jochen

I havent checked what file format the maps are on the microSD, is it a common satnav file extension? Can I pull the maps say, off a TomTom and itll work?

There is no standard map format.

Every manufacturer makes their own optimised and proprietary format

You need to contact Dynavin.

GPS has been working fine since I have had the car but on the last 2 trips it has completely failed to get a lock on any satellites. It keeps thinking I am starting out somewhere where it seems to have been last used successfully and now keeps telling me "Return to the Planned Route"

How can I make it re-aqcuire the GPS Satellites?

If it is going to involve a major repair then it might be time to think about upgrading to the big screen version version (Mk11?). It might also fix my problem that most of my TV stations no longer come in very well and seem to have the "MUTE" message showing at the bottom of the screen....sigh

The GPS will always try to acquire satellites, you cannot stop that happening.

I would wait and observe for the next week.

Here in Europe I also have had 3 days in the last week where my GPS receiver has failled to acquire satellites, or had very large errors. It could be a temporary GPS disturbance, so wait and see is the best bet. Over the last 10 months the GPS was solid and reliable, so my GPS errors have only just started.

You can also observe the S/N levels in the service menu: for reliable GPS the S/N is between 8 and 15, and you should see around 6 satellites with good strong signal.

If you see signal levels on only around 1 to 3 then that is an indication of lots of atmospheric disturbance, and/or a weak GPS antenna.

Replacement GPS antennas are cheap, I've bought them on TradeMe for around $45

And if that doesn't work then replace the GPS receiver module inside the navigation computer. There's a dutch guy sells them online.

So to recap:

1. Observe, take notes, and wait one week

2. If you are convinced the GPS is poort, try a replacement antenna

3. And if that fails try a replacement receiver

EDIT: I just saw the photo. S/N levels of mean no signal whatsoever. Suspect that

a) antenna cable unplugged or

antenna faulty

Hi guys ... i just returned from Australia to find my '97 728i having a couple of issues.

The worst is my Right Hand Rear Indicator Light stays on.. even with the car off.

I have to disconnect a battery terminal to make it go out.

The worst thing is i have a month to get it registered and i took it for a warrant todayand after mucking around with a wire harness for a bit they ran outta time to sort it.. so it failed its warrant.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be ... they seem to think its a wire harness and want a crack at it on Monday ... but im not so sure ... could be a bunch of things really but i wanna try all avenues so any info would be great ..

If no-one has rewired any of the taillights then the cause can ONLY be a faulty LCM

If you have the ignition OFF and the light switch OFF then all lamps must also be OFF.

If a lamp stays on, it is getting power from somewhere, and the most likely fault is that the transistor on the output stage of the LCM that supplies that lamp, has failed.

If you have an electronics experience, you can diagnose and replace the transistor easily.

Otherwise, replace the LCM

CAUTION:

Coding of the new LCM to your vehicle is crucial!

The odometer and vehicle coding are stored in the LCM, fit one from another car, without coding to your vehicle and the odometer tamper light will come on, and the coding will likely be incorrect.

Coding of the replacement LCM to your car can only be done by original BMW software (or equivalent expert tools)

Does anyone know why new LED trailer lights would stop flashing the indicator when the brake is applied. These are american style lights (ie red coloured. brake/lights and indicator in one unit) There is one double plug - brown splits off to two further plugs, while there are three earth wires. All attached exactly as for the previous bulb light but now stop the indicator flashing when the brake goes on.

Likely you have wired them incorrectly, or it is a US-function for US lamps (did you get them from the US?)

Nope that kills the TV. Must need it for pass thru. Can anyone tell me if there is an adaptor to get round this problem, or does it require a bit of home electronics?

No it doesn't. You can unplug and discard the Jap nav at any time.

At next vehicle re-boot, the video module will notice the Jap nav is no longer present and will take over generating the graphics.

You just have to wait for reboot (key off, close and lock car, wait 15 minutes....)

