jochen

Legal - Doubt it.

Would anybody notice? Probably not. they look like they have the correct beam cut off. and since E46's have Factory HID's they'd probably just assume that?

Do you enjoy driving at night into oncoming traffic and being blinded by the wrong beam patterns produced by people fitting xenon bulbs to non-xenon lenses?

Please do NOT encourage fitting xenon bulbs into lenses that are NOT designed for xenons!

Fitting such bulbs creates a serious night time hazard to oncoming drivers.

And remember the following_

When removing the stock radio and fitting an aftermarket radio:

a) you need to ensure the antenna amplifier stays powered, or otherwise you'll not have any useful signal

you'll loose the FM antenna diversity function, and the antenna diversity switcher will revert to antenna 1, stead of switching between all 3 fitted FM antennas

c) as a consequence of , your FM radio reception with an aftermarket stereo will never be as good as with the original factory stereo

Hi

I don't have any issue but I want to know how do you tell if your car has a factory Immobiliser or if you have a transponder key?

Sounds like a dumb question I know

Any info would be great Cheers

Every E39 has the immobilizer fitted ex factory. It is an integral part of the vehicle and cannot be removed.

Can any one please recommend what aerial to use for my TV in my truck, They've given me a sky dish and decoder but i dont really need that , i just want something digital for receiving tv 1,2,3 and prime. The sky dish they've given me you have to put out side and manually turn it, but i want something that is permantely fit on the truck.

Cheers Hans

Digital TV in NZ is in the UHF band.

Any wide-band UHF antenna will do, and these are available from many car audio shops as a stick-on window antenna.

Use a TV tuner with diversity if you wish to have TV reception on the move

The method for changing the language on a Jap car is the same on a non-Jap car, ie: the menu layout is the same.

Select Settings, scroll down to language, select the Language

Screen layout:

Select settings, then scoll down. The language choice will be clear to see. Select and click.

Hi All look forward to hearing what you think the problem may be

My E46 M3 with Harmon Karden has stopped working for the radio I can't even get it up on the screen, the TV works fine but with no sound same for the blue tooth phone system. The alternator failed on the car so did have no battery charge for a short period replace alternator but speakers not working

Any ideas.

I have checked all the fuses and had a scan run on it.

Do all controls and displays work properly?

If so, likely just an amplifier or radio module problem

Monitor the audio out lines of the radio module with a speaker /tem push wires into the output pins)

Do you hear constant audio level sound?

If so radio module is fine, problem will be a failled amplifier

No not fixed yet.

Taking the battery off won't change anything.

A dead antenna or dead receiver is what you have

PM me your email address and I'll send a document that shows the complete nav system wiring

On an E39 touring, the GPS antenna is under the dash, above the glovebox

Yes, it has a long cable all the way back to the nav unit in the boot of the Touring.

It seems to know when I change direction as the direction arrow on the screen moves around.

That confirms the internal gyro sensor inside the nav unit (in the trunk) is working.

A check of the menu shows (I think) no satellites. The menu shows 8 satellites but each one has zero under the S/N column - there is data in the Ch & PRN columns alongside each one. The GPS Status screen shows no Lat,Longt or Altitude and the other fields on that screen are all zero.

Zero = zero signal = either bad antenna, bad receiver, or antenna connector is unplugged (or antenna cable is damaged)

Let's correct a few technical errors here.

When you plug in a trailer it puts the vehicle into a trailer mode*** & it makes the car think that your bulbs are out because it adjusts things to suit the extra draw.

No, it doesn't "adjust" anything for the extra draw. It's much simpler.

When you plug in a trailer, the Lamp Control Module (LCM) expects to have a current draw equal to a normal tungsten filament lamp.

When the current draw is too low, ie: lamp blown, or LEDs fitted, then the LCM says: lamp is faulty. And takes whatever actions are appropriate for a faulty lamp (indicators flash faster, or warning light on dashboard, or uses backup system to use other lamps as a failsafe).

Quite simply you need a module fitted to the trailer which will make the current draw the same as a bulbed setup, you can still use your LED equipped trailer then.

Correct, you need to fool the Lamp Control Module into thinking that a normal bulb is fitted.

i have a 1998 e39 m62b44 non vanos 540i

did a good thousand kms of driving over the past weekend and after sitting for a day it seems to have developed a rough idle and has a small miss while driving. exhaust doesnt smoke or smell of fuel so possibly a mixture issue rather than complete miss

Use the BMW diagnostic software and do a smooth-running test

You'll see what cylinder is the culprit

The swap coils from suspect cylinder with a known good cylinder

My money is a faulty coil, the above test will easily confirm it

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

Turn ign off, wait for car to go to sleep. That powers down the GPS receiver.

On next power up, it reboots.

Tip: the original GPS antennas can fail. If you have weak signal levels in Service Mode, then consider a replacement antenna.

You can get generic replacements from TradMe for around $50, with magnetic mount, easy to fit

If the antenna is OK, then replace the GPS receiver inside the Mk3 or Mk4 nav. Plug and play, cheap to replace, easy to do

Can anyone tell me what the best way to go about changing this to english is?

Select English in the Menu as the display language. If your Japanese is poor, this may be a challenge for you...

I am based in Wellington so is there any locals that can work on these to make them NZ new spec?

