jochen

Sigh. The answer to ALL your questions is: YOU NEED THE WIRING HARNESS ADAPTER THAT I ADVISED YOU ABOUT IN MY PREVIOUS POST. You have a car wired for Old Gen radio You bought a New Gen radio You need the adapter harness. That's it. End of story. Go and get the harness.

Go to BMW and purchase the old-gen to new-gen wiring loom adapter, as well as the antenna cable wiring loom adapter. Then you can plug the radio in. You car has old-generation (round pin) radio connectors. The radio has new-generaion flat-pin connectors Here's what you need on ebay: OG-NG radio adapter loom That auction is just the main loom adapter, not the antenna lead adapter - so remember to get the antenna lead adapter as well. Note that you also need to replace the antenna amplifier from the old-gen type to the new-gen type. If you do not replace the antenna amp, you will loose the diversity-antenna function, and the antenna amp will default to one antenna only. This means your FM reception performance will reduce a lot. Whether you notice this depends on where you live and drive compare to how strong the FM signals are in your local area. When replacing the antenna amp, consider getting a 2nd hand one, it'll be cheaper than BMW-new :-)

After checing the obvious - does it have power at the radio connector and is the fuse OK - the next thing to check is the power regulator chip It's bolted to the chassis / heatsink of the radio You can google a datasheet and then check the output voltages. Likely it has failled.

You have one of the easiest cars to retrofit. It's really simple. You bolt in a bracket, plug in a small loom in the boot, fit the antenna and slide in the nav. Done. All the work happens in the boot. Very easily DIY. You must use a Mk4 nav (Mk3 cannot be used in the X3). Mk4 nav new is about $5,000, or 2nd hand around $700 to $1200 depending on your luck 2nd hand see ebay, or email hotwire on this forum, he probably has a nav available. Bracket from BMW new, plus about 2 or 3 bolts. See RealOEM for part numbers. And at the end get BMW to run the retrofit coding so you car has nav properly entered in its options list

When the M62 engine idle speed drops under load eg: when shifting P to D, or when switching on AC, then the idle control valve is sticky because it is dirty. If the engine sometimes stalls under these situations then it is highly likely the ICV is the culprit. Easy fix: remove and clean with carb cleaner and refit. Very accessible, very easy Sat morning job. PS: above applies to M62 only (pre Sept 1998), not to the M62TU (Sept-1998 onwards)

All depends what tools they used. Was it a BMW dealer with BMW diagnostic tools? Mostly fail-safe. But - databus corruption can occur, and low-voltage can cause problems. A good garage will know that battery voltage is critical when writing / reprogramming, and will connect a battery charger. And databus corruption can occur through eg worn ign switch contacts. Very hard to diagnose your problem further.... Oh: and if it is the M62 (and not M62TU) engine, give the Idle Control Valve a clean with carb cleaner - I bet it'll be grubby and sticky, this also causes idle problems. Mine made a big difference, and was very easy to remove and clean.

bu88618 = 02/1998 E39 540i Saloon M62 Europe Left hand drive Automatic 540i, mmmmm, that's what I had. You have the business radio with the MID, old generation, with round pin plug. Very easy to replace, no dash disassemble required. You can replace it with tape, CD, or mini disc (but MD is hard to find) Here's a Business Radio-CD: Business CD on eBay Here's another: Another Business CD radio DON'T use one with flat pins! Here's a flat pin radio to compare: New-Gen flat-pin radio on ebay A flat-pin radio is for cars from Sept 2001, and doesn't fit your car. So there you go. Replacing the radio is dead easy. Search ebay for "BMW E39 Radio" and you'll find lots. Radio-Tape is cheapr than Radio-CD All the Euro model radios are 100% compatible with the Japanese E39 car, can use same CD changer, will integrate in same way with instrument cluster and steering wheel controls Brent's radio is compatible and can be used, PROVIDED it is the round-pin radio - ask Brent to confirm by looking at the connector, or posting a photo here. In fact, Brent's radio is the Professional RDS; which is the much better model than the Business RDS. For a 540i, which always had top-of-the-line equipment, it is better to fit the top-model radio, to be true to the car. Regards, Jochen

The system makes different beeps: If you have the MID, and have turned MEMO on, the system will issue 3 short beeps at about 10 seconds before the hour, to remind you to switch to a radio station and catch the news on the top of the hour. This sounds like your situation. If you had TP turned on, and the radio cannot find a TP-station, it will issue about 5 long low-toned beeps, alerting you to the fact that RDS-TP reception is not possible. When I drove from Akld to Rotorua, the radio would loose RDS-TP on the road between Hamilton and Rotorua. ZM did have RDS Traffic Reports up and running, and working perfectly, but switched it off when people complained that it was intrusive, and threatened to sue the radio station because "big brother was controlling their radio". Such complainers were apparently unaware that they could easliy switch off the TP function on their radio by pressing the "TP" button, and that the radio user is in full control of his radio always !! I was an advocate of RDS-TP, tried to convince many stations to use it, but my statements fell on deaf ears. I don't know what has happened to the RDS-market since I left NZ in December 2007.... I heard extra stations were interested in adding RDS, but I've had no confirmation Anyone care to list all stations that have RDS available in Auckland for me?