It does open - just takes a while. So what would you recommend doing? Cheapest way I think is going to be getting a 2nd hand drivers lock unit and use a separate key to get into the car and the original to start the car.

Take it to Glenn and get him to fix it properly. It will be faster and likely more cost effective for you.

white yellow grey

tip: databus wires have 3 colours

In position two (first turn), the screen turns on and i have full control, as soon as i go to position three (second turn) then things start blanking out.

typical sysmptoms of

a) a flat battery, which cannot handle the extra load of the the engine etc when ign switch moved to Pos2. Many systems shut down under low voltage. Solution: charge the battery!

or

B ) a faulty ignition switch, where the contacts inside the switch are worn. Solution: replace the electrical part of the ign switch with a new (not 2nd hand) one. Easy and cheap. If you fit 2nd hand, you don't know how worn the 2nd hand switch is, and the problem may reappear a few days/months/years later.

Missing data on the board monitor display can be caused by a broken ibus connection to the ignition cluster - OR by corrupt data on the ibus due to poor ignition switch contacts (causing noise on the 12V line)

Symptoms point to bad ignition switch, as it is highly unlikely you would have an ibus physical wire problem as well as another problem at the same time.

Tip: wiggle the key when ignition is in Pos2: does it make the symptoms come and go, or change at all? If so, ignition switch is definitely worn and must be replaced.

Upon further inspection the unit works fine on the first turn key for the ignition, but to ACC or ON the unit blanks all out but the "turn monitor off" and "television" selections on the main menu... could this somehow be a coding issue, i never had any issues in the past?

Assuming the vehicle is an E39 540i:

Remember:

Steering Wheel controls only work with Ignition in Pos 2 (ON) position. They are not powered up when key is in Pos 1 (ACC)

If the nav system looses the ibus data connection, then the steering wheel controls will not work, the system will not be able to talk to the instrument cluster, and the trip computer menu item will disable after a period of time. All functions that require data from the instrument cluster will not be possible.

But Television and Navigation will still be displayed, as their ibus connections are in the same nav loom.

If your accessory position (Pos 1) on the ignition switch is faulty, then the board monitor will not turn on the display (ie: things will work but you won't see them). Check the text display on the instrument cluster to confirm that you are able to control radio, CD, etc.

So for the past year I have been experiencing flickering Xenons and I have not been able to track down what is causing it. It is both of them not just one so this suggests a short somewhere ??. Its also very very random , It will happen for a few days and then things could be fine for a few months then start doing it again. I don't want to start replacing expensive stuff if its not the contributing factor. I have been around all the earth points (I know of) and secured them. Checked all wiring I know of and that seems to be all ok ??. No errors showing up on a scan.

Possible loose solder joint in the lcm ?? , Any ideas anybody ??

Normally the ballast which is at fault.

Google "flickering xenon" for lots of info

Otherwise, it is simple End of Life for the bulbs. Replace the bulbs. Read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensit...amp#End_of_life

The sceen comes up with mute in green at bottom of screen

But no sound, somebody wrote on another bmw site that it would,nt play iphone through the av outlet

so put sony mp3 player same result. Thanks

The AV-IN plays any AV source

I had my iPod connected to it

You must have the TV settings the same (ie: PAL for device and for AV in) and you must have the wiring correct

The AV-in is a 3.5mm stereo socket, with:

Body=Ground

Ring=Video

Tip=Audio

Only mono audio, so connect Left and Right audio together for Mono.

Anyone here have the classic E39 vapor barrier issue? I've got water on the door sills (not inside the car, yet) and when I open the door after hard rain I get a bout a cup full of water which splashes out from somewhere onto the ground. The water seems to drip fairly fast from the door thereafter.

Some of the people based in the US have used silicone and 3M tape sealer to fix it.

I have two questions:

1. Anyone have a locally available product which would be good to use?

2. Anyone done this before and knows/has DIY/can show me how?

Yes, I had this on my E39 540i

Very easy to fix.

