Jimakaze

I’m looking at doing the retrofit of cruise control to my 2012 E84 X1. There is a part 1 youtube video on swapping out the steering wheel squib to one with a cruise control stalk on a E87 130i. Part 2 is the coding but I can’t find that. The author of part 1 claims thats he’s never had to fit modules but I’m dubious, especially as I can’t find part 2 which was supposed to be done by the BMW Doctor. Anyway I’m going to give it a go. I’ve located a wrecked E84 with cruise control so I can get a suitable steering wheel squib. https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwitq5Hc15P6AhWCieYKHYLzBlEQwqsBegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXl9tRhfOYbk&usg=AOvVaw2jplT7LvNF48aWoysftKVs

Hi. When I was last here I had a 1999 NZ New 740i. I did a few retro fit projects with in car navigation, rear dash subs, upgraded amps. I sold it a few years ago. I was Jimbo01, no idea why I’m On a different profile. My daughter has a 2008 E87 130i which my wife loves it so she wanted a similar BMW to replace her 2005 Mercedes Benz SLK280. So we got her one but we then decided we should keep the SLK so I sold my 2007 Mercedes Benz ML500. I still have a VW Passat CC 3.6 V6 with 4Motion (currently on TM). The BMW we bought is a Japanese new E84 BMW X1 28i Xdrive MSport. The dealer in Auckland had it modified to NZ frequencies and NZ navigation but seems to have disabled the bluetooth phone integration - we seem to have the bluetooth unit in the boot. We briefly had both the ML500 and the X1. We called the ML Beast, so the X1 is Mini beast. I’m super impressed with the X1, it has a good amount of space for such a small package. Went great for our skiing holiday with the roof box on top. Much easier to access the roofbox than the ML, and I like getting 4km more for each litre of petrol. Things I’m looking to do to the X1: Retrofitting cruise control and am on the lookout for a E84 steering wheel squib with the cruise control stalk, and the lower steering column cover with the hole for the stalk. From what I understand it is plug and play, with programming needed. So I’ll be looking for advice / searching the site for anyone who is good at coding in Wellington. Sorting out the bluetooth phone integration. We are using a bluetooth adapter with the aux in. Adding a tow hitch with removable tow bar for an eBike carrier. I’m selling my Passat to fund an eBike. Changing the tyres for Pirelli P8 All Season. Dealer put it on new Hifly 805 tyres but they don’t rate well although its not urgent as they have not given us any issues. Maintenance on the X1: New spark plugs Transfer case service 1st service for 3 year warranty at 88,000km. New front windscreen Next is probably a transmission service at Hutt Automatics.

Just a quick post - bought one of those Airbag SRS reset tools on trademe. I triggered an alert when I was checking fuses. It just arrived so I followed instuctions, turned the key on, opened the bonnet, and connected it to the round interface to the right of the engine. Got cA up and hit enter. SRS Airbag light now off. If anyone needs this done in the Wellington region let me know. Jim

Thanks for the ideas. Turns out the output from rhe BMW radio is amplified / hi level. This was overloading the SSL pre-amp active crossover, and the Sony amps when connected directly. I sourced a high level to RCA adapter for $18 from Jaycar. Wired it in and its all now working. Only problem is that the Sony Amp doesn't drive the Kicker subs hard enough. I am going to bridge the output and drive 1 sub as this may sound better. Should have left my nice Pioneer amps in place and given my son the two Sony 2 channel speakers. If that works ok I will source a higher powered amp. Jim

I did install them myself in the end. No problems at all. Pioneer tweeter fitted in the door with a little trimming of plastic and hot glue. The woofer needed an 18mm spacer in the door and the OEM grill had to be removed. Note - the glove box does not clear the Pioneer woofer grill when the door is shut. Didn't bother with the rear door speakers in the end. Driving them with a better gruntier 75w RMS per channel amp through passive crossovers gave a cleaner sound.

A bit late on this. Id suggest taking a look at a 3rd generation Odyssey. I'm on my 3rd JDM 4WD Honda Odyssey. Got over 200,000km on the 1st 2. 1st was a 1996 2.2, 2nd was a 2001 V6, and the current one is a 2 4 Absolute. We picked it up for $6,800 last April. Bomus is that it has a real 5 speed auto, and a 2 4 litre 140kw engine. It had done 115k. Jim

I'm attending a week long ISO (International Standards Organisation) meeting in Hamilton. Its about IT Security. Quiet an eye opener on how much work goes into developing the standards that make the modern work wirk and protect our information. Getting to meet and network with people from all over the world who are experts on the different aspects. Rather than fly I decided it would be a great opportunity to given my E38 a run. I drove from Upper Hutt to Hamilton on Easter monday. 1st drive in a while so I had to get the AA to start it. Drove to Levin and stopped for petrol and bugger me it would not start again. AA to the rescue, a trip to Supercheap, $400 and a new battery got me on the road again. I'm driving home tomorrow evening so I'm hoping for a less eventful drive. Jim

