anybody out there can help me? I ve spent 4 hrs trying to fit in the dension 500. I must be doing something wrong b/c despite step by step guide from one fantastic link with photos (by Hully I think), no luck at all!!! I also bought the AVR- now I'm not even touching that! Any help would be much appreciated!!! I don't really want to take it in for fitting (hope won't come to that). Thanks good folks!

 

i had the same issue with stupid dension GW didnt work in my car nor was able to retrofit it by the dealer so I got rid of it and I bought OEM part but I have to take out the CDC which I will over the weekend Good luck
if ur car has M-ASK idrive buisness radio with no Mp3 reader at the dashbord Cd itwont work sorry :thumbsdown:

 

Thanks ICU.
Mine is idrive professional with cdc (525 d M sport 2005). I love the baby, but this isnt music to my ears yet! Wow! I cant imagine how annoying that must have been for you after all the ordeal with the dension. I might as well pay the odd £100 to get a professional do it this weekend... We ll see. Thanks for the reply.
Guz

 

You have idrive professional and CDC and yet you cannot get the Dension installed. Strange.... Are you absolutely sure you are following everything carefully because your set-up is the most straight forward.

 

ok guys, i had the same problem that i had to deal with for 2 months before i had it solved. So here it goes.
1) First, make sure you ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENT you installed it CORRECTLY, meaning hooked up all the wires where they need to be in. If you did not install correctly, all further steps are a waste of time.
In my case i have a 2005 545i with professional idrive, navigation and CD changer. My dension was installed in a way that i retain the cd changer as well.
2) Make sure you put the DIP switch setting to correct positions on the dension unit. If you want TEXT, need to set it to that.
3) Now to the fun part...after doing all that, i still did not get TEXT in my idrive. If you car can not play MP3 in CD single slot you need to have either the dealer or someone with Autologic tool enable MP3 function on your idrive. But here is another issue. After doing lots of research i found out that if your car's production date is before Sept 2005 and your idrive was never updated for software you can not code MP3 function. You first must update your idrive software to more recent one and than code MP3 function. If you car is produced after Sept 2005 you can easily code MP3.
4) Once i coded MP3 everyting worked. I not have text and it works great...its an awesome unit and i love it...was worth every penny. Hopefully it help you. Let me know if you have any questions. I am now expert in this issue many long hours of research.

 

Thanks Zincuk.
That was very helpful indeed!
Well, as it stands my system is March 2005. Lo and behold mp3s dont work on the single cd thingy. And another issue with car during Thursday's rainy day (water ingress and unhelpful dealer!!!) :-(( .... more on that on another forum later. Felt like grit in the eye!!!
This system update and mp3 enabling, how much would it cost??
Some one earlier was advising against updating the system because of crashing & other problems etc... I also read about some people's not-too-good experiences trying to get their dealer to update the mp3 at not cost... I m totally green in this whole thing, so any advice will be appreciated.
Cheers & thanks.

 

Thanks.
True, true, I thought so too because everything was clicking fine until it was time to piggy tail the power connection - that seems to be my nemesis. I used a U-tube setup video - didnt work, then I tried the step-by-step guide by someone on this forum, but no way... I thought I was doing ok, but no communication with system. Any ideas on how to connect the power source to the CDC will be most appreciated as I could nt see that pictures well.... I also bought the AVR, but now I m acctually scared of doing what Jay77 did (that dude has my respect: good description).

I m a bit apprehensive of dishing out £150 for installation...
So, any help would be great, & appreciated.
Thanks.