DAB was never available when I bought the car. But for the past few years I've been trying to find a way to retrofit it. Still not done and quite a long way off...

The official DAB retrofit comprises of the following.

1. DAB Tuner. (and mounting bracket)
2. DAB rear screen Amplifier.
3. DAB Shark Fin.
4. DAB rear screen.
5. Coding (of course)

I picked up the DAB tuner from ebay. But the external tuner is only used on the CCC. On the CIC DAB is included within the CIC itself. So I don't even know if my DAB tuner will work or not.

You will need a couple of more parts to connect the DAB tuner into the MOST bus circuit. Various ways of doing this. But the most difficult is finding the MOST wires. Problem is that BMW sell the MOST only as very long cables which you need special tools to cut and crimps which I didn't have (nor can afford). Easiest solution, Dension sell spares of their Optical MOST cables which work perfectly.

You then need the plug itself. The plug is the same one used on the CDC. The part number is not shown on the E60 but is the same used on the 1 and 3 series. That plug gives you both power and the MOST connections to the DAB tuner.

Next to need to get reception.
According to the WDS you need to connect this to the rear screen via a DAB aerial amplifier and the Shark fin. What I found later was that the Shark fin is used for Band L (which we don't have in the UK, but France and Germany do) and the rear screen is used for Band III (which is used in the UK). Would have helped if I knew this before I bought the parts!

Worst still, I bought the rear aerial amplifier thinking it would replace my diversity amp and give me a DAB aerial output. Wrong. The DAB uses a different rear windscreen altogether and the DAB amp is in addition to the diversity amp.
So the OEM aerial route is out of the question for me.

 

Mods please delete this duplicate. The joys of IE9....

 

Hi Bruce

I saw that you ended up abandoning your quest to retrofit DAB now that you've got the CIC installed. I've also fitted the CIC to my 2006 E60 but Patryk kindly sourced me a CIC with built-in DAB tuner so my quest is hopefully still alive!

I am trying to determine what parts I will need to complete the job. So far, I've worked out the following:

Antenna amplifier, DAB - 65206946409
Roof antenna - 65206943022 (although this is for Band L which we don't need here in the UK)
Rear windscreen - 51317044719 (very expensive route I know but want to keep it OEM)

Do you know what cables/connectors I need to connect the CIC to the antenna amplifier?

Cheers

 

This might come in handy. On one of my retrofit projects, I needed fakra connectors and this worked out very well for me. I ordered exactly what I needed in a custom length and it arrived from china very quickly: http://stores.ebay.com/rfsupplier/Fa...=p4634.c0.m322


Jim

 

I have a brand new Antenna Amplifier and maybe even a brand new Roof antenna if you are interested.

 

Thanks Bruce - just sent you a PM

 

whats a DAB? pardon my ignorance...

 

Digital radio.

 

Bruce- does the DAB unit have an industry standard connector for aerial? I've at present got Acoustic add on DAB and would like to retrofit BMW system but would keep my existing aerial layout for cheapness/simplicity.Where does the unit fit into the car as Real oem shows the unit but gives no idea as to its location, thanks, Kris

 

If you have the CCC, you need a separate DAB module. The DAB module itself has a special connector, however I managed to insert an industry standard DAB aerial in that socket without a problem at all. The DAB unit goes over the right rear wheel arch.