hello Slyncka and all
i'm writting this to express my forestration of what the BMW community is enduring nowadays
to start with , i live in the middle east , finding a BMW expert is harder than finding snow in this area , the best i could find was a bahraini guy who has limited knowledge to BMW 2005 And below , he tries his best not to touch anything newer than that , another option is BMW dealers in the area ( saudi , bahrain , emirates ..ets ) which very few customers trust to maintain their cars , yet modify them .
now to start my story , i came across a topic about retrofitting CIC & CID with the new idrive in few neighbouring forums including this , after careful reading and taking two tip in mind ( get your hardware from ebay ,ask for professional assisstance from the wizards in the forum ) i bid on a CIC , CID & idrive combo for a reasonable price ( i think ) and proceeded to tip number two .
communication was reasonably good with the guy till we reached a point of ( how much , do i need this , will you support this ...ets )
i discovered that i need to pay 3 times what i paid for the combo to get it working on my bimmer , although i have a 2006-2007 pre-LCI 525i E60 , which according to my readings means that i have the infra-structure but i need a combination of software and probably hardware magic .
i have almost no idea about technical issues , i never solded a wire in my life , i have no programming skills what so ever .
tell me honestly , did i do a mistake following the stream ?
could i have help remotely ?
is there anybody you now in this area who can do it for my ( warm-hearted) price ?
i hope anybody would reply ,i feel upset not capable of helping my ownself
thanks

 

Shrink, I can't understand what is your concern here. If you are not a technical guy and can't do things on your own you have to pay someone to do it. Unfortunately everyone thinks that we bimmer owners are sitting on a pile of cash to dispense whatever dealer/vendor asks for.

This is a costly mod and either you DIY or you pay someone else to do it. You can do it yourself if you understand the risk and venture on this new journey. Otherwise its simple contact someone who knows how to do it.

For pre-LCI car you need to buy a bit more then LCI cars, just CIC, CID and controller is not enough. You have to buy new climate control panel too or it will leave a small gap between button and the trim which doesn't affect functionality but doesn't look good either.

You will have to program is all togathar which is another task, just fitting hardware isn't enough. I would suggest to either pay someone who knows about it, take a plunge and do it yourself and lastly sell everything whatever you have bought and give up.

Sorry for not being so helpful here but thats all I could say.

Ehsaan is very knowledgeable guy who I believe is based in Dubai, pm him and c if he is willing to help.

 

Hello Shrink , first of all let me tell you something : " Middle east " is not small village so you can't really determine whither there are expert people or not , instead of that , you supposed to admit that there are not a single garage for BMW in Saudi Arabia with all the respect to KSA people ( I do have 1000's of friends there ) , all the guys come to UAE specially to Dubai to have their cars modified / upgraded or at least they buys parts ..

talking about BMW dealers in ( saudi , bahrain , emirates ..ets ) , even if you take your car to BMW Germany and ask for CIC retrofit , they will ask you one single question : " leave from here please " , so there is nothing wrong with the dealers ..

back to business , if you are willing to bring your car to Dubai , I can help you getting your CIC installed and working perfectly ,, and yes as you said , in order for the CIC to work on your car ,, it will cost you even more than what you paid for the parts ..

and before you go ahead to do any installation of the CIC on your car ,, make sure you take your car to BMW dealer and request for full software update just in case , since your car is 2006 model ,, big chance you have an old software , for sure they will charge you money unless your car is under warranty and you provide them with at least 9 system faults / reasons to convince them for an update ..

I've done 4 CIC installations on X5 / X6 - E92 M3 and my car ( E60 ) .. I didn't buy parts for the rest of the cars , but I did the installation myself ,,

Good luck :thumbsup"


Al001 : thanks dude for your feedback ,, appreciate it

 

hi Ehssan
i understand that coding is magic , but do you think 3000 Dirhams is reasonable , 4500 Dirhams for GPS , and another 3000 Dirhams for voice activation ?
being a foriegner in GCC is more of an obticle , if you feel you can help me , i have no problem of driving from Riyadh to Dubai , if not personally , at least you can point me to somebody who can prepare the addatives and do the installation for ACCEPTABLE price .
if you can answer me now , i can ask the seller to ship the CIC ,CID and idrive to your location . as i'm in my way for a conference later this night
my e.mail is osama11298 at hotmail dot com , i 'll call you if you drop me your number .
shukran

