XSeries-forum

All,

Looking for some help with advice on fitting a phone kit, either a Parrot or Bury.

I’m no fan of elecs, in fact I loathe them, better with the spanner’s as I understand them! Please bare with the stupid questions I will then decide if I give it a go or give in and get a qualified sparks in.

I have a facelift 2005 plate with basic single CD player and basic business radio.

If this is the case do I still have the amp in the boot with the 16 pin SOT lead rather than 8 pin ( understand these were Pre facelift), or is everything in the dash I need to wire into.

From what I can gather I thought all x5 had the amp in the boot but now I’m not sure and in fairness would not nessasairly know what I was looking for without pictures.

I looked on realoem which has helped a little but still not clear to me.

Happy ish with the trim removal aspects as I found some useful links on the site.

I want to ensure I order the correct kit and ancillary items from the supplier.

Cheers in advance for any tips, I will then decide which route I go down.

I had a 55 plate E53 that came with a parrot, same as yours with the single slot CD business unit in the dash.
It had the relevant SOT lead between the radio/ cd unit and worked fine
I fitted a Dynavin satnav / headunit so binned off the Parrot
So probably an easy fit for a parrot.
I've just bought a Kia Sorento without nav, normally I've always wanted factory nav, but with Bluetooth / Parrot you can have your iPhone / android phone using Apple / google maps coming through the speakers as factory nav does just through the phone settings. Factory nav units are usually dated and cost to upgrade, and pre 2010 are not postcode or user friendly.

Horizon

Ehup, thanks for that info.

To pick your brains some more and confirm my simple understanding  then......

No amp in boot so no need to run the cable ive been reading about from the boot to the parrot kit so it connects with the amp ?

Any advice really welcome.

cheers

I only had wiring at the back of the radio. Your cars radio module is built in to the Cd unit . The sot lead goes between your cd unit and the original quadlock plug on the loom
You have to pull the knob off the MID underneath it revealing a torq screws turn that 90 degs I think ind the mid pops out, 2 more screws and the cd is out.
Never wired one in but removed one when fitting  my Dynavin
I see your a Yorkshire lad, I'm off ther to work now, first call Dewsbury, the brighouse

Horizon

Thanks  for the reply hope you enjoyed a trio to "gods own county", im still struggling to be fair.

The more i read i assume i must have a piece of kit in the boot that the radio must plug into !

Im figuring i will take the boot apart over the weekend and try and figure out what does what in their and how it relates back to the radio.

If anyone has any photos of what i need to look for it would be appreciated.

I understand its a piece of kit under the pump dome cover and toward the rear of the car with some sort of quadlock on it.

I need to determine if this exists with the basic radio or not, i hate giving up on stuff without a try but i may well do on this project.

cheers again for all the responses folks

The BM54 looks like this, but it doesn’t matter, you don’t need to bother with it.

If you have an original BMW Factory fit sat nav screen, it is literally a screen, all the gubbings such as the sat nav, cd changer, amplifier, radio aerial are in the boot, all these items are controlled by using the screen at the front to send messages along the I-bus but that’s all it does, sends electrical signals along the cars information cabling.
For this reason, if you are fitting an aftermarket stereo to an E53 that had sat nav you need extension cables and an aerial extension.

For cars fitted with NON NAV CD/Radio/MID unit, the cables at the back of the original radio will suffice, all you need is the correct cable to convert from the BMW loom to whatever connection your chosen stereo has.

As a for instance, the Dynavin mentioned above is Plug and play for your X5, as Horizon has said. Mine has a nav screen so I need to run cables.

Check out the Dynavin info at this Yankee website - I think their videos and FAQs might help you out, it’s a bit more comprehensive than the Dynavin UK site I think https://www.jandtdistributing.com/pages ... tion-setup

sleepyfolk

Cheers for that, i have no sat nav or screen just the basic business radio and single play cd.

So my model has no radio related equipment in the boot i need to worry about when looking at fitting the phone kit.

