jochen

Nope, wrong radio. That radio is not ibus-capable And you need an ibus-capable radio for the icelink

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.

>> a standalone processor and an optical shuttle. ???? you have me totally lost. Do you mean a Car-PC? >> any idea what the connection to the CD shuttle is?? Yes. 12V, ground, and BMW ibus databus. The BMW ibus is used extensively on BMWs (and Mini, Range Rover, Rolls Royce etc), but not on any other brand car The ibus is NOT the same as Alpine ainet.

??? There is only ONE MID for the E39 You may be confusing the On-Board Monitor (Bordmonitor) with the MID. The Bordmonitor is a totally different device, and cannot control the car's trip computer unless a navigation computer is fitted. Nope, not possible, unless you fit the navigation computer and the entire retro-fit wiring loom, which is a major job. and then if you are going to do that, you may as well keep the TV and navigation functions.

Interesting. Most every 540i I have seen ex Japan had TV + Nav. But maybe thats because I only get TV+Nav equipped 540i's coming to see me :-) E/W = electric windows

PS: you could always, if you wanted, put the MID in the glove box or the boot, then you can set and control the car computer items. The MID only needs 4 wires to make it go: +12V, +12V ignition, ground, and databus Easy to fit in the boot.

I disagree - the vehicle has almost every option on it from what I can see from the photos It has TV + nav heated electric memory leather seats headlight washers multi-function steering wheel climate control speed and rain sensitive wipers steptronic gearbox electronic damper control (electrically adjustable shocks) towbar + wiring (NZ-fitted) Looks same spec as my 540i The only things missing are: PDC Telephone (possibly) Sunroof Looks clean and tidy. Check the kms carefully - ask BMW to verify against service history, and to read the 'last service' km data out of the car.

BMWs do NOT work as you describe. the car communicates with the TV tuner via a databus. The TV tuner listens for various data bus messages such as 'current speed' and 'handbrake status' The tuner then deactivtes itself when current speed exceeds approx 6kmph (and optionally, handbrake status = off) Can be reprogrammed though.

If you remove the MID (the display / keyboard unit underneath the radio) then you wont be able to set the date, time, reset the trip computer, stopwatch, consumption figures, etc. The radio is behind the flip-up panel above the MID. The only units in the boot are the CD changer and amplifier (if fitted) Jochen

Just connect to the existing AV IN on the TV tuner of the nav system. All existing, nothing special required. It is not cabled in your car at the moment, but you can easily add the cables for AV IN, AV OUT, and Reverse Camera In Jochen

Yes, you can connect any device to the AV IN of your TV tuner Camera, play station, x-box, DVD player, etc Bear in mind the input is mono only Video can be PAL, NTSC or SECAM The connection is on the connector of the video module, in the boot. On the 5-series E39, the AV IN is not cabled out. On the 7-series E38, the AV IN and AV OUT are cabled to the rear of the centre console, in the back seat area. If you want cabling etc i can help.

Warning signs: when car is rolling forward, do not put box into reverse.

It will only be DSP if a) you have the TV and/or nav option the "DSP" menu is visible on the TV screen They didn't fit the DSP amp (Digital Signal Processing amp) to the non-TV/nav equipped cars DSP tended to be fitted to the top-end 5-series (like 540i) and the 7-series, with nav/TV Jochen

Available on ebay.com. Search for "bmw power adapter", there are over 15 listed, prices between US$7 and US$10 Cheap. I'd get one, they are very handy.

Yup, that's what I have. My nav system was factory-fitted. Do your street map books show you, visually, whilst driving, the location of all of the speed cameras in Wellington...???

NavMan can take up to 15min to acquire GPS signal and work from a cold start, BMW nav works instantly, everytime, regardless of cold or warm start. NavMan cannot work in car parks, tunnels, under bridges. BMW can NavMan cannot mute stereo, give directions through every speaker in the car, show data on instrument cluster, exchange data with trip computer, have voice recognition and integration with telephone system; BMW can NavMan cannot integrate with existing LCD screen, or use existing car controls to set and program destinations; BMW can etc etc etc NavMan is standalone, BMW system is totally integrated. A world of difference. You have to experience it to understand.