 

unfortunately it's not as easy as what you really think ,, I really advise you to cancel your order from whoever you are buying the parts from unless you are buying it from Patryk or bimmerretrofit.com , I prefer Patryk since I know him personally and I was really happy dealing with him , you don't need to pay for for voice activation , just get the can filter which will enable the navigation as well as voice command ( Patryk sells it as well ) ,

other people that I did the installation for them , they bought the CIC kit from bimmerretrofit.com , I only did the installation but all the cars were software updated by BMW before I do the retrofit , all the cars had logic 7 sound system so there was no issues with the sound system wiring , but I'm sure you don't have logic 7 in your car ,, so some modifications to your sound wires is required ..

again it's really important to have your car software updated , it will help a lot , if you buy the kit from Patryk I can do the installation as well as coding for you in Dubai ..

also if you buy the CIC kit as parts only , then you still need the can filter or FSC activation code in order to have the navigation and voice command enabled , then you need to buy the GCC map as well as map activation code , but Patryk gives you a fully loaded ready to use CIC kit including all the parts and harness required for the upgrade ..

anyway , if you can post where are you buying the CIC from , I can have an idea what else you need to have it done ..

regarding sending the shipment to me directly ,, I don't really recommend that since I can't do nothing without the car ,

last thing : I'm really sorry brother but I don't know anyone else who can do the installation , I don't want to say there is no one , but I don't know anyone

 

dear ehssan
thank you for you time and honest replies
i bought this bundle from this seller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280728497554...84.m1439.l2649

maybe i couldn't understand Patryk , but he asked for extra 500 euro to activate the voice control
not to mention the navigation activation
i know he is ( almost ) one of a kind , but the summary i recieved from him was a bit ( detailed )
as somebody who spent all my life in medicine , i can't unbiasly value his effort , i'm sure you would know better .
i'm planning to visit Dubai with family next week end , hope you can take a peak on my car and tell me what i can do for it .
my e.mail is still up there

shukran

 

500 Euro is a good price when he is not using the hardware solution he need to buy a code to activate voice on the unit.
Only BMW can create the code (not like the map ones) and I think the activation code is Euro 350 for the CIC voice.
It makes more sense to buy the cable from BMW retro because when you sell the car or upgrade to another unit you can still use the cable. The code is based on the unit and will stay with it. You also could sell the cable but the code is based on your VIN and the serial number/VIN saved on the CIC so when you install it in another car you of luck again :-)

 

well , the OEM activation cost a lot of money comparing to the CAN Filter ,, Be honest with you the voice Command is useless so don't waste your money on it , but if you get the can filter then it will enable the voice command anyway ,,

looking at the item you bought , there is a lot of things missing ( wires - USB socket - I-drive frame - front panel - LCI Climate Controller ) , so please check The following threads starting from first page and see what's missing in your kit and make sure you order all the missing parts ,, your BMW dealer should get you those parts ,, just give them the part numbers .

https://5series.net/forums/topic/994...8#entry1266678

( check the attached DOC filr in the first post )
https://5series.net/forums/topic/109...t-compilation/

here is some part numbers for you to use as well :


61119185171 CIC HD Screen cable
61319167196 USB Port
61129196805 USB Port cable
51456976361 CIC Center trim



you need to have the CAN filter to activate the navigation as well as voice command ( also DVD in motion as an optional ) , so either buy it from Patryk or bimmerforums.com , both guys have good reveiws about this product ..

and you need to buy the map and the activation code for the map too , again both guys can get you that while buying the can filter ..

I'm working in Abu Dhabi these days on a private project for my company , I usually go back to Dubai on weekends so Hopefully I'll be around and it will be pleasure to meet you ,, also I will show you the CIC on my M5

we stay in touch ..

 

hello ehssan

this is what i got from my guy
( Complete CIC System retrofit coding based on VIN number

- System programming with the latest software

- Navigation + Voice + Video in Motion activation



Total: ***



- Combox Media kit ? ***



- E6x series CIC plastic trim faceplate ? ***



- Maps activation codes for your region ? ***


- Complete installation instructions for your vehicle ? FREE



- USB connector

- Power CID connector

- USB cable

- CID display cable )

prices removed for ethical reasons

do you think i need something else ?

? showing me your M5 ? Hmmmm , tasty

still don't know how to contact you
cheers

 

well , I'm reading the link of ebay which you post , it doesn't say anything about the following :

Complete CIC System retrofit coding based on VIN number

- System programming with the latest software

- Navigation + Voice + Video in Motion activation

- E6x series CIC plastic trim faceplate ? ***

- Maps activation codes for your region ? ***

- Complete installation instructions for your vehicle ? FREE

- USB connector

- Power CID connector

- USB cable

- CID display cable )

unless you have talked with him about the above in emails ,, because only mention in ebay listing is :

You will get:

1. CIC head unit
2. 8.8" CID HD screen
3. iDrive controller

so if you really getting what you mentioned , then it's great . you don't need anything ,

call me when you are in Dubai ,,