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2003 530i must be E39 right? if it has TV unit already installed the GPS change is reasonably simple.(half a day job) I have 1999 E46 328i and Jochen converted it for me and I love it! As far as I know Jochen is in Europe and not coming back to NZ at this stage. However 'Hotwire' at this forum knows how to convert it as well.(not sure whether he still does the job or not though) you should contact him. I have my one converted to MK3 unit but the most updated one is MK4 unit. Main differences are that MK4 uses DVD while MK3 uses CD and MK4 is alot faster and allow bit more customization of the navigation program. In North America and Europe, DVD unit is really good as whole map can be stored in one DVD rather than 3-4 CDs, but here in NZ, our map data is only about 100mb in size so there is no difference between CD and DVD. The cost of conversion used to be around $900-1000 for MK3 and somewhere between $1400-$2000 for MK4 last year but of course you need to check it with Jochen or Hotwire. I think these costs are very cheap as the MK unit itself costs almost equal to that if you search E-bay. I think we are very lucky to have someonelike Jochen and Hotwire in NZ as it would cost, as you mentioned, well over $6000 to have a nav unit from BMW dealers. (that's if they know how to do it.)

I saw a guy who converted RHD to LHD in Korea on his E39 on one of Korean BMW forum. However it seems that it's a difficult and somewhat expensive job to complete. Probably it will be better just to drive RHD vehicle in Korea. As far as I know, there are no restrictions on driving RHD vehicle in Korea. You will just find it difficult when it comes to the picking up the ticket at toll gates(most of motorways are toll road in Korea) and parking lot. And I'm sure the insurance premium will be more expensive if you drive RHD BMWs.

Whatever you buy, I strongly recommend you to get one with touch-screen function. It's really easy and safe as well. we know that we should not touch the machine while we are driving a car but we also know that most of us will do that anyway and the one with touch-screen function is alot safer and easier than the one that doesn't have it. I personally use BMW navsystem installed by Jochen and very happy with it. But I always wish I have touch screen function on my navsystem.

Hi, Thanks for the answers. One other thing that I wanted to ask was what sort of engine oil should I use for my car?(1999 E46 328i) Any particular brand? They use some cheap oil and it only costs me $6/litre or something. I don't mind spending more money.

Hi, I got E46 328i. It has car service reminder feature which tells me that I'm due for the servicing after certain kilometres. Anyway, last time when it was re-set the car was telling me that I need to get a service after 25000km, however I need to have my car serviced every 15000km as it is the minimum requirement for my car warranty and I plan to have it serviced every 10000km anyway. Can anyone tell me why the car says that I need it every 25000km and what's the point of having that function if I need to have it done every 10000-15000km anyway. My garage charges me $30 for resetting the switch and I don't see any reason why I should do that. Is it alright not to reset the switch? or is there any way that I can set the switch so it gives me more realistic servicing period? Cheers,

may be because our market is small. I hope new BMWs are as cheap as it is in USA. but we can't compare us to Americans. They are HUGE and it's the market where all sorts of car manufactures are competing each other. It's a country of abundance. I am originally from Korea and I know that new BMW sales volume there is about 10 times greater than NZ but their new BMW prices are not any cheaper than what we pay here. However recently BMW Korea dropped down their price by around 20% and their sales volume is alot higher than Lexus and Mercedes now.(these are 3 most popular luxury brands in Korea) Maybe one day, BMW NZ may realize that too and drop the price. I think it's one of those things that we have to suffer by living in a small country. But hey... we got the freshest and cleanest air and water in the world. And of course we got the best and the most beautiful roads to enjoy driving BMWs!

It will be easier to get something like DICE or Icelink. I have 99 E46 and currently using DICE which has connection for my IPOD and AUX input. Some other DICE models also allow you to use CD changer in addition to IPOD and AUX. I know some people who made AUX input themselves but as I remember it was not possible on earlier models of E46s. (Not 100% sure about this though).

It's my old TV tuner. I found out that it's just how it is with my old TV tuner. I need to buy a newer one to solve the problem. Thanks for your help hotwire. Cheers,

Yes. No matter how long I wait it doesn't show the picture from the camera. Even when car is running with screen on nav it doesn't show anything(i mean it switches to blank screen). However as soon as I go into TV mode everything works fine no matter which screen I am on. I've tried everything that I can think of but no luck. I think TV should be switched on to enable 'RV camera video in' to work as well. When TV is not switched on, only the activation switch 17 works without showing the 'RV camera video in' to the screen. may be because my TV tuner unit is old one that doesn't support automatic start of the TV tuner when the system boots up?