I looked at bascules post where he fitted a parrot but his car had sat nav screen and required as below:-

One BMW SOT lead – this fits ‘between’ the existing amplifier and the speaker connections, and provides the interface point for the parrot to connect to.



One 5m long loom extension cable, to run from the parrot controller back to the electronics in the boot.
I bought all my kit from justcarkits.co.uk – used them for years and they’re really helpful, but there’s plenty of other sources.



Soooooooo this means i have no need to run a cable from the boot to the front of the car as the amp and Ariel etc are located in the MID unit ?

I assume therefore the adaptor kit will simply harness up behind the existing radio /cd slot.

Given im fitting the bury or parrot kit i therefore do not need to worry about the adapter cable running from the boot amp to the radio at the front to trigger the mute function etc when a call comes in and play the call over the radio speakers, as its all in the MID unit in my model ie no sat nav/screen/ multiplay cd . ( Anyone feel free to correct me if im wrong here ).

Cheers for taking the time to reply all

Yep, that’s right, either run the MID cable to the glovebox and fit the old MID in there if you want to be able to set date/time / fuel consumption etc, or leave the cable dangling in that area so you can plug the unit in if you want to it when the clocks change, some people can live without it - the rest of us are just anal!

If you google E53 MID in glovebox you’ll see what folks have done

Sleepyfolk

At the risk of becoming a PIA, as I’m only fitting the Bury car kit I will only have a mic, Bury display unit and the sOT cabling to route.

So I am being clear I am leaving the existing radio, mid and CD player in situ, just plugging in to the back of them with the wiring harnesses.

Bit confused as I am reading as if you think I’m moving the mid, but i have no need.

I think I’m clear now - just surprised ( well ex tactic actually) that I have no need to run cabling from the boot area.

Result for me in a big way as it should be relatively simples now for me, or so I think.

One happy Yorkshireman ( now that’s sumat not oft said !,,)

Ta

Sorry got carried away as I’ve been gathering bits/researching to put a new head unit in, forgot your original post!

All,
In way of a brief update on progress (or lack of it) I elected to check the actual boot area to double check the conflicting information on the requirement of a SOT lead for the car kit.

A number of suppliers I have checked for both parrot and bury kits were positive I required a 5m cable for connection to the amp.

I can confirm that having removed the boot cover, compressor etc. to reach the battery there is no amp located in my car.

Only thing i can find is an empty plug connector wired into the OEM loom but that could be for anything.

So I am now checking if its really that simple as to remove the radio, connect in the SOT leads as supplied that link with the car kit and radio and “hey presto” working car kit!!

Surely not?????

I am doing some more gigging this week to see if I can gather some more information on fitting when you have the basic radio set up.

Hope this help some one else in the future

Pics as always.

The plug you have empty in the boot is for the OEM towing equipment if it is fitted.
If you take out the radio and CD player you will find the radio's quadlock connector behind it disconnect it, the SOT lead for the Bluetooth connects between the two plugs test then put it all back.
It should take less time than digging in the boot.

Greydog,

Thanks for that, i was thinking of taking the radio out next as a tester and was hoping to find the quadlock there.

I an still looking into this but it looks like all my connections are in the front of the car behind the radio so fitting may only be a matter of removing and replacing plug leads at the rear of the radio.

It just sounds too simple to be true - maybe over thinking the whole thing. Other than running the mic cable and bury screen that appears to be it  .

Guessed the pre wired plug connector was there for something as an extra my car did not have but fitted as standard anyway.

Cheers for the reply

Quadlock is at the rear of the CD unit, pull the knob off the MID unit there is a torq screw underneath, turn this 90 degs and the mid unit is released, this exposes 2 torq screws which hold in the CD unit .

5 minutes to remove

Eh up Horizon

Cracking mate I was going to rip mine out and have a look, thanks for taking these photos.

Also found out today apparently there are two types of quad lock pins, I have counted yours and looks like 16 pin square, assume all are the same.

Really appreciate you doing the pics, I can now contact the supplier and talk them through the connections and see what they recommend now,,,,,

I’m even convincing myself I can fit this.......we will see......more ground work before I start anything electrical

Cheers again