Second Alpina addition - D5 BiTurbo No.13 (CarPlay update page 6)

[ScooBeeFive]

Thanks for posting those examples guys - I'm glad I mentioned it now. Those are some cracking examples of Alpinas. The E30 Touring must be a seriously rare beast and Gee - I love that E38. Is it yours by any chance?

I personally think the gold decals work better on the darker blues, I like silver with Alpina Blue. However, they are all great. Cheers!

[Gee.Singh]

Yes
B12 6.0

[ScooBeeFive]

Yes
B12 6.0

Very very nice - I can’t think of much better than a 12 Cylinder Alpina.

[JASV8S]

Alpina Blue suits the gold quite well too. I also think the e39 shape carries the stripes very well.

[Metrics]

Of late I’ve increasingly I found myself using Google maps/Waze for navigation and Spotify for music in the car. While Spotify worked well over BT audio, it was pretty restrictive for functionality, eg. didn’t allow selecting a track from a playlist. Using my phone for maps also meant using a vent mount and power lead, so not very elegant or user friendly on the move.

So a lockdown project of late was to look at upgrade options for my car – specifically how to have a more integrated system like Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. My D5 has CIC navigation system being a April 2012 car. I think D5s made after August 2012 (ie. Most of them) had the later NBT system. Although the first NBT system will have the same challenges as I’ve outlined above.
Here are the 3 routes I found for upgrading my car:

• Upgrade to the latest NBT system: NBT Evo – the best OE route but not cheap (000s) for the hardware and some coding etc required. Apple only route I believe.
• Replace the existing unit to an Android head unit. Quite well done but to my eye the screen looks too aftermarket and modified in the F10.
• Use a CarPlay box. These plug into the car’s harness and use the existing iDrive screen to display AA/ACP. iDrive controller and other key functionality of the car operates as normal.

I went with the box route.

A big factor for me was having a factory/OE type install, no weird clunky issues that made the system hit and miss, feel aftermarket or not integrate properly into the car’s systems. Also I wanted it to be totally reversible – no cutting or splicing of wires/harnesses.

After a fair amount of research online I found threads on M3post where E9* owners had trialled various boxes for their CIC navs. As with most things of this type, they get better with time and development and I could see there were now options that were worth seriously considering as they worked and were reliable. Also interestingly the installation procedure for these boxes is 99% the same, so I rather suspect the technology is the same irrespective of supplier, the boxes are probably coming out of the same Chinese factory…

I went ahead and bought a Carsara box/kit from AliExpress as recommended by many M3 satisfied owners on the forum:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000841 ... 4c4dYR2aHY

My car required the CIC kit with 4 pin LVDS. I’ve never used AliExpress before but very impressed with the whole purchase experience from start to finish, with loads of comms, updates and tracking info for the order. My box arrived from China in 10 days and cost me £156. For reference I was quoted £650 to have Carplay fitted to my car by an ICE specialist.

Installation:

Rather than reinventing the wheel, here is the best guide to use for the install:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q70PH84 ... BimmerTech

Have a watch as it outlines each step really clearly.

You will have to take a fair amount of your dash and centre console apart. As long as you have the right tools, take time and care it’s a very easy install to DIY and nothing to be worried about. The only specialist tools you will need are trim removal tools, mini pick tools (for separating BMW plug connectors) and a T20 Torx bit.

Here are some pics of my install and some tips from my side for a RHD F10:

Box of tricks and a fair chunk of wires


Due to the various BMW configurations this box is compatible with, it’s important to have the loom set up correctly for the system your car has. I ran into problems with mine initially as I didn’t set up the loom correctly. For mine it was as follows:



The mic loom uses the factory microphone, but you need to install a piggy back loom to it and secure down the A pillar:


I used cable ties to secure the cables and looms to the car’s harness so neat and no risk from rattles:


Everything opened up!! The silver box is the CIC unit and the main harness for the box plugs in the back of this:


In this pic you can just make out the iDrive piggy back loom (pink wires connected to the factory iDrive connector (blue)) and the audio aux cable (which connects to aux input in armrest):


iDrive piggy back loom and aux cable routed through factory access hole:


Here’s the how I connected the audio cable through the underside of the armrest storage box (a small cut made here to get the plug through):



One thing I clocked from Frosty’s pic was the LED in the armrest cubby. I never saw this in my car. When I dismantled my armrest I found this wasn’t connected on my car! I reckon it was forgotten when assembled at the factory as I’m pretty sure I was the first person to open up the centre console on this car. Cheers Frosty!


The box has an antenna which is required for the wireless link from the phone. It’s important it’s mounted in a place that will give strong signal for the phone, ie. away from metal. I mounted it to this part of plastic dash along the red line:


The box also comes with a USB input socket. I will mount this in the glovebox at some point but temporarily I put this behind the carpet trim above the net storage in the passenger footwell. It’s not really needed, but it’s there in case. It allows wired connection to Apple Carplay or AA if required, or a flash drive with media etc.

All the cables and loom then carefully cable tied together:


The control box was mounted securely behind the iDrive screen in an empty section that was almost tailor made for it!! The wires tucked into a neat little space just above the glovebox:


Screen back in place:



Gave everything in the centre tunnel a good clean and then reassembled. The PO must have spilt coffee in the cupholders as the area underneath had coffee stains.


