E46 bluetooth/aux streaming help

[Mr-B]

I have an E46 2004 with standard Siemens Business CD head unit and factory bluetooth phone setup, the BT only works for phone calls but I wanted to be able to stream music from my android phone too. I seem to be going round in circles looking at after market units, aux cables, FM transmitters etc. I did see a hack somewhere online (and can't find it now) where someone had got the BT phone unit to play music albeit at pizpoor quality through the BT speaker and thought that might be OK for podcasts, but ideally I would like a decent setup using the existing head unit and speakers but not interfering with the existing phone BT.

Anyone got a solution?

[Mr-B]

Thanks for the replies. Some good stuff to look into there.

Just for clarification my unit has the single CD slot in the dash not the 6 CD changer.

[Mr-B]

Thanks for the info folks, seems to be quite a few ways to skin a cat! Still going through the options above. I was against the idea of faffing about taking the head unit out and/or drilling holes, I am a lazy sod at heart and wanted a plug and play type of option (the FM transmitters had that appeal but there seems to be a right mixed bag of how good they really are. I had an MP3 player quite a few years ago with built in FM tans and it worked very well indeed but the screen has since broken and the transmit option was down in a sub menu somewhere which I will never be able to find)

The grom does look quite neat but pricey compared to some of the others, I was looking for a cheap option cos I'm tight and the car is a bit sheddy now so doesn't really warrant a bigger investment sadly, I do enough of that at MOT time. As above poster said I have BT phone installed already and that works perfectly OK so it was just streaming music and podcasts direct from the phone preferably via BT, but looks like I need to consider some wires of some variety.

[Mr-B]

smn159 said:

Appreciate that this won't help, given that you want to keep the existing head unit and have an Android phone, but I found that a Sony XAV-AX3005 unit fits perfectly, and provides you with DAB and Apple Car Play;

Not quite the plug and play I had in mind Does look smart though.

[Mr-B]

helix402 said:

twokcc said:

Cheapest way is going to be to install an Aux inthen use Aukey or Bc10 bluetooth adapter- or an others (total less than £25)

This youtube video showing how I did mine aux in in cigarette tray- could just route cable thro glasses case if don't want to go to trouble of removing window switch trim. Relatively easy just have to remove dash trim and head unir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgLiHz1GiNE

Then just plug whichever bluetooth adapter in cig lighter and aux -pair device- theni get sound thro car speakers. with radio input set on Aux
Sound comes thro all 4 speakers on Aux unlike my 2009 E91 which only plays thro front speakers.

Not exactly plug and play but once installed can just leave adapter connected .The Cig lighter does seem to be permanently on so not sure how much current adapter will draw when car switched off

I leave my Bluetooth receiver plugged in permanently, no battery drain problems.

I saw that YT clip a few days ago and thought that was a bit of a pain then watched it again the other day and I'm warming to the idea combined with something like the BC10.

[Mr-B]

eezeh said:

AUX inputs will only work on stereos compatible with aux in!
https://e46radio.com/e46-cd-models/
check out that link and select the brand of your radio.
The benefit of the grom kit is ease of installation, they are plug and play! Can be found cheap every now and then on ebay.
They are also plug and play as long as you get the harness for whatever car you switch to.

Cheers for that. Car was reg'd Sept 04, so should be OK, will see if I can find a CD with MP3 files on it and try it in the CD player before ripping out bits of the dash trim.

[Mr-B]

helix402 said:

You can also add an aux in via a cable that connects where the a.changer plugs in on the older factory radios.

Looks like mine is a month too old, it has a PH.... code and dated 06-04 so a month too old! Ar$e!

You say there is a different cable that can overcome this? Or same cable connected differently?

[Mr-B]

twokcc said:

Found this to tell you how to get software version from your actual head unit without removing it

Here's how:

1. Turn Radio Off.
2. Turn Radio On.
3. Press and hold the "m" button for about 10 seconds.
4. Press < or > to navigate, you will need to go to the 2nd screen to look for the SW Verison which is in a SV xx-xx xx format.
5. To be Sirius/AUX or XM compatible, the radio must be SW 43 or higher.
6. Turn radio off to exit.

from https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=595...

Tried that came up with SN P(7 digit number), when holding the m button it came up with that and the <> didn't do anything.

I have had a look at the back of the unit and it looks very similar to the one in the YT clip mentioned earlier, so I think it may be OK.

