F06 640d Gran Coupe

[tmase 19]

Hi all,

I was a long time lurker on this forum back in the early 2010's when I bought my E39 530i, which I still own. Having a couple of kids and a busy job has meant I haven't had as much time for cars as I'd like. The garage since then has been mostly station wagons, a Volvo V50 T5, a god awful Mazda MPV turbo, a diesel B7 Passat and an diesel C6 Audi A6 (which I will most likely part with).

I've become a bit of a fan of oil burners and was really in the market for a 535d but they are a bit thin on the ground right now. I have always been a fan of the F06 6 series Gran Coupe, and decided to start my mid life crisis a little early by picking up an LCI one with the same N57 engine as the 535d. Less practical than an F10, but I find them to be more attractive. I quite like the tan interior, and there as no faux woodgrain to be found which I prefer.

It looks as though the iDrive has been upgraded to the NBT EVO ID5 system and it has Apple CarPlay which I don't think was standard, though it looks to have NZ maps the iDrive nav is not right, I think it has a dead GPS antenna. The previous owner told me he thought the maps hadn't been updated from the UK as he just used CarPlay, something to troubleshoot anyway. On the whole looks to be in pretty good order otherwise, but the PPI highlighted a couple of wear and tear items which will be getting looked at after the Easter period.

Its got a Maxton Design body kit which I am on the fence about, it certainly makes an already low car lower. As it has no front camera it'll only be a matter of time before I wipe the front lip out on a parking bollard! The factory wheels 20" wheels are gone sadly and the previous owner has fitted Vossen CVTs in the same size as the OEM wheels which I don't hate.

I would have liked comfort access and the multi-camera surround view, but beggars can't be choosers! It has got a HUD though which after using on a BMW G01 recently I don't think I could go without again.

I drove a 1000 kilometres in it from Auckland home to Christchurch in it last week, I was very impressed by the power and also the efficiency, averaging 6.1 litres/100 kms on the trip. I am sure you could go below 6 if you tried to. 

Anyway, that's me, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Tim

 

 

[balancerider 758]

Very nice colour combo and it's a great engine. 6.1/100 is very impressive, my best tank on a 335d (same engine but 4wd albeit probably 200kg lighter) is 6.8/100 measured brim to brim. the OBC on mine is pretty optimistic, says I'm averaging 6.8 including round town running.

It's possible wheels were replaced due to cracking, I think the 20's were prone to it. It would look good on Style 351's in 19" which I imagine would fit fine.

[tmase 19]

I think the OBC is about right, I filled to the brim in Auckland, and then refilled with 1005 kms on the trip computer and it took 61.2 litres at the pump, though that was 90% highway driving. Its not xDrive, I think those average about 0.4 l/100 kms worse off for the 640d, at least according to the official data. Officially this will do 5.3 l/100 kms on the open road, but I think that would really would be a stretch. I'll look into wheels are some point, I think those Vossen wheels have been known to crack too.

I like the colour too, I am sick of washing dark cars all the time!

[hugo_nz 166]

Based on the production date from the VIN it should be equipped with iDrive NBT-EVO ID4 (which as the regular text based menu). If yours has the tile based menu then it has been upgraded. Retrofits from ID4 to ID5 could be done on some units without hardware changes but the Hardware suffered as a result since the ID4 units have less RAM than the ID5/6 units, resulting in frequent reboots.

You can check which maps database is installed from the Navigation Settings menus. If it's still on the UK maps then a simple map update should do the trick. You should also be able to tell the raw position from one of the Nav settings screens which will tell you if the GPS is functional.

[tmase 19]

3 hours ago, hugo_nz said:

You can check which maps database is installed from the Navigation Settings menus. If it's still on the UK maps then a simple map update should do the trick. You should also be able to tell the raw position from one of the Nav settings screens which will tell you if the GPS is functional.

Hi Hugo, thanks for your input. Below is what I am seeing, perhaps you can shed some light.

It has the 5 tiles on the home screen so I think it is NBT EVO ID5. You could be right regarding the hardware, I have seen one un-commanded reboot while driving, so perhaps it is just the software that has been updated. I haven't pulled the head unit from the dash to check the hardware version number though.

It has wireless Carplay, and I can mirror my Android phone's display to there must be a wifi antenna installed, I think as a retrofit.

It does look to have the NZ maps installed. - Excuse the amount of photos and camera glare. 

 

I have been into the sort of  hidden Navigation *Service Menu* and there are definitely some things that are not as they should be;

The Sensor Test shows the GPS Status as reserved

As does the GPS Status, there appear to be no visible satellites, and no almanac data.

The GPS Version menu is showing no Receiver SW version or date.

When you do go into the Maps it logs the current vehicle position as Null Island - 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude.

But if you manually navigate the interactive map to NZ, there is data there as you'd expect.

There are saved NZ addresses in the system so I am guessing it has worked at some point.

My knowledge of all this is a bit lacking, my experience with BMW Nav and coding ends with the Mk IV Nav system in the E39 and Jochen Siegenthaler's NavCoder software 10 years ago! 

