jochen

Do you want built-in anti-theft vehicle tracking and immobilisation? And what about the ability to do e-Banking from the nav system? ...

Cost can be less than $1000 Better to buy a Garmin? No way!

Here's the process to do it:. OS: 1. Determine the operating system on the nav 2. Reverse engineer the operating system to see how it loads maps and voices 3. Write your custom code to remove any specific japanese restrictions 4. recompile and load into the nav Map: 1. Reverse engineer the map to determine the nature of the proprietary map format 2. Obtain a NZ map, do the same reverse engineering as shown in step 1 for the NZ map 3. Extract the NZ map data 4. Compile the map data into the format understood by the jap nav Voila! So: how easy is the above? Well, depending on your knowledge of operating systems, programming languages, ability to reverse engineer, and the range of compilers at your discretion, the task ranges from very difficult to blooming impossible. Honestly, just buy the original thing

video module is easy to remove as hotwire said. nav unbolts from roof of boot, then unplugs. The TV tuner will take over generating the graphics when nav is removed, and will work after next cold boot of car. or replace jap nav with euro nav and you have fully functional gps navigation in NZ

Mobile phone antenna

Your photos clearly show a Japanese market E39 the two bulges behind the rear seat are: Left-hand = radio tuner Right-hand = TV tuner i also see telephone pre-wiring fitted.

The lamp check system checks for faulty bulbs. Any poor wiring connection, bad ground, old filament, or corroded bulb connection, or worn down solder lump on the base of the bulb will cause these problems As well as burnt out bulb! Make sure the taillight connectors are clean and in good order, and that the bulb socket is clean and free from dirt and rust Make sure the taillamp ground connection is also clean, secure, and free of dirt and corrosion If all looks good, check the bulb socket that it makes a good connection with the bulb. Then check the bulb itself - often the solder blob in the base of the bulb wears down due to vibration and the bulb stops making a reliable contact. Replace the bulb if this is the case.

One asks oneself is it valid to compare what is fitted to a 15 to 20yr old BMW to a modern X5? I mean, the sound system in the 1956 Isetta wasn't very good either, and upgrading the Isetta's speakers would do wonders for the Isetta. But how does that relate to an X5?

"somehow or?" is correct You drive the subs in a BMW just as you do in any other car. Either using low level from the radio prior to the factory amp (valid for non-DSP systems) or tap into the existing sub outputs from the factory amp.

Now hybrid, you are still new to E39s so I may forgive you for your grave and serious error The best performance module is NOT the M62TUB44, but rather the S62B50 By a long shot....

Don't throw it away like Glenn said! It is a proper performance module to measure the performance of your E39. Here is how it works: 1. Carefully unpack it and make sure it is clean and free of grease. This is important, as grease can severly affect the performance of these modules 2. For the installation and initial usage of the device, choose a suitable area where you can test the car to its full performance, such as a deserted racetrack, industrial area late at night, or a shopping mall car park 3. Position the vehicle so that at least 200m of clear road surface exists ahead of you, and 100m clear area behind you 4. Ensure the engine has reached normal operating temperature and that tyres are correctly inflated 5. Ensure all flag marshals and viewers are clear of the road. Ensure cameras are running to record the performance test. 6. The important bit: now carefully place the device in front of your left, rear wheel. Just so it touches the wheel. 7. Get in the car, buckle up seat belt, start engine, and perform your best racing start you can 8. Return to your starting point. Locate the device and measure its distance from your starting point and it's size You can then calculate your vehicle performance using the formula: distance_from_starting_point_in_m * percentage_reduction_in_size = performance_factor Tip: To assist in assessing how other factors such as fuel type, tyre selection and launch style can affect vehicle performance, you can repeat the tests with more performance modules. These tests are best performed on factory-new, unopened performance modules I can supply them in boxes of 10 for only $29.95 per box (including bimmersport discount). Special offer: Order 3 boxes, and you get a free baseball cap. Order now on 0900-Imadumass

