2007 525xi,,, my idrive randomly gone out on me one day while driving, about a month ago.
It’s turned on periodically whenever it wants but it never stays on for more than 5-10 minutes max;
i have the sos phone symbol on my dash, i recently bought a carplay module to see if it would fix my no audio, no screen. i have a screen now, i can use my carplay but as for music or sound or chimes i can’t hear anything, EXCEPT for when i get calls, i can hear the person talking through my speakers and they can hear me, it’s so odd. yes i checked the module in my trunk it’s beautiful, its pretty, its shiny, its dry. Whenever my i drive turned back on when i had the original unit no sound would play, radio wouldn’t play and now on my carplay when i hit the “original interface” button the screen shows up as static


someone please help im considering replacing my whole cd player where the idrive is, i have my dash open now.

i have video and pictures of everything if anyone would like to see,
when my idrive was out and it turned back on anonymously sometimes it would turn off very harshly like it shorted out, can see static in the screen and my dash would go very dim.

 

calls play sound through random speakers but the other day music actually played through the speakers; BUT it was just through my drivers door speakers nothing and else and now it doesn’t do it anymore idk how it did it

 

You need to check your system. You said you had an sos so start at the back modules. Need to find the module that's going bad

 

radio still turns on and off whenever it wants, i had music play through my speakers one day, only through my driver side then when i turned the car off then back on it wasn’t doing it anymore, the other day the lights to the radio were illuminated but my idrive wasn’t on and neither were my headlights…..

 

i checked the module in the trunk, there was no water in the trunk and it looked completely fine
also i dont get the SOS message every single time even if my radio is out

 

@xxx525xi27 did you do this yet? Meaning, isolate the modules to find the bad one. It could be one module messing up the bus intermittently. Are you throwing any DTC codes?

 

All the Car Play/Android Auto units you can get for these cars depend on the iDrive system working correctly. They do not replace iDrive, they just add onto it. If your iDrive is busted, then you won't get sound no matter what you do. Send the head unit off to get repaired and that will fix your problems.