Are you selling or are you advising everyone the US price? If you are selling, what version is the nav? Mk1, 2, 3 or 4? If you are advising the price, you need to include BMW-NZ markup. They tend to charge 2x to 3x the US price. So equivalent would be NZD $6,000 And remember, you need more than just the nav computer - you need wiring loom, GPS antenna, brackets, and programming...

Yep, that's why I sort out a car with nav already fitted :-)

Z3 2.8 Coupe 1998-1999 Z3 3.0i Coupe 1999-2002 Z3 M3.2 S52 Coupe 1997-2000 Z3 M3.2 S54 Coupe 2000-2002 So the Z3 coupe with the S54 engine was made from 2000 to 2002 (Jan thru Dec) CM32 probably means Coupr, M3.2 engine. So possibly applies to S52 and S54. Get them to give you the VIN numbers then you can look up each car yourself and confirm what it is. Jochen

Not true. I hold dual nationality - I'm Kiwi and Swiss. Was fun last America's cup :-) Germans canot hold two passports, but Kiwis can.

...I've been delving into the software in the BMWs a bit more and having some fun. I can log and record, as I drive, all of the following: my location in GPS coordinates every 30 seconds my town name my street name that I'm currently on my vehicle speed in km/h my engine RPM my coolant temperature in degrees C the outside air temp in deg C and more... ...so that this means that I could go for a long drive, log all the data on a laptop, and then plot it on Google Earth to show where I drove. With a granularity of 30 seconds intervals. Wouldn't that be useful for a Targa competition? Or a club drive? Or just to see how a car engine performs and how temperature changes with RPM and speed... And it's all there, in your car right now! (as long as you have the BMW GPS navigation system) What fun can be had..... I might show you all my software at the next club meet - I missed the last one unfortunately... Jochen

My NavCoder software (current release v2.1.1) does the following: Reads and codes the navigation languages. You can set any of 7 different languages. My nav can talk to me in Russian if I like (very KGB!) Reads and codes the navigation options such as setting the correct telematics, ensuring the VIN number in the nav is the same as the car, enabling/disabling arrival time display and adapting splitscreen mode according to the type of vehicle Reads and codes the TV settings, enables TV when driving, switches handbrake detection on/off Reads all fitted equipment on the ibus and reports part numbers, manufacturing dates, HW and SW version, and manufacturer name Reads and codes Bluetooth telephone module, reads the passkey, reads and sets the emergency number, reads and sets the Speed Dependent Volume That's all so far :-) I add more as I learn what does what.

Scared? I wrote my own software to re-program some of my cars settings.... and do things like enable the TV screen when moving... does that make me hard to find...?? People only get scared when they don't understand something :-)

Hi all, If you have an ex-Japan BMW E46 (3-series), E39 (5-series), E38 (7-series) or X3, X5, or Z4 with a TV/nav and you want the nav system to work, I can help! I have some nav systems in stock right now. The best, fastest, Mk4 nav computer. Lightening fast response, super fast route calculation, capable of 3D perspective view, it's the best nav computer they made. Get in touch by PM if you want the super-cool BMW nav system working in your car. Cheers, Jochen

The car always displays exactly the last position. The BMW GPS system works like the inertial navigation system on an aircraft, the speed/bearing and direction sensors on the vehicle are the primary input, the GPS location is used as verification of the position only. Using intertial navigation, the system works underground, in car parking buildings, in my garage, in tunnels, and in all other locations with no GPS signal. And it works really really well. Much better than a NavMan. Plus, I can get it to speak directions in Russian. That's very KGB So the C/A-code positon inaccuracy effects of the GPS are effectively fully filtered out. But I use 6-decimal places for the POI data, using Google Earth to locate the exact POI and then I load than into the nav system. At least the POI location is correct to 0.1m :-) Time for an E38 or E39....