Satnav - Am I being thick?!

[LightForce]

Hi, have an '02 M3, 16:9 satnav, all I am trying to do (!) is fit a Dension gateway to acess my iPod. I've had it out - removed the trim, the vents, fiddled about and have the whole unit removed. It has 2 plugs into it, both same size, 10 pins each, one blue, one white. Nothing I've tried seems to persuade these to mate with the loom I got... is there something deep down in the bowels I haven't reached yet? Have had the aircon board out and couldnt find anything else... anyone got any suggestions, or have I truly got the connectors and I need a different loom/adaptor?

Thanks in advance, its driving me mad!!!

[MarkwG]

Mine's an e39 5 rather than an e46 3, which I guess yours is - I believe they're the same, in which case the front part is just the control panel & screen, with either a single CD player or a casstette - the brains of the outfit is elsewhere, probably in the boot. I suspect that's where you'll find the connections you're after. Any of the dedicated 3 series forums shoudl be able to point you in the right direction.

[PeterNem]

I expect the connectors you refer to will need to be inserted into one of the quad lock connectors going into one of the modules in the boot so the Dension unit and iPod will need to live here.

Does the unit you have allow control through the existing BMW interface... as getting to the iPod while driving if it lives here isn't going to work.

[Slurms]

doesnt it attach to the cd changer cable in the boot, behind the left hand trim panel?

[PeterNem]

The dension unit I used to have before I had an intravee came with the connectors to replace the cd changer connectors within the quadlock plug (basically the other end of the CD changer cables, so same thing, just at a different place) although this was a quite early gateway 100 about 4 years ago.

[john_p]

The CD changer cables are two small ones, IIRC 2-pin and 4-pin, so if it's 2x 10-pin it will probably go into the radio module which is behind the LHS boot trim somewhere at the bottom of the 'stack'

[LightForce]

Thanks a lot for your replies; I took the day off yesterday to avoid ripping anything apart in frustration!

I'll have a look in the boot, as you say, hopefully there'll be a quadlock(?) in there I'll plug into.

The instructions were sparse to say the least, and I assumed the quadlock would attach direct to the head unit... you know what they say about assuming!

Thanks again

[Nords]

LF,

This isn't going to help much, as Wellsway Bath fitted it and I don't have Satnav (less a very ligthweight Tomtom)! However I have a dension which is connected to the front in my CSL. The iPod sits on a cradle just next to the business radio so the connections must be there somewhere. Satnav and the std radio can't be that different can they?...

[PeterNem]

They're totally different in that having Sat Nav moves all the components (other than the display itself) to the boot. The screen is just a screen, that's it. The radio tuner, Sat nav module, TV tuner etc all live in the boot.

[Nords]

Cheers Peter, sounds like my option of iPod on quietly so I can hear the induction howl, business CD and a Tomtom is the way forward!