Basically, the option in the menu is the easiest way to tell. SW 10 is relatively recent, but I think maybe widescreen was supported from SW12 ... cannot remember

No you don't All you need to do is look at the connector and the wire colours, and compare with the WDS. All wire colours determine the wire function so look at the wiring diagram for heated seats and your wire colours - you immediately see if you have this function or not. Like wise for lumbar control, massage, ventillation, seat motors, etc No dismantling required.

check for short between speaker wire and ground. I've seen chaffed speaker wires on the E39 rear parcel tray, just where the speaker wire goes to the speaker. Remove rear seat reas and remove speaker to inspect. A chaffed wire shorts to ground, and shuts down the amplifier stage of the Business RDS radio (luckily with no damage to the radio)

Means your alternator is struggling to charge the battery. Due to failing alternator most likely. Get the whole charging system checked before you get stranded. If you replace the alternator, always fit a new one, and then fit a new battery at the same time

An old CD player not being able to read some CDs, especially burnt ones, is a sign of a weak old tired laser. The diagnosis is nearly always 100% correct if you can read an original stamped CD, but cannot read a burnt copied CD. If you can get the laser replaced, it will be 100% better. But sometimes it can be hard to find replacement lasers for the older CD changers...

On fighter planes, when the light is on, you're in big trouble. In submarines, when the light flashes, you need to call the weapons center and get the cryptographer to decode the incoming message On the moon lander module, it simply mean you were about to take a great step. And on a BMW, it means... exactly what the BMW owners manual tells you. Not the Ford manual , nor the Mazda manual, nor the fighter plane, submarine or moon lander manual. The BMW manual is the one to read with BMWs..... (walks away, wondering if he has made his point, and starts making bets as to who will groan and flame me...)

That's a standard function for cars with the high IKE (IKE=instrument cluster, high = the version with the text display at the bottom) when you use the steering wheel controls to change radio presets, the new preset appears on the IKE text display.

check the micro switch on the boot latch inside the boot lid, make sure it is working properly (measure it!) Another common problem is a broken wire in the rubber boot between boot and car body (where the wires flex all the time) Take the lining off the boot lid to check both problems. Easy to find and fix.

I had that too. It's the butyl rubber door seal that has failled and is no longer sealing the moisture seal to the door frame Easy to fix: Remove door panel (no impact on any fitted airbags, but then rear doors mostly don't have airbags anyway) Get a new bitumen rubber strip from BMW, use only the original butyl rubber, it is dirty cheap. About 1.5m per door Clean out all old butyl rubber, you only need to seal the bottom half of the door Fit new butyl rubber If the seal failled due to old age, then inspect and reseal all four doors, as all four doors will be the same age

Wow, how many have you got?

Yes, dead easy, because the torch socket is nothing more than switched 12V and ground So make the new socket physically fit the mounting location, and then connect the switched 12V and ground.

The comments are specific to BMW nav systems in BMW, supplied to you from BMW fans who own and drive BMWs and know BMWs inside out. For Mercedes information, please ask the Mercedes specialists in the Mercedes forums. Every car manufacturer does things differently - a Mercedes is not a BMW, just like a Windows Smartphone is not an iPhone.

95% of the cases the LCD display has failled (well, the high-voltage backlight generator fails) A new LCD display fixes it. You can replace just the LCD part, you don't have to replace the entire on-board monitor with tape deck etc. You could also consider upgrading to a 16:9 widescreen display if you want. Tip: troll ebay for cheap replacements, tends to be much cheaper than NZ wreckers And it doesn't matter whether LHD or RHD, for my car I got a cheap LHD board monitor from the USA, where the tape deck was faulty but the screen was OK. Then I unscrewed the LCD section (4 screws) and swapped it into mine. Plugged in and it worked. Easy peasy. And a wise man would get one from a 2000 car - as new as possible with as few hours on the clock as possible, then you get more life out of it....

trying going back a few OS versions to V24, then back up to V32 that forces an entire reflash