525iSE

My AUX in happens to be in the rear center console (below the AC vent). On my first E60 it was in the glovebox, and I did this mod, sound improved. OK. My problem is, now on my second E60, they stupidly put it on the rear console, and when I openned it up to do this same mod, its not there????? Anyone have any idea where it is?

nicke60gre

It's into the housing, you just have to de-assemble the socket from behind

M5Cal

Hi All

i'm about to receive my aux input from Bavarian auto. I was curious on the setup of the aux input to iDrive.

Do you have to program the iDrive so it shows an Aux option (FM, SAT, CD, AUX)? or is the aux jack connected to the back of the radio and simply uses the amp/speaker to play the ipod.

I'm not trying to control or navigate the ipod via the iDrive. Just curious as to how the radio knows to play the music from the ipod.

Thanks!!

El Immigrante

I have the aux input in the rear of the car? Has anyone performed this mod when the aux input is in the rear of the car?

Just so I'm clear, everyone is connecting their iPod from the headphone out to the aux input using an aux audio cable, correct?

Thanks.

mrgritzxxiv

ya...ipod headphone out to the aux input. mine was in the glovebox... good luck with yours.

tiangco.a

sorry to bring up such an old thread but THANKS!!! this helped out soo much, i was having buyers remorse and didnt even have it for an hour yet! Thank god for this mod!

roskinc

i installed the Aux cable couple days ago and did notice that the quality of the bass was almost non existence. sound was ok too. i saw this mod and immediately tried it out and let me tell you, now the quality and bass is fantastic. very good mod, almost wonder why bmw even added that, ive never seen a cable with this resister before. also while i was working with these wires, hard to believe i paid 80 bucks for this wire, i could have made it with 10 bucks worth of material from the local electronic store, i might even make some to sell, anyways i took a few shots since the op had a fuzzy camera.

nomis_nehc

Lol, I said the same thing too. It's freaking just wires!

As for the existence of the board and resistor in place, I believe it's to suppress any unclean noise.

focal

worthy of a reply.

thanks again for the clear instructions on how to do this. Took about 30 minutes start to finish. The most time wasting was acquiring the tape, buying a solder iron, wire stripper and shrink wraps. All useful tools that I never got around to getting (I swear I had them but lost them in various moves). I guess I'll start making more cables now for my home stereo with all the extra parts.

the car is booked this weekend to get installed and programmed in ('06 525xi).

sad thing is I was quoted extremely high rates locally. One shop quoted me $600+ tax for labour. I found a dealer who's done it plenty and quoted me 1.5 hours. Much more reasonable.

focal

the install has been done. Funny thing is I had to travel from Toronto, Canada to Detroit/Birmingham for family and was able to get the install done at Erhard BMW. The same dealer that had the install instructions floating around the internet

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69512

Erhard BMW knew about the Aux input cable and quoted me a fair rate compared to the excessive rates that the Toronto BMW dealers quoted me. Although their tech did go over time a bit so I'm sure they'll quote the correct time for the next customer. Given that all new BMW have USB ports, this modification will get rarer and rarer.

As for the quality of the Aux in, it's definitely not as good as in my car with an aftermarket deck. it is noticeably down in volume, but not awful. The drive home was immensely more enjoyable with a full selection of 1300+ songs on my iphone. Our E60 has no MP3 capability and not buying new CD's for ages, it's really only a FM radio. Pretty hard on long distance drives. I did have a line out adaptor for my iPhone. The volume was definitely dependent on the recording still. all tracks are recorded lossless AAC, but more up to date pop definitely was louder and loud enough. Some tracks from older artist were softer and road noise definitely was overwhelming it. I didn't want to crank up the volume too high as gain noise started to show.

as I noted above, I did the modification of the board that is the basis of this thread. I didn't install first the cable before mod, so I have no comparison with or without the board inline.

I do have an audio upgrade booked in another 10 days.

- set of focal woofers or Hybrid Audio L3..still undecided
- set of Boston Neo type-M tweeters
- installing an OEM tweeter into the centre channel
- installing a four channel Audison LRx4.300 amp to power the front components and underseat drivers

my overall volume/gain will be improved so I should get to a more acceptable level with my Aux input source. although it's still relative and I'll have to be careful switching back to CD or Radio