It appears to be a Mk4 system of some kind, but it's truly woeful and rarely functions at all. Even when it does work, it's dreadful. Is this repairable to a decent standard, or is there anything I can replace it with, that isn't too much work? I want to keep it looking reasonably OEM but get something that actually works and sounds OK. The nav doesn't bother me as I've never had it before and never felt the need to use it, I reckon it's just a distraction from driving (and the robotised voice always reminds me of paranoid aircraft GPWS), but I do want a decent sound system. CD changer in the boot is dead too - not sure if it's the unit itself or a symptom of the problem with the radio head unit. I've got a spare changer unit from my old E46 that I've been meaning to get round to trying, but there's probably not much point considering I can't get sound out of the radio 99% of the time.

what have they done to that steering wheel?

[markirl]

One of those ebay headunits is probably your best shout. Well done on the purchase!

[RoverP6B]

Helicopter123 said:

what have they done to that steering wheel?

As far as I know, it came like that from the factory. There's a massive file of invoices from new concerning the car, and that wheel is on the options list, not on any subsequent bill.

Mike335i said:

What about something cheap and chearful like one of these

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

Looks relatively OEM but far more modern features.

How plug'n'play are these? Looks OK but if it's going to be a ton of work to get it in and working...

[E-bmw]

They are easy enough if a bit fiddly to get steering wheel controls and other options set up, not a problem if you are reasonably computer literate and you wouldn't be here if you weren't.

[Xaero]

I got a similar thing as above for my E39 too.

I thought it was pretty good for the money, they occasionally come down a little in price on Amazon's lightning deals too. There are a few different brands, but the one I bought just had a sticker on the front (a wonky one!) saying the company I bought it off, they are all the same underneath.

Like this one I prefer Amazon's option to return it if you're not happy than deal with an eBay seller too.

The only problem I had was having to grind a little off the provided bracket to get it to sit right. The wiring only goes in one way so difficult to balls up.

[E-bmw]

Xaero said:

The wiring only goes in one way so difficult to balls up.

And there is another point of note - There are 2 different types of plug/socket arrangement on the rear of the standard e39 units (maybe others too) so you will need to remove it first to check you get the right one.

[RichardM5]

If you want to replace the OEM Nav with the after market options you will need a long loom that goes from the radio module in the boot to the dash. The connections that are in the dash just connect the monitor to the Nav computer and don't have any speaker connections.

Your radio will either have round pins (older) or flat pins (newer), with a Mk IV Nav you will almost certainly have flat pins. In the saloon the radio module is located on the left side of the boot, just behind the rear light cluster. In the Touring it's located under the fixed part of the boot floor behind the back seat.

[E-bmw]

RichardM5 said:

If you want to replace the OEM Nav with the after market options you will need a long loom that goes from the radio module in the boot to the dash.

You don't, it uses it's own radio, amp & GPS not the BMW stuff.

[sparks85]

E-bmw said:

RichardM5 said:

If you want to replace the OEM Nav with the after market options you will need a long loom that goes from the radio module in the boot to the dash.

You don't, it uses it's own radio, amp & GPS not the BMW stuff.

It does use it's own tech but (in my E46 at least) you need the extension harness to the boot to run to the HK amp.

[RichardM5]

E-bmw said:

RichardM5 said:

If you want to replace the OEM Nav with the after market options you will need a long loom that goes from the radio module in the boot to the dash.

You don't, it uses it's own radio, amp & GPS not the BMW stuff.

You do, because all the speaker connections are in the boot. You remove the radio in the boot and need to plug your new head unit into the existing car loom. I guess if you're happy with the head unit in the boot then you don't need the extension.

[E-bmw]

OK, mine must have already had that done then as I just needed to connect a harness adaptor loom behind the previous unit (this was non-standard head unit which could explain why) into the new one.

[RichardM5]

If the car originally did not have a Nav unit, then it's a more normal setup. So converting a non Nav car to after market Nav is easy, converting a Nav car to after market Nav is more difficult. If the car has DSP, then that's a whole load more pain!

[RoverP6B]

The unit here is original factory fit. Dealing with replacing bits of wiring loom and such sounds like more than I can cope with - are there people around who're used to doing this kind of thing? As for DSP, I haven't a bloody clue, what even is that?

[RichardM5]

RoverP6B said:

The unit here is original factory fit. Dealing with replacing bits of wiring loom and such sounds like more than I can cope with - are there people around who're used to doing this kind of thing? As for DSP, I haven't a bloody clue, what even is that?

DSP is Digital Sound Processor, it's the high end audio system. If you have it there will be an option on the main menu of the Nav screen for it.

[bolide]

The BM54 amp suffers with problems with the built-in power amp chips. The most straightforward way to deal with it is to remove the amp, fit 2 or 4 phono sockets wired to the line-level points before the power amp and install an external amplifier. Buy a SOT (Sound On Top) cable, plug between the amp & the loom and modify it to feed the outputs of the amp to the speakers

You don't modify the loom or the car in any way, you have a nice, powerful external amp and the car can be put back to standard in 2 mins. The big advantage is that everything works as it did before

An amp will cost you £60-80 s/hand, a SOT cable about £20 and the amp mods about £10 if you're handy with a soldering iron. Mine was a DIY setup

Nick Froome

[RoverP6B]

I'll be honest and up-front about this: I am not confident about working on my car's electronics, and would rather leave it to a professional. I don't think it's the kind of work my usual indy (MJF in Beare Green) does, he's an oily-bits mechanic (and a bloody good one at that), but hates anything electronic with a vengeance (especially newer BMWs). So can anyone recommend a specialist in old BMW in-car electronics?