So I think it could be - I'd love to be corrected!

1. Bad GPS Antenna
2. Bad GPS Reciever
3. Bad cable/connection between the above 2
4. Something has been changed (ID5 upgrade?) and subsequently not coded correctly

I'll pick up a replacement GPS antenna and start there, otherwise its go and and pick up an ENET cable and try to learn ESYS and evrything else that has been developed in the last 10 years. Or perhaps just knuckle under and take it to an expert in town!

Edited April 19, 2022 by tmase
Typos, lots of them

[hugo_nz 166]

6 minutes ago, tmase said:

Hi Hugo, thanks for your input. Below is what I am seeing, perhaps you can shed some light.

It has the 5 tiles on the home screen so I think it is NBT EVO ID5. You could be right regarding the hardware, I have seen one un-commanded reboot while driving, so perhaps it is just the software that has been updated. I haven't pulled the head unit from the dash to check the hardware version number though.

It has wireless Carplay, and I can mirror my Android phone's display to there must be a wifi antenna installed, I think as a retrofit.

It does look to have the NZ maps installed. - Excuse the amount of photos and camera glare. 

 

I have been into the sort of  hidden Navigation *Service Menu* and there are definitely some things that are not as they should be;

The Sensor Test shows the GPS Status as reserved

As does the GPS Status, there appear to be no visible satellites, and no almanac data.

The GPS Version menu is showing no Receiver SW version or date.

When you do go into the Maps it logs the current vehicle position as Null Island - 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude.

But if you manually navigate the interactive map to NZ, there is data there as you'd expect.

There are saved NZ addresses in the system so I am guessing it has worked at some point.

My knowledge of all this is a bit lacking, my experience with BMW Nav and coding ends with the Mk IV Nav system in the E39 and Jochen Siegenthaler's NavCoder software 10 years ago! 

So I think it could be - I'd love to be corrected!

1. Bad GPS Antenna
2. Bad GPS Reciever
3. Bad cable/connection between the above 2
4. Something has been changed (ID5 upgrade?) and subsequently not coded correctly

I'll pick up a replacement GPS antenna and start there, otherwise its go and and pick up an ENET cable and try to learn ESYS and evrything else that has been developed in the last 10 years. Or perhaps just knuckle under and take it to an expert in town!

Ah right. So I had similar issues with my 6-er when I replaced CIC idrive with NBT. It could be that this was a hardware swap to NBT Evo and the antenna was not connected to the correct port on the head unit. I recall that on CIC cars the swap to EVO would require new antenna amps etc, but for EVO to ID5 the swap whould be straight forward. It could also be a coding issue on the head unit.

Maybe reach out to the guys at AutoGravity and ask them to run a diagnostic. They are very knowledgable on the topic.

[tmase 19]

55 minutes ago, hugo_nz said:

Ah right. So I had similar issues with my 6-er when I replaced CIC idrive with NBT. It could be that this was a hardware swap to NBT Evo and the antenna was not connected to the correct port on the head unit. I recall that on CIC cars the swap to EVO would require new antenna amps etc, but for EVO to ID5 the swap whould be straight forward. It could also be a coding issue on the head unit.

Maybe reach out to the guys at AutoGravity and ask them to run a diagnostic. They are very knowledgable on the topic.

Cheers for the information. I don't think AutoGravity have an outlet in Christchurch. I might have to try someone like AudioCity, unless anyone has any recommendations in the South Island.

[tmase 19]

AudioCity in Chch have offered to have a look at no charge (very good of them) to see what the issue is, hopefully off there in the morning.

[tmase 19]

AudioCity thought it all looked a bit mysterious and are took some details and are going to do some research.

They suggested I have a look at the head unit myself. Pulled the head unit, it appears to have been retrofitted with a later HW version HU that supports wireless Carplay, but doesn't have a GPS input. There is apparently another module that supported GPS and teleservices called an ATM that would have needed to have been retrofitted for the nav to function. I can see what I think is the GPS cable is plugged into another box somewhere deep in the dash that doesn't look original but I couldn't access it. I still think the Nav worked at some point with this HU as a previous owners known address as well as other NZ addresses are in the GPS history. So the GPS antenna I ordered is probably gonna be surplus to requirements now, too bad its already shipped.

The wiring job on the retro fitted HU leaves something - ahem - to be desired!

So that needs to be dealt with!

Mystery GPS cable box thing that I couldn't reach without disassembling half the car! Dunno what it is, the attach points indicate that it should be mounted somewhere but isn't

Good thing the rest of the car is fine!

This really should go in a different section of the forum now, I know.

[tmase 19]

Mystery GPS box looks a lot like one of these;

http://carsystems.com.ua/bmw-products-en/bmw-nbt-evo-atm-emulator-en

Which is a module designed to emulate an ATM/GPS thing in a retro fitted system.

This piece of wiring looks a lot like the picture of the cable that is included in the ATM emulator instruction manual

The mystery deepens.