I must be wrong about the fuse. Anyway I managed to make it all work again but there is a strange thing. When I start the car and change to reverse gear I only get black screen. However if I switch on TV then change to reverse I get a picture from camera. It seems that it's not switching to video in 2 when I'm not on TV screen at the very beginning. However once it starts to show the picture from camera, it works fine whether I'm on TV or nav or menu. It's always when I start the car that the screen doesn't show the camera picture. Anyone knows why?

While I was connecing the 12V power and ground to my camera, I accidentally connected to the wrong spot and blew up the fuse for the audio/nav unit. I found the fuse and replaced it and it's working alright but I decided to get a power source from reverse light power rather than from nav unit. Anyway, I connected everything and it was working perfect last night. This morning, it didn't work again and after checking few things I managed to find the poor connection for camera's power. While I was reconnecting it I made a stupid mistake again and saw the electrical spark and it was the reverse light fuse that was blown up. However the reverse light was still working. I don't understand why reverse light is still working while the fese was blown up and the camera wasn't working. After changing the fuse for the reverse light everything working alright again. But can anyone give me an explanation on why the reverse light is working while the fuse was blown up and the camera wasn't working? All this car electrical staff are so fun!

Is it the one that goes to the red connector of nav unit? And can i connect the camera to any ground wire? It seems that they work even when I connect the ground wire to the matal body of the car itself. So the ground must be just any place in the car where the electricity can flow.

Search trademe. I remember seeing auction there few month ago. However I ended up ordering it directly from USA as it was alot cheaper doing it that way. I know that the currency rate is not as good right now but i'm sure that it will be still cheaper. I installed DICE on my E46 and love it!

some people were saying that it takes few seconds for the camera to start so i'm thinking of putting a camera on stand by all the time so i can get a picture as soon as i change to reverse gear.

Hi, I'm installing back up camera for my 99 E46 328 sedan. The camera will need 12V 300mA. Where is the best place to connect this for the power supply? I want the camera to be on when the key position is in 1 or above. Thanks.

Try this website, this shows your computer's IP address. www.myIPaddress.com

Just to update on my progress on ICE... As I wrote earlier I've managed to connect AV in and can watch divx, etc on TV screen. However the fact that the sound is only mono was bugging me... alot. While I was trying to connect reverse camera AV in I figured it out that the music(stereo Ipod music from DICE or any other source) still plays when the AV in is switched to reverse camera. So I thought... if I don't use reverse camera and connect the pin 17 of blue adapter(the activation wire) to some kind of switch then I will be able to watch movies by turning the switch on and the sound will be stereo! So I've connected my Divx video out to reverse camera video in and audio out to the DICE unit. And the wire from pin 17 was connected to the one side of the switch(one that I dismantled from my old computer's power supply unit) and the other side of the switch is then connected to the ground. So when I turn the swtich on I can watch the movie with stereo sound and all I need to do to go back to normal screen is just turning the switch off. By using this method I can't use the reverse camera(unless you connect the camera to the other AV in and change the TV channel to AV every time when you reverse!) but I am happy that I can have stereo sound with my divx player. Do you think there will be any problem with this setting? obviously the pin 17 is designed to be activated for reverse camera, and in unsual situations it will only be activated when car is on reverse gear but in my case I'm activating it whenever I play the movie and it may be left activated for few hours. Will there be any kind of electrical issues? Thanks.

Thanks again! I managed to wire AV in and now can watch Divx, etc. However I am still struggling finding reverse lights wire. I found bunch of wires taped together and know that one of them is the wire for the reverse light but I don't know which one it is among them. Anyway, I'm happy that AV in is working and will worry about reverse camera later. One other thing is, while I was doing this job today battery was gone flat and I could not start the car. I think it happend as I played movies and left my car door opened for around 40-50min(hence the light was on). Does the battery go flat this fast? All seemed to be working though except TV screen and the engine start. Anyway, I jump started the car using the battery from my other car and after that it seems to be working fine. Do you think I should get my battery checked? Anyway, thanks so much for your help here and also from other international bimmer related websites! Everytime when I searched the article at bimmerboard.com I could see your name easily! Cheers! quote name='jochen' date='Jun 30 2007, 10:06 PM' post='127845'] Yes, TV tuner has AV-in and AV-out and Reverse-Camera-In AV-in can be any format, AV-out is whatever the TV is currently doing (mostly PAL here) To activate the reverse camera, you need to connect one wire to ground. The easy way is to do this is add a relay to the reverse lights, the relay then switches the activation wire to ground. NOTE: the reverse camera must be NTSC, and ideally a mirror-image cam. You can order these online from various places.