To do that you replace the nav drive in the boot. Jap out, Euro model in, slight rewiring and insert a NZ map disk, voila!

Get a Mk4 DVD nav, faster, and customisable.

Whats the quality of the "plug and play" items on trademe for the e38's?

The quality is reflected in the price. OEM: about $6k. Trademe: <$500.

Ethrty_Andy - think I saw a caution in the manual on running the amp to only coil... 0 Guage is huge!

A 150W RMS load on a 12V battery is 12.5 Amps (Power / Voltage = Current)

And then allowing for whatever peak power your amp can provide... you may be doubling or trippling the current

E.g 3 x 12.5 Amps = 37.5 Amps

If you wish to run your stereo loud all the time, then you need to consider if your alternator has enough reserve capacity to power all electrical items and charge the battery, as well as power your sub amp.

PS: the body / chassis is a much bigger earth cable than you can ever fit. So earth the amp to the nearest, solid earthing point. It will be better than running an extra cable to the battery.

...what bulbs to use to replace the Multi Information Display (MID) unit backlight bulbs.

Some seem to think 6V, others say 12V. Some even say 12V 1.2W.

Does anyone know for definite?

They are 6.3V, 100mA (that's for definite, because that is what is written in the circuit diagram of the lamp board)

There are 12 bulbs in total, in 4 groups of 3 lamps in parallel.

Please Wait means looking for a BT phone and trying to start the pairing process.... happens a lot

And it is possible that the bulb is aging, reaching the end of its life, and the internal resistance is increasing

Try swapping it with the bulb from the other taillight, or fit a new one.

What im wondering is if there is any way to change the TONE settings for the AUX tv channel?

Nope.

A bit of a design oversight by BMW, IMHO.

Hi guys. Is there a way to get the phone in a 1998 nz new e39 working? I have heard that they need an older style sim card. Alternatively may consider bluetooth upgrade. I have checked the bimmernav website and a recent posting here, but that was for a newer car. Has anyone upgraded the older style phone to bluetooth?

Put a SIM card in and it works

Be aware:

The BMW phone systems are GSM only, and so only work with GSM operators (vodafone, 2 degrees)

The BMW phone systems are 900 MHz GSM only, and so you may find coverage not so good in some areas

Ive tried disconnecting the battery for half an hour, no change. Also tried removing and disconnecting the nav unit, but didnt leave it to sit for a period of time afterwards.

Ill give it a shot after work. Cheers

My pick is a faulty LCD display.

They fail when old...

Replace just the LCD display part of the on-board monitor, very easy DIY

Get 2nd hand screen from USA or Europe, much better price than Stealer or car wreckers...

The nav unit in the boot has failed

The TV tuner detected no response from the nav, and took over generating the graphics

Likely causes for nav failure: corrosion through water damage (take covers off and look for any corrosion signs)

Easiest repair: replace old Mk3 with a newer Mk4 nav and enjoy a much better nav system - faster, better graphics, 3D view, and customisable.

http://neiloakley.com/

I just realized my reply was never posted. I was asking if considering that the TV tuner already has all these inputs wouldn't it be possible to use these points and connect some A/V device like an Ipod Touch?

Yes, see prior post to yours

The other question I have though is how would you tell the radio to switch to this device?

Select Television

Change channel to AV IN

I could not for the life of me find a 54 pin connector or ariel connector ANYWHERE.

I'm guessing that since the car was prewired for the built in GSM phone, they didn't also provide the wiring for the ULF. Does that sound right?

Is there any way to have BOTH the phone and ULF in at the same time? I would be even prepared to remove the phone all together if I could get my ULF to work.

The ULF is a phone

The Motorola phone is a phone

You can have one or the other, not both. Only one phone can exist in the vehicle.

The phone transceiver is in the trunk/boot space, close to the nav. Easy to recognise.

Post a photo and we can identify the modules for you

Then I purchased a Euro Band expander, which seems to work well and has no reception issues, as its designed to be used with active antennas.

All band expanders are crap, they all reduce sensitivity and selectivity

Depending on the age of your E39, you may not need a band expander at all

All E39s built after Sept 2001 have a world-radio and with the push of a few buttons, you can change the radio from Japanese mode to European mode. And then it works perfectly

For cars built before that date, I recommend swapping the radio 8or radio module, depending on the type of sound system fitted) from the Japanese model to the Euro model.

Replacement radio modules can be found on ebay. And they can be gotten for very good prices.

Remember: band expanders are crap, and they make the BMW radios work especially poorly.

. Does anyone know how to prevent this condensation in the lights?

Make sure the vent and drain tubes are clear.

Make sure the water seal is good

And thoroughly dry the lamps inside with a hair dryer

Taken from Rolf's website:

I really want the V4 interface but it's been out of stock for months and his last update in August shows some hope, but the deadline has long since passed. I've tried emailing him several times with no replies. The reason I want this particular interface is because I'm hoping to use it on an automation controller which needs RS232, but I don't want to have to program my own collision detection algorithm into the controller.

If anyone has a spare, I'd be keen to buy it. Also if anyone has any other links to alternatives that would be cool too, although I've searched quite a bit and found nothing that I don't have to make from scratch (don't mind a kit though).

NavCoder has collision detection in the software, not in the hardware.

My method is 99% reliable :-)