Also polished the wood trim which had picked up swirls and fine scratches over the years.

[Metrics]

And here is how it looks with Apple CarPlay:






Pairing up phones was easy. My work phone is Apple, personal is Samsung - both paired easily wirelessly.
To start you just long press “Menu” on iDrive controller and ensure car’s audio is set to aux. Once paired as you jump in the car it automatically pairs and off you go.

iDrive knob, back button etc navigates the screen perfectly. Voice commands for Siri and Google assistant work great, so in theory handsfree commands, replying to messages etc
Other car systems work perfectly too on the screen, eg. as soon as you select reverse the camera and PDC screen comes up, then goes back to Carplay once on the move. You can use radio while using Google maps on screen etc
All the other and usual CarPlay/Android Auto options apply in terms of apps or having maps with satellite images, traffic.
And if you want to use the car’s normal systems you can – simply long press Menu again and you’re back to the normal menus, car nav, car Bluetooth etc

Note this box works for later NBT cars also, you just need to order the NBT kit which I believe has slightly different LVDS cables (otherwise the same set up as here).

I’ve not used it much yet so will share thoughts and update this thread as I use it more. There a number of adjustments you can make to tailor it to your needs, so I need to have a play. There’s a few things to be aware of and I will flag these shortly.

Hope this is of use to others – for £156 I’m over the moon!!

[hap]

Excellent work
Braver than me taking all that apart

[Bob]

That looks brilliant Asim, can see why you're chuffed with the result.

[JASV8S]

Great going Asim, took a sharp intake of breath on seeing the dismantling of these expensive bits. I have also been looking at doing something with the standard B10 installation to modernise it.

[Frosty]

Asim,

Great work. Would be good to see the tools you used, as I am to say the least a little concerned about taking this on!

I am just wondering where the leather segment number 7 was located;-)

Glad your all lit up as OEM in the armrest!

[Metrics]

I have also been looking at doing something with the standard B10 installation to modernise it.

Me too John, but it’s lower down on the priority list for me. Have you looked at the new head units? They look like the way to go.

Asim,

Great work. Would be good to see the tools you used, as I am to say the least a little concerned about taking this on!

I am just wondering where the leather segment number 7 was located;-)

Glad your all lit up as OEM in the armrest!

Hi Paul, I’ll take a pic later of the tools but really nothing special needed here. If you watch the YouTube video you’ll see what I mean. It’s more a case of taking time and being careful with trim. I used thick towels to protect the trim and leather, particularly when you slide the CIC box forward. Nothing was damaged, only my knuckles!
It looks more scary than it is in reality.

Took me a while to work out what you meant on segment 7! Good question!!

Yes, big thanks for that pic, I’d never have looked into that otherwise.

[JASV8S]

I have also been looking at doing something with the standard B10 installation to modernise it.

Me too John, but it’s lower down on the priority list for me. Have you looked at the new head units? They look like the way to go.

[/quote]

I have been looking at the Dynavin unit which looks like it can provide most things. It gets around upgrading the current Sat Nav which can't get the latest maps anyway. It can do phone and music but not DAB radio although there might be an adapter for that. I would also like to have a reversing camera but it is not clear on the Dynavin website that this is possible. It is stated in their main page for the e39 unit but cannot find the right camera in their store. Once you add all the bits together it builds the price but it does look like a neat solution.

In the meantime while we are confined to the house I decided to fix the 6 CD changer which had jammed. I took it apart cleaned it and re-greased it and it could now read CD's 1&2. Removed it again and stripped it down to get access to more movements and clean the laser then back in the car and now it doesn't work at all. So much for spending my working life as an electronic engineer! Never used it much anyway but it just annoyed me that it was broken and I had time on my hands, probably just misaligned something so will have another go later just so I don't have to admit failure.
I then raked out an old iPod and an FM transmitter I had used on previous cars. Thought this would be easy but I could not transfer CD's that I owned that I had loaded in years ago into iTunes now Apple Music without signing up to a subscription even although I pay for Apple cloud. Then I resurrected an old windows desktop, loaded down a 2008 version of iTunes to then find out that it would not sync to the iPod as it is registered elsewhere. Bit the bullet and synced it knowing it would wipe all the music and started to manually upload CDs which is easier than trying to work through Apple maze. Anyway a bit of a story of sanity testing proportions but I then found an Alpine FM/Bluetooth transmitter that can also do DAB, connect to phone and Spotify plus handsfree phone at about £60 so considering giving that a try.

Since I retired I just don't spend the hours that I use to in the car so music as become less than the necessity it used to. I am sure there are other threads on here covering the Dynavin. It would be interesting to hear other members experiences with it or other solutions.

[Metrics]

Feel you pain there John, sometimes these old components just become tricky it fix but I hope your patience will be rewarded with spinning CDs and music!

Yes there’s quite a few options out there for the E39. I’ll be looking into this at some point down the line and will keep you posted.
I think Charles has a Dynavin unit so worth checking out his posts.

[Metrics]

Would be good to see the tools you used, as I am to say the least a little concerned about taking this on!

Here you go Paul:



Literally all I needed to do the job. Oh and some cable ties and a pair of side cutters.

[Gee.Singh]