e60 Radio Problem and assorted pressures

Natural · May 31, 2008

Greetings and Salutations!!!

I am a new member to this forum and you guys are the only people on the web that seem to have some of the same problems we have in Jamaica.

I just imported a 2006 525 m-sport. What a work of art. Problem is its from japan, so the radio band and language issue in idrive are my major problem. I saw in a previous post that there are people in NZ who have successfully changed the radio to NZ spec. I would want to change to North American spec.

The BMW dealership in jamaica gargles balls more than they fix cars. worse if its a car that wasnt purchased from them.

They are of no assistance whatsoever. any suggestions please as to how I can get my vehicle speaking and acting a little more Jamaican.

one love

RvT · May 31, 2008

Greetings and Salutations!!!

I am a new member to this forum and you guys are the only people on the web that seem to have some of the same problems we have in Jamaica.

I just imported a 2006 525 m-sport. What a work of art. Problem is its from japan, so the radio band and language issue in idrive are my major problem. I saw in a previous post that there are people in NZ who have successfully changed the radio to NZ spec. I would want to change to North American spec.

The BMW dealership in jamaica gargles balls more than they fix cars. worse if its a car that wasnt purchased from them.

They are of no assistance whatsoever. any suggestions please as to how I can get my vehicle speaking and acting a little more Jamaican.

one love

Hi Showa

Greeting from New Zealand

Good to see you have used the search part of the forum :rolleyes:

You may want to do a search on the m5board.com to get additional info. Malaysia has the same issues as well as EU cars ending up in US. I found someone on that site you gave me the following assistance ...

" It is a very simple procedure that requires the use of a BMW engineering called "NCS-Expert tool"

This tool is part of a package called EDIABAS / INPA.

You can do this yourself at home using a adapter cable called KKL VAGCOM that can be purchased from Ebay and by finding the needed software off the internet.

If you are interested in doing it yourself I can walk you thru it.. but, you have to have a working version of this stuff.

You need a windows pc with serial port COM1 that is not in use and the understanding that this is a engineering tool that can cause damage to the car quickly! Don't ask your local dealer about this tool. They don't have it!"

I did PM this guy and send him some links on eBay to make sure I was going to buy the right gear but he never replied. I ended up putting in a band expander as no one in my region can reprogram but someone in Auckland can.

Hope this helps.

Natural · June 1, 2008

Hi Showa

Greeting from New Zealand

Good to see you have used the search part of the forum

You may want to do a search on the m5board.com to get additional info. Malaysia has the same issues as well as EU cars ending up in US. I found someone on that site you gave me the following assistance ...

" It is a very simple procedure that requires the use of a BMW engineering called "NCS-Expert tool"

This tool is part of a package called EDIABAS / INPA.

You can do this yourself at home using a adapter cable called KKL VAGCOM that can be purchased from Ebay and by finding the needed software off the internet.

If you are interested in doing it yourself I can walk you thru it.. but, you have to have a working version of this stuff.

You need a windows pc with serial port COM1 that is not in use and the understanding that this is a engineering tool that can cause damage to the car quickly! Don't ask your local dealer about this tool. They don't have it!"

I did PM this guy and send him some links on eBay to make sure I was going to buy the right gear but he never replied. I ended up putting in a band expander as no one in my region can reprogram but someone in Auckland can.

Hope this helps.

Hey Thank you for your response. just googled that software and it is no joke. i am not really a tech savy person and it say that with unstable current and all sorts of minor stuff, you can fry your computer.

thats not a good look.

i would love to get in touch with someone or company that has actually done this stuff before. i am scared of trying this by myself.

they are a couple people in jamaica that do programming but i am not sure if they are that capable.

what are the relevant questions to ask someone if they say that they can do this stuff?

i want the radio opened to US specs. Language changed to english, idrive software upgrageed to whatever the current version. if anyone knows anything else i should do to make my car english please let me know.

i also want to install a cd changer in the glove and i hear that has to be done with the compuetr as well!!!!

it mite be easier for me to learn friking japanese.

jochen · June 1, 2008

Hey Thank you for your response. just googled that software and it is no joke. i am not really a tech savy person and it say that with unstable current and all sorts of minor stuff, you can fry your computer.

thats not a good look.

i would love to get in touch with someone or company that has actually done this stuff before. i am scared of trying this by myself.

they are a couple people in jamaica that do programming but i am not sure if they are that capable.

what are the relevant questions to ask someone if they say that they can do this stuff?

i want the radio opened to US specs. Language changed to english, idrive software upgrageed to whatever the current version. if anyone knows anything else i should do to make my car english please let me know.

i also want to install a cd changer in the glove and i hear that has to be done with the compuetr as well!!!!

it mite be easier for me to learn friking japanese.

Changing language from Japanese to English is easy and can be done yourself under the options / preferences menu.

You can do it yourself - but if you cannot read Japanese then you need to either

a) find a japanese person who can read the menus and then find the setup menu and change the language

put the car side by side with a Jamaican car and go through it step by step - the structure of the menus is the same.

c) get the English manual and look at the pictures of how to change settings, and then follow the sequence in your system

I've done this many times but I cannot rememder the sequence.

You know you're in the right menu location when you see an "English" or "USA" option appear :-)

As for radio, nav, TV, phone etc: these items are different for the Japanese market compared to the rest of the world.

I know it well, as I have converted many cars from Jap spec to Euro spec to make the radios and nav systems work.

BUT I worked on older cars, the newer cars like yours are very software dependent.

The radio hardware is the same for the entire world, but the software settings determine what mode it should operate in. So you have to fudge the software, or change the car from Japan to Jamaica car and then reprogram the car.

Fudging the software is for experts only, if you have any qualms, don't do it.

Another solution is to remove your radio tuner, temporarily fit it to a Jamaicain car, and the recode the tuner. This will load the tuner with the right settings for US-mode.

Then refit the radio to your car. This method is by far the easiest.

However the change will revert back to standard Japan mode if your car is ever reprogrammed, as the US-mode programming in the radio tuner will appear as 'incorrect' for a Japanese car.

But if you never take the car to a dealer afterwards, the radio will stay in US-mode.

As for relevant questions to determine if someone has experience, you must ask the person "do they have, and are they experienced in, using the BMW expert programming tool called INPA or EDIBAS?"

It requires good knowledge of the systems and architechture of a BMW and knowledge and experience of reprogramming cars.

kiwi535 · June 1, 2008

there is an american website(navman) that has advice and sells kits for upgradeing older crs to nav nd bluetooth etc.The lasttime i looked at it it had a small ammount of material on e60 and e65.He may be able to help or at least another conduit of information.

Natural · June 2, 2008

Thanks amillion guys!!

Jochen? is swapping radios with another 525 difficult.

my brother has an 08 that is set for jamaica. However my i-drive tv works but his doesnt.

i would not want to lose this feature.

i am trying to reach the bmw tech and see if he is familiar with the programs you mentioned.

thanks again guys.