Or do it easy with a bunch of relays.

Never struck one myself (!) but you hear of one every two months or so. Extremely dangerous situation, and the radio reports it to you immediately they are aware via the RDS Traffic Information. Fantastic system. My kids have now learnt to be quiet when the traffic broadcast comes through.

The Jap clown nose has the IR-Receiver fitted and no red LED. You have to swap the mirror assemble for one with both IR-Receiver and Red LED, then add the extra wiring to connect the LED to the GM, and then you can make the LED blink

Exactly. The radio has 2 x tuners. So you can listen to AM on one tuner, and the 2nd tuner is tracking an FM RDS station waiting for traffic reports to occur. Or listen to an FM non-Traffic enabled station on one tuner, and still receive traffic reports via the other tuner, which is tracking a traffic-report enabled station Or you listen to one FM station on one tuner, and the 2nd tuner continuously tracks and updates the FM station list based on the available RDS stations in your area Etc. The Traffic Report function works really well, and is a life-saver over here in Europe.

1997 means the radio has to be swapped with a Euro model to make it work So now the only questions is: does the car have nav or no nav?

Thats not a "std" radio tape, it's the Professional, top-of-the-line twin-tuner model. Sort-after by those in the know. BMW made 3 levels of radio/tape: Reverse (bottom of the range) Business (good) Professional (top of the range)

Yeah a guy on this forum has done it - do a search on E90/E92 and nav. Expect to spend around $5000 NZD to change the nav. New hardware and new programming required.

540i had a nice 6-speed manual But here's the 528i box - it's a S5D 320Z - THMW (I used a 04-2000 Euro LHD saloon as reference): Here's the info: RealOEM 528i manual gearbox Oh look, a new one costs $2,731 USD :-)

Your son has obviously purchased an ex-Japan E39 If the car was manufactured after September 2001, he can re-program the existing BMW head unit from Japan-Mode to Euro-Mode, whereupon it will then work flawlessly in Abu Dhabi All he needs to reprogram it is his fingers :-) (just press a few buttons) If the car is built prior to Sep-01, then the best solution is to swap out the Japan radio for the appropriate Euro equivalent. Tell me - at best with photos of existing head unit - what he has, and I can advise on the correct replacement. And tell me the last 7 digits of the chassis number in format AA12345 - from this I can look up the manufacture date. Band Expanders destroy radio performance and are a horrible solution - I recommend NOT to fit the band expander.

Normal steps for secure system: 1. Keep security system information confidential and do not broadcast in public forums that are visible forever on the internet 2. ... (Anything beyond step 1 is irrelevant if step 1 has not been successfully executed!) ...oops!...

To put things in perspective: New Zealand is one of the few countries in this worlkd where modifications of vehicles is still relatively free and easy. Many countries - eg where I am now - have very tight regulations that state that any change from the original factory build needs to be inspected and certified by the regulators. Replacing broken parts with the same parts is of course OK, but modifying the verhicle requires certification. Especialy for anything to do with vehicle safety or road safety. A gearbox is a critical drivetrain component - the wrong gearbox can fail, causing safety issues especially if it failled at high speed. Or it may not physically fit, causing the installer to make structural modifications, which may mean the vehicle structural integrity is compromised. Or it may be heavier, meaining the safety margins in the load bearing components are compromised. So yes, it would not surprise me that a gearbox change would need inspection and certification. And where I am this is taken VERY SERIOUSLY. Modifying your car is dificult and expensive, because almost everything apart from stereo and seatcovers needs regulatory approval. Anything that is not original needs certification. I know guys here with modified cars that have a small library of documentation that provides the written evidence from the authorites that everything is OK. And when his vehicle gets it's safety inspection done, all the documentation needs to be provide to the inspector. Here: the safety inspections are very tough - no fluid leaks of any kind allowed, full exhaust emission checks are done, shock absorber checks on a vibrating test bed, and the usual plethora of inspections. And the car - including engine - has to be clean :-) So don't be surprised that NZ is trying to catch up with the rest of the world, and increase the safety level on the streets, reduce road-deaths and injury, reduce the environmental impact of vehicles, and make the country a better place. Too many cheap back-yard unsafe car modifications and irresponsible drivers are the root cause of the problem... That's my 10c worth :-)

Links of interest: http://www.audiforum.us/mmi/8214-found-how...y-firmware.html

Fuel starvation

A lot of CD player wiring has a poor ground. Connect the negative / ground of the interface direct to one of the shiny metal brackets - that's what I always do and it works 100% reliable

Jap car databus is the same as Euro car, no change there The unregistered NavCoder will also work Common problems people make with interfaces: 1. Poor Ground. Ensure the interface is grounded to the vehicle metal body - I use any convienient unpainted metal bracket in the region of the radio / CD changer 2. Interface hardware error Some people make the interface wrong, and fit diodes or transistors incorrectly. Triple check your interface

Edit: just saw in the documentation that Aux-In was for cars from September 2002 and newer only. Sorry.

MD was fitted to cars in Japan, your car is likely ex-Japan. Post 09-2001 means the radio is a new-gen radio New-gen radios have Aux-In capability