I have both solder iron and heat gun. Solder iron can be bought for $50 or as low as $7.99 at Fry's but the heat gun is $40 for me

Hey guys, are you trying to steal my idea and implement it on your cars? J/K I'm glad that you're happy with this mod. If I find something else, I'll share with you more.

Best Regards

 

Credit to you my530i you saved my ipod

If you come up with another mod this easy - that is as effective - I may even buy a soldering iron.

 

Anyone knows how to get more volume via the USB port? As stated before, the difference between USB and radio volume is huge and when you have the traffic announcements on ... you sometimes are not far from a stroke

 

I use an adapter called Pocket Dock that provides line out level and bypasses he ipod volume control. Much less volume difference. By the way, thanks to the original poster for this mod. Sound quality is better.

 

just made this mod myself today and it makes such a difference. sounds 100% percent... louder, clearer, and more bass. simple mod but makes a big difference.

 

I am not the most mechanical person in the world... so please bear with me.

I removed the two screws, but the faceplate did not seem to want to come out easily. Is there something else that needs to be removed to access the cable? I don't want to break anything.

 

WOW! this is NOT EASY!

 

I realize that most people who were going to add the aux input (this was hot before the ipod connector came out) have already added the input.

But I'll add one comment just in case you are slow to adopt....like me.

I did the mod. There is a person on bimmerfest who says this mod is risky and that the components don't change the bass reponse.

Well....it may be risky...but the volume is louder and the bass is no longer anemic.

Of course I think bass in the premium stereo (non L7) is relatively weak in the car anyway...but at least it does not get worse with the aux input anymore.

Oh yes...when you remove the knurled nut....keep your pliers on the input jack...or better yet keep something plugged in so you can pull it forwards.

I made a boo boo, and it fell backwards. So I ended up hiring a pro to open up the glovebox after all. But he did a nice job soldering the connections and putting everything back.

Say....does anybody know how to check if the glove box light is wired up properly? It comes on when the box is open...but it is not clear to me when it turns off...just wondering if somehow we messed something up there. Of course I never even thought about the operation of the glove box light until we did this mod!!

 

If light comes on, then connection is correct no worries. There is a closed circuit button there, if something was wrong, light would not lit at all.

 

By the way, how much resistors and capacitors was on the board? One resistor and two caps?