Arm yourself with the original BMW butyl rubber sealant strip - cheap from BM Workshop. So cheap that you wouldn't even think of using anything else but the original high quality butyl rubber.

Don't use silicon sealant, that makes future door maintenance impossible.

You'l need about 2.5m per door.

Do all 4 doors at the same time, because if the butyl has failled in one door, all other doors are the same age and will also likely fail shortly as well.

Remove door trim

Carefully pry up moisture seal plastic sheeting, without breaking it! Lift a bit at a time and use a sharp Stanley knife to cut any butyl rubber sealant that is still sticking.

Remove all old butyl rubber

Fit new butyl rubber in place, in one length. TIP: make the joint at the TOP of the door, not the bottom. You want the bottom half to be totally watertight

Press plastic moisture seal back on, making sure that you seal ALL the way around with no gpas whatsoever

Refit door trim.

Hey Andrew try looking at the attached, a few posts I found on the problem suggests either the system has reset itself to zero or a dodgy potentiometer on the volume control. I would hazard a guess at the first one (make sure area is set correctly) as it was working fine when you went it.

They didn't take any panels off or anything at the shop did they as could also be they pulled a plug out ??.

Volume control is not a potentiometer, it is a rotary digital encoder.

The steering wheel volume controls can be used the same as the radio volume controls. They produce the same data on the ibus.

I've found another box while ripping everything apart that I think I can get rid of... "3 Media Group" or 65908385447 but I've stuck this into realoem and it didn't find anything.

Traffic info receiver for Japan. Allows reception of other data as well.

Waste of space anywhere else in the world. Discard.

Can anybody confirm that a little box which has a tiny coax cable plugged into it, and then another line out the other side which goes into the window trim... is a FM aerial?

The box is the antenna amplifier, and it connects to the on-glass-antenna

Depending on what window in the vehicle you are talking about, the on-glass-antenna will be TV-only, or FM radio & TV, or FM, AM, and TV.

I'd pick you're looking at the TV-only antenna. There are 2x TV antennas with an amplifier each, and a coax cable each, running back to the TV tuner.

If you want to utilise the on-glass antenna with a new radio setup, keep the amplifier and coax cable, you'll need it.

I need a signal to turn on an aftermarket amp to run sub in boot, 735i but its 2004 so it all data cables and fiberoptics..

any help on here i can get a 12v signal would be much appreciated.

Not that easy.

Remember, you don't want ACC, but rather RadioOn.

Because you can turn ACC off, but still have the radio running. (try it :-)

So the antenna amp wire MIGHT be a RadioOn state, or it might be a a VehicleAlive state (ie: on when vehicle awake, off when vehicle asleep).

VehicleAwake and VehicleAsleep are different states to RadioOn, ACC-on and IgnitionOn.

I'd probably choose the VehicleAwake state to power a SubAmp. Then it is on and ready to thump when you turn the radio on. Or phone on. Or TV on. Or iPhone on.

Hi Guys,

Will the BMW Professional head unit and CD player from an X5 fit in an E39, i.e. are they interchangeable?

Physically and electrically, Yes

However, they are not the same

The viewing angle on the X5 is totally different to the E39, meaning that with an X5 monitor in an E39 you cannot or can hardly see the image on the monitor's screen.

You would have to adjust the viewing angle - which means dismantling the display, and plugging it in - in a dismantled state - and then experimenting with the adjustments until you find the viewing angle adjustment.

Fraught with danger and not for the faint hearted.

It tuned up ok with the aerials supplied but I will say out of everything the DVB-T was a bit of a waste of money. I don't think its actually anything to do with the dynavin DVB-T tuner or dynavin unit but with the nature of terrestrial digital TV.

In Auckland it really needs line of sight to the sky tower to work properly. I’ve tried tuning it off different transmitters as well with less luck. It might work well in Asian countries where they have a lot more gain or are closer to the transmission antenna.