Thanks Jochen! I did not realized that the tv tuner has the existing AV in. Regarding reverse camera, do I just need to add cables to the tv tuner? Are there any other wires that I need to connect so it only works when I'm on reverse gear?

Have you guys heard of auxillary power adaptor? It basically plugs into the flashlight outlet in the glove box. So instead of getting power from cigarette jack adaptor and show all the wires, everything can be stored inside the glove box. This is available as a genuine BMW part with the item no 82110004073. I don't know where I can get this from though. Does anyone know where I can get this from? Is any one using this? Does it work well?

Thanks for your help with questions I had last time. I found icemag forum very helpful as well. While I was researching I came across the word 'DSP' regarding my audio unit. What does it stand for? Dolby surround processor is the only term i can think of. Am i right? How do I know if my 99 328i jap nav unit is DSP or not? I found this thing calle Blitzsafe's BMW/AUX DMX V.1 and depends on whether I have DSP or not I need to order different thing. It says "Blitzsafe's BMW/AUX DMX V.1 allows you to easily add one auxiliary source to the factory CD Changer port. Virtually a plug-n-play installation, you can quickly add a portable MP3 or DVD player, satellite radio or any auxiliary sound source to most 1996 through 2004 BMW factory radio (see specific applications listed below). This device plugs into the two pre-wired CD changer connectors (1 is a 3-pin; 1 is a 6-pin connector) in the rear of the vehicle." So as long as I can connect CD changer in my car I also can connect this thing to my car as well i think. Thanks guys.

Thanks for your help guys. I found nzicemag.co.nz very helpful.

Hi, I don't have much knowledge on car electornics, ICE systems. However I know how to assemble desktop computers and think that it's not going to be too different from that.(hopefully!) Anyway, I looked at some websites on installing divx/mp3 player on my BMW so I can watch and listen to it on my navigation screen and original stereo system. The divx/mp3 player i'm interested in buying is something like this. One that you can put a hard-drive in. I also found this thing called G-Net Nav Video - Video Interface on http://www.advancedice.com.au. It seems that I can connect the player into this video interface thing. Then I can install Dvix/mp3 player somewhere on glove box then connect it to G-Net Nav Video which will be installed inside the trunk above the navigation unit. However it does not support any audio input. I do not use BMW cd changer, so I think I can connect divx/mp3 player to cd changer audio input. But i don't know how to. Is it simple to do that? Do you know any website I can find more info about it? Also, how do I get a power supply for the divx/mp3 player. It says it is DC powered. I drive 1999 E46 328i which has a Jap navigation unit. Plan to get NZ unit in near future but at the moment, divx/mp3 is the priority. Please give me as much advice as possible. As I mentioned, i don't know much about all these things. All I want to do is watching divx videos and listening MP3 musics on origianl navigation screen and stereo system(no through FM transmitter or tape though). Thanks guys!

You can get example questions easily. You can buy it or go to local library to borrow it. Questions are reasonably easy and NZ road rules are very similar to AUS rules. I had a chance to see AUS driver's license written test paper and got all the questions right without doing any studies. Good luck and have a great time in Auckland!

Got my 1999 BMW 328i about a month ago. Used to drive 94 Honda Integra 1.6 sedan and never worried about car thieves. I am living in Levin for 3 years but visited my parents in Blockhouse bay, Auckland and this happened last night. Nothing valuable was left in my car and so nothing was stolen. There were 5 cars and only two were broken into. Anyway, I'm thinking of installing an alarm. Will it help to prevent my car being broken into in future? Any recommendations? Should I report it to police just to let them know? (I know that they won't do much) My mother's car was broken into as well few months ago and it seems that it's very common around here. Nothing was stolen and my insurance is covering the cost but feels so stink! Next time I am definitely flying up to Auckland!