[Mr-B]

I went with an aux input cable in the end, but there is an issue. I plugged the aux in the back of the HU and tested it, when cycling through the mode it went from radio to cd to aux without anything plugged into the female end of the lead. Plug a phone in to that and I lose the aux option it reverts back to radio and mode button only gives CD or radio

I know the YT video said you need to have something plugged into the lead for aux to show up but mine was showing aux without anything plugged in the other end.

Any ideas?

[Mr-B]

twokcc said:

Just been and checked mine unlike the youtube video I don't need to have anything plugged into the aux input for the head unit to cycle thro Radio/CD/Boot Cd/Aux. So same as yours no idea why yours disappears when lead plugged into Aux in. Is it the same with/without the other end of the lead plugged into phone?
Cant remember has yours got the boot CD changer and have you left that connected after adding Aux in cable connector on back of head unit? - think it is possible to put Aux in lead onto wrong pins this this is covered in video

I'll try just plugging a jack into the female connector and leaving the phone off tomorrow. I'll have another look at the YT clip again tomorrow.
Mine has just the single slot, no multi changer in the boot.
The fact that aux is showing up has to be a positive sign but just can't understand why when trying to send a signal into it the thing disappears.

[Mr-B]

Just tried it again both right way and upside down. Upside down doesn't work at all, right way up in the left socket gives the same problem, aux is there but as soon as I connect the phone the aux option disappears.

Also noticed that after about 10 seconds of the radio playing the display just reverts to the clock display but the radio continues to play sound.

Edited by Mr-B on Monday 2nd December 15:40

[Mr-B]

This is the connector block that goes onto the back of the head unit. The aux goes through the bit with the blue stripe, marked with a red box. The connector is the same as the 10 pin block just to the right of the red square.



Back of the head unit aux connector block goes into right hand block of pins marked with red square.



Looking online there does seem to be issues with these connectors being a bit flakey but I haven't yet come across anyone that has this issue of seeing the aux option when the cable is connected but empty/unconnected at the female end and then losing the aux option when connected to phone or even another unconnected cable.

I have sent a message to the Amazon vendor see if they have any ideas.

[Mr-B]

Vendor thinks it may not be compatible with my car, hhmm.... it should be though I think they are a fairly standard item for most E46 vehicles. They've issued a refund already so can't fault their customer service.

Back to square one. Do I try another supplier? Go down a different route?

[Mr-B]

The connector block was connected (as per the red square) which is in the extreme left of the unit as if you were looking at the front of it, so nearest the passenger side.

Been tearing my hair out with this (and I don't have much to start with) some sources say my unit is not compatible others says it is
The SV is 26-04 600 so it should work. Aux does appear and then disappear and there is evidence that the wire needs capacitors and resistors soldered in somewhere? I have seen some cables with a black piece in the middle like this



mine doesn't have that and I'm wondering if that is the missing piece of the puzzle?

[Mr-B]

Mine has a slightly different connector and yours does have the black block.. hhmm

This is my 10 pin connector



Worth a punt on a different cable maybe.

[Mr-B]

twokcc said:

Think this was mine

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-3-5mm-Female-Audio-...

Has capacitor?

Tried another cable very similar to yours with the black block in the middle of the cable, even the amazon review said if you have tried other cables that didn't work this one will, well it didn't. Didn't get the aux option at all, with the phone plugged in or not. At least I got aux from the previous cable which should mean it is aux capable.

Anyone any ideas why I lose aux as soon as the phone is connected?

[Mr-B]

Another cable incoming, 3rd time lucky? If this one doesn't work I will probably go back to the original cable that gave me aux option until something was plugged into it and fix resistors/capacitors to it and see if that works. Anyone any ideas how to connect resistors without a soldering iron?

[Mr-B]

Percy Verance delivered! Finally a working cable. Will work out where to route it tomorrow, it was getting dark when I tested the cable.

[Mr-B]

Got it working but the volume on aux setting is quite low even with the phone volume turned up, I can't see a menu on the radio to set the aux volume separately (just the normal volume knob) so when I turn the volume up when it reverts to radio it's excessively loud. There did appear to be some info online about there being a specific aux volume control in a menu but I couldn't find it. Do those apps to increase phone volume work or are there any good ones?

[Mr-B]

twokcc said:

Not sure if it will change the actual input volume but with Aux set as input press and hold music key, this allows altering speed etc volume.

Tried that but it had no effect on the aux volume, it seemed to only bring up the speed volume. I did find a music app which has a bass boost and an amplifier which was a bit of an improvement but when I use the amp to turn up the volume it changes the equalizer settings. I will have to have another look to see if i can fix that issue and then it will be ideal.