branie555

Problems are surfacing. Very poor reception unless I'm practically on top of the antenna. It seems that the phone works better if it is not plugged in to the car. Now, the BMW assist will only work when phone is in the car. I'm very close to asking form my money back on the whole shebang if the dealer can't get things worked out to my satisfaction.($915.00 w/installation)

Anyone elso having similar problems?

branie555

Just got the car back after 3 days. Apparently my V60 reception problem was solved through good old detective work. Service mgr. checked in to the problem and found a Service Measure that tells the dealer to make sure the protective antenna caps are off the antenna connections located under a panel in the trunk. This is not part of the install instructions, and someone from this board had mentioned antenna cap, which at the time I did not understand, I thought he was talking about the phone and not the car. Anyway, recept problem is solved. I also found out there is a "compensator" unit in the trunk that helps improve the signal in weak areas and results in fewer dropped calls.

Rudy

I mentioned the antenna cap in another thread (I think I was replying to you rainieriwm) but you understood me perfectly. I did mean the cap on the phone and not the car.

Coincidentally, my CPT9000 decided to start working yesterday and today (I don't dare touch the phone in the eject box now!) so I actually started making some calls.

My reception isn't very good either -- even with good signal strength being displayed on the iDrive "status bar" area.

I'm curious if these caps are something I can remove myself or if I can at least verify that they were removed without a trip to the dealer. Any ideas on exactly where to find them?

You also bring up a point that I was going to start my own thread on but I might as well do it here now:

When the phone is connected to the car, does the car boost the signal like the old days (boost it to something like 3 watts) or are we still using the transiever in the V60 which is something like 0.8 watts? The "compensator" you mentioned might just be an antenna booster and not a true signal amplifier like the old-fashioned "car phones" we used to have before all these low-power handhelds came out. (Anyone even remember back that far?? )

Okay, I'm rambling now -- shutting up!!

branie555

The guys at the Sprint store told me that digital phones do not have the same type of signal boost amplification that the old analog phones used when in the car. so it probably is an antenna booster.

Regarding the location: If you remove the trunk panels you should be able to find the connection, but I'm just not sure which one it's under, probably not the one the battery is under. Otherwise it's another trip to the dealer!

mrbelk

I removed the left-side trunk panels and couldn't find any exposed connections. The "TCU" is in there, with 4 co-ax type connections: one cream colored (with a cable plugged into it), one blue (not connected), one magenta (connected), and one black (connected). The co-ax antenna cable that connects the CPT9000 eject box to the car is also black; I'm guessing that they're related.

There was a panel under the soundproofing foam, but it didn't look "removable," so I'm assuming that whatever these "capped" antenna connectors are, they must be under the pre-formed carpet trim panels on the left-hand side. Anyway, I couldn't see anything that could be "uncapped."

I took some pictures of the eject box install, and will post a writeup tomorrow when I can get the pics off my camera.

-MrB