I have a Jan 2004 production E60 with Navigation and as a favor to me, my service advisor tried to get a bluetooth retrofit to work for me. They went and took the Telematics Control Unit (TCU) with integrated Bluetooth out of one of their new 2005 E60's from the dealership lot and installed it into my car. They then tried to code the TCU to work with the Navigation computer (CCC) and it failed. They also tried back-dating the CCC software and had no luck.

I contacted Pharding's service manager, Bob Pauch at Motor Werks, and he said he had not tried to do a Bluetooth retrofit for cars built before March 2004...nor did he think it could be done.

For those of you saying that Bluetooth will work on E60's built pre March 2004 if you replace the TCU, this may be the case for those without Navigation, but clearly isn't the case for those of us with navigation.

If anyone has been successful on getting a pre- March 2004 build E60 with Navigation to work, I'm very interested in talking to your dealer!

 

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...294&#entry60294

Look for the post from johnmac.

He had a pre March'04 build and with a new TCU was able to get bluetooth to work.

 

I performed a search on every one of johnmac's posts and none of them say that he has Navigation installed. Unless we can confirm he has navigation, the original post to this topic holds true.

 

I performed a search on every one of johnmac's posts and none of them say that he has Navigation installed. Unless we can confirm he has navigation, the original post to this topic holds true.
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I have a Feb 2004 build with Navigation and was able to get BT working with a new TCU. I posted the exact part number in the thread referred to above. Voice dialing works as well.

Incidentally, without the new TCU, and with 13.3 upgrade, Bluetooth appeared in the menus, I could dial and receive calls, but the microphone would not function properly (i.e,. people could not hear me on the other end). The TCU was not covered under warranty so cost me about $2K. Everything works great now.

The dealer is Laurel BMW in Westmont, Illinois. 630.654.5400.


-- JM.

 

Johnmac, do you know the actual build date of your car? Is it possible that the car was built close enough to March that you had the new CCC computer in it? I have had version 13 and 15 upgrades and bluetooth has never appeared in any of the iDrive menus with my existing TCU installed.

 

I believe, irrespective of your CIP version or hardware, the car needs to be programmed on these earlier models. Ofcourse most post 9/04 production E60s have it done at the factory (probably as default settings when the software is loaded)

 

Johnmac, do you know the actual build date of your car? Is it possible that the car was built close enough to March that you had the new CCC computer in it? I have had version 13 and 15 upgrades and bluetooth has never appeared in any of the iDrive menus with my existing TCU installed.
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Your tech needs to program the softtware to enable Bluetooth. It is part of 13.3 for sure. The only information I have on my build date is 02/2004 based on VIN. The BMW computer says Jan. 2004 but I think that is a mistake. Pre-March 2004 production cars require a new TCU and at least 13.3 programmed for bluetooth to work properly.

-- JM.

 

My car has a build start date of Feb 27 with completion on March 1/ 04. I had to replace my TCU for BT to work. I did not need to have my software completely updated as I had it done with my ipd install, only parts of the software system required updating. It is important to note that just getting a software update is not enough. BT must be enabled during the update by the Tech. It is not automatic.

One thing I found out is that you must let the car go to sleep after the work is complete and then reboot the system (wake-up the car) to activiate the new features such as BT.

 

JohnMac, you mentioend that your dealer, Laurel BMW in Westmont, Illinois 630.654.5400 did this upgrade for you. I talked to a service advisor and parts manager from your dealership and both of them said they had not done a bluetooth retrofit for any 5 series.

Who did you specifically work with to make this happen? I want to have my dealership talk to the tech that did this upgrade on your Feb 2004 e60 with Navigation.

Thanks for your help!

 

Ask for the service department and tell them that the technician named 'Derek' did the work on my car. Have them look up my service order. The last name is 'Macilwaine'. Derek will know exactly what he did.

-- JM.