All good things must come to an end over the new year break I removed my 2 Pioneer 4 channel amps from.my E38 and installed them in my sons Passat (all 8 speakers in the doors upgraded). This meant no sound in the E38. As I had never got arround to upgrading the rear door speakers I reconnected the rear speaker signal from the radio to the X605 connector, and reconnected the rear speakers to the X606 connector. All worked fine so last weekend I installed 2 Sony 2 way amps and an SSL active crossover. This is where I hit trouble. When I power on the car all the speakers are playing and it sounds great - for about 5 seconds - then the front speakers and subs stop making sound. I connected my phone using an aux cord to the input of the SSL active cross over and the crossover and amps are working perfectly. So I am faced with sone cutout operating in the BMW radio unit. I must admit being a little bemused. It work perfectly with all aftermarket amps, or all OEM amps, but not 1/2 and 1/2. Tomorrow I will diconnect the X605 connector taking the OEM amp out of the equation and try connecting the radio output signal back into the active cross over. The only thing I can think of is it is detecting some impedance mismatch and a protection circuit is activating. Fun for the weekend. If anyone know any tips I'd love to hear them. I'm not keen on pulling everything out to eyeball the radio hidden as it is behind the amp. Jim

There is what I believe to be incorrect information on the pins for these 2 connectors on the internet in different forums. The X605 connector is a 12 pin INPUT connector, the front and rear signal ouput from the Radio unit is input using this connector. It also has +12v, -12v, and the signal / auto on wire. Information on the internet incorrectly claims this connector is the output to the 4 woofers in the doors; and was advice I got from Jochlan on here back in 2009. The other connector X606 is the OUTPUT to all the 10 speakers, 3 in each front door, and 2 in each rear doors. The amp splits the frequencies for each speaker. Information on the internet incorrecly claims this connector takes the output from the radio as the input to the amp. In my E38 I bypassed the OEM amp, added two 4 channel amps. 1 to drive the speakers in the 4 doors using passive cross overs (the 3 ways on the front doors were replaced by high quality Pioneer 2 ways). The other to drive two 6 inch kicker subs in a modified OEM rear sub unit. My 2 amps and all my door speakers worked perfectly in this configuration. That would not happen if the wiring and pins were as claimed. Jim

I recently aquired a 2000 SLK230 Mercedes Benz which my daughter drives. She had no interest in the OEM tape deck and CD changer so I bought a mechless bluetooth Kenwood head unit for about $150. Installation was a breeze as the Merc has standard ISO connector for the stereo. It needed a Kenwood / JVC to ISO adapter (about $15 at Supercheap) and a Euro antenna adapter. Plug them in and push the unit into the dash and its finished. About 5 minutes work. No soldering, no wiring. It works fine with the OEM Bose amp and speakers. Tweeters and mids in the doors. Sub woofers behind the seat. Sound is really good. Going to do the same for my wifes SLK which has a 2006 Apline iPOD stereo in it - even displays cover art in colour - but no bluetooth. Jim

I had an issue with my daughters 2000 Mercedes Benz SLK230. It had no power. Did some checks and the compressor valve (think waste gate in a turbo) wasnt closing. Many owners have wasted lost of money trying to resolve the issue - there is often several error codes. The fix is rediculously simple. Inside the power distribution case on the left side ubder the bonnet is a black box full of relays. Remove it and take the cover off and check for dry joints. Solder any dry joints, out it back in and your car will be transformed. Btw the compressor valve is over $700. I've read of people replacing it and the ECU, and the relay board costing thousands. The trouble is oeople dont repair anymore - they replace. Jim

Hi - I've returned. I no longer can access my email account I created my previous account under so I had to create a new one. Crrently there are 5 cars registered to me. I still have my 99 BMW E38 740i. My wife still has her red SLK, and my daughter now has a silver SLK. My son has a VW Passat. Our daily driver is a 2004 Honda Odyssey Absolute 4WD. As usual the Honda seems to cost the most to maintain. I did a couple of projects which I've posted under my previous account. My Pioneer amps are now in my sons Passat. I'm trying to reuse the BMW Non DSP amp to power my rear speakers, and 2 Sony 2 channel amps to power the front speakers and the kicker subs. This is proving problamatic and I will post on this. One reason for posting is I've spotted some bad info on the stereo plugs for the E38 out there on other forums (blow stuff up bad) - or put it this way - it doesn't match the wiring in my car. I'm still in Upper Hutt. Still renovating my house. Still working at the Department of Internal Affairs as an All of Government Enterprise Architect. Jim