Hello.

I an new in this forum and new in BMW as well.
But i was told this is best place and best experts can help with some questions.

I have E60 2004 year.
It has Pro Navi - and under my right arm there is a wireless phone - which is connected to central console with bluetooth.
I tried to delete and pair system with my iphone 4 but it does not work. No car and no phone can find each other.
Then i called to BMW service - and they said it is not possible at all. My only option is to get one more sim and use second phone in car.

Is there realey no other solution.
How could i make my car system work with my pocket phone? (i have heard some snap in and retro fit but i dont really understand what are they and what I need)

Thank you in advance.
Waiting for your kind support.

BR,
Nauzers / BMW E60 / 2004 / 530D

 

i have the exact same problem!
i have the motorola bmw phone in the armrest which works fine.
my old samsung used to find and pair with the car but wouldnt do anything else such as make or receive calls.
it made no difference wether i left the motorola paired or not.
when i got iphone 4 i tried again but this time neither phone or car can find each other.
i spoke to a friend who works in a dealer and he said the snap in adaptor only charges the phone, all other connection is via bluetooth. he suggested trying a idrive software update but even this wouldnt guarantee results.

 

have you tried pairing your pocket phone to the idrive?

 

Well that is the exact problem.

I can not pair my iphone 4 with BMW Bluetooth.

Car finds built in phone - but it does not find my iphone.

Well my firmware is i thing as old as the car. But i was avoiding update since there might be some problems.

Can update really solve such problem.

Or maybe this exact setup does not support extra phones than only original built in...

P.S. I have found some BTUM units... some device which you put instead your BMW phone - and it generates bluetooth that now can be connected with other phones - but it does not make sence. So now i will have to pair my car to this device - and then device to my Iphone? It sounds stupid.

 

strange....never heard of this feature. I don't have a phone for the car however it has some connections under the glove box for phone cradles which I assume is what you have but with a cradle for that particular phone. So does your phone pick up BMW bluetooth?

 

Yes the car connects with car phone with bluetooth with no problem.
I am really confused.

BMW service said that if i have in car phone then it will not connect to my personal one.
Is it true? Does anybody of you have in car phone and you can connect your private?
Can it be software issue.
I have old firmware - and maybe Iphone 4 does not go with this old firmware...

 

well i'm not sure but i think you do not have bluetooth installed. you have the bmw phone that was typically installed in 2003/04.

when you go to settings, is there a option to turn on bluetooth?

if not you may still be able to get bluetooth installed with a modul from bmw.

good luck!

 

Let me bring some light into this matter.
Obviously you have the BMW phone (built by Motorola until some time in 2005/2006) in the armrest (acts as a second GSM phone and needs its own SIM card).
What you see in the armrest is just a handset (display, buttons, microphone, no GSM RF parts) which communicates with the actual phone (a large aluminum box in the back of the car called TCU) via bluetooth (remember the old 90's phones which had a spiral cord connected to a rather large box which was the phone electronics? Bluetooth just replaces the cord). In the armrest there is also the SIM card reader connected to the TCU. So think of it as if you broke your phone into 3 pieces and installed them in different places of your car: Display/Keypad, SIM reader and GSM electronics.
It is possible to pair some phones with the car using bluetooth protocol, but since your phone has no programming to act just as a headset/handset you can not control the TCU.
If you want to use your own phone (and it's GSM capabilities) and the car speakers as a hands-free device the only way around is to change the TCU with an ULF (or M-ULF).
You already have the bluetooth antenna under the shifter and the MOST cables to the TCU, so practically you would need to replace the TCU and the cradle in the armrest and adapt the cables to the armrest.

The TCU built in functionality works fine if your mobile operator uses the principle that all your SIM cards ring at an incoming call and the first to answer gets the call transferred. My (company phone) operator unnfortunately plays wiseguys so only the SIM card registered last with a base station is active. That means that when you lock your car the car's SIM is still active. Ok, you say I will briefly call someone and hang up before answer to activate my pocket phone. But after 15 minutes when the car electronics goes to sleep it will then shut off the car's phone for real which will perform a shutdown message towards the GSM network and will be interpreted as again SIM activation. Now you are screwed, as the GSM network thinks you have shut down your phone and the caller will receive the "user has shut off his phone message", while you still think your phone in the pocket is active. So after realizing that I can't live with a phone that needs to be taken care of 16 minutes after locking my car I stopped using the car phone. Now I just use it when driving long distances, but often forget to pull the SIM afterwards and thus, become unreachable.

The only advantage of the TCU over the ULF is that you can read your SMS on the car screen (CID).

Regards,
Straba

 

Bring up this old topic. I tried to find article or instructions how to replace TCU to ULF, but could not.
So, I'm planning to buy 2004 E60 model, which are equipped with phone allway if it has professional navigation.
1. What kind of ULF is needed, ok newest possible, but are there different models?
2. I assume that the connectors work plug and play, but what about coding. Is that needed? I have friends with deep understanding about Inpa, NCS and such, so that probable ges ok.
3. any wiring needed?

And yes, I'm from Europe, whcih probable makes some difference.

 

Try putting aluminium foil on the inside of the front screen, I did this and my iphones all paired immediately.....worth a try if all else fails.