I thought I would have issues in the Auckland CBD however it turns out it works better as its closer to the tower.

It's not like it doesn’t work, but you cant just drive and expect to have picture seamless, not like the old analogue system.

In Auckland, the main DVB-T transmitter is still Waiatarua (up above Henderson)

Sky Tower and some other sub.sites are effectively low-power repeaters

But yes, you'll find that any DVB-T mobile reception craps out at about 30 kmph

Unless you have a diversity tuner, in which case DVB-T goes to about 300 kmph

The abbreviations colours are always based on logical German abbreviation of the colour.

Mostly very clear and unique, eg Schwarz = SW, Orange = OR, Rot = RT, Weiss = WS

The one that always catches me out is Grau or Grün: GR could be either, so at that stage I look at the physical wire to be sure which it is ...

Your link is broken, and I can't find the Logitech adapter you mention.

Simplest thing seems to be this:

http://www.bavariansoundwerks.com/product/...ntegration-Kit/

Yep, that'll do the same thing

The LogiTech adapter can be found by googling for Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter

you main the ZF signal I think

ZF and IF are the same thing, but in different languages

ZF=Zwischenfrequenz

IF=Intermediate Frequency

Firstly, you do not have a MID

You have the On-Board Monitor - a completely different system to the MID

What you are seeing is the result of the nav system crashing and not prodcing any video. The TV tuner notices that the nav is not communicating, and takes over control of the display.

the resultant graphics are now generated by the TV tuner - and appear in a different style.

Let you car go to sleep (key off, close and lock car, wait 15,min) and then open the car and switch on the nav. The nav will reboot after a sleep, and hopefully will come back

Otherwise, if the nav is still not back up, it has failled and will need to be replaced.

I am not sure if you have the NAVJ japanese system or the NAV (NAVE) Euro system (Mk2, Mk3 or Mk4)

> Half the reason for this is that I like the concept of having the iPhone up front where it can be seen and accessed.

Go for the bluetooth option. I have bluetooth with my iphone in my current care and it is a dream

The Logitech adapter is only about 40 USD

And a CD emulator is only 50 EUR:

http://wcs.minibarebones.de/shopping_cart....roducts_id=1384

Much much easier than what you are trying to do

The electric window safety overload sensor

Designed to detect a hand or foot or nexk trapped between window and door edge when window is going up

Dynavin d99 platform will have double radio tuner and the reception is the same as OEM tuner.

Diversity tuner is one thing

The ability to control the BMW diversity antenna switcher is another

Does the Dynavin have the 2 x different diversity antenna switch control signals that the BMW needs?

Pre 2001: IF signal output on small coax cable to tell diversity switch when to switch

Post 2001: IF signal output on same antenna cable to tell diversity switch when to switch

Thanks for the inputs. I've seen people online do similar stuff tapping into the tape inputs, so I know that much is possible. But I've never seen anyone fool the system that a tape still exists. Call me anal, but it would be nice to totally ditch the tape motors and reduce all noise, even if it makes 4/5ths of f**kall difference when you're driving and have background noise present...

I've figured out most of them so far (power, mute detect, audio, tape sensor microswitches, and the drive signals for the load/eject/head motor), but I need to dismantle the tape drive assembly to figure out what the last few (and seemingly most important) are.

if you want to simply tell the system that a tape is in, but at the same time fool the end-of-tape detection, then you'll need to override that logic. Which means pulling the tape mech apart to see what is detected where

The end-of.tape relies on rotation detection of the tape spools, when they stop rotating (impulses stop) then the mech changes direction.

Lots to fool - why not simply fit an iPod CD emulator to the Cd changer port?

Much easier, simpler, and quicker...I did that in my VW Passat. A 10min job to fit, a 5 min job to remove when the car was sold. And no damage to any of the factory components.

Heck, these days you could eve add a bluetooth connection like I have to my home stereo using the Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth® audio devices. Works great, delivers line out analog audio.

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-aud...speaker-adapter