jimmies

I just pickd up a Sept 2003 530 petrol with 70K on the clock...nice car nothing over the top, in good condition.

I think it has the same m54 engine I had in my e39 so I know they are good lumps.

Now the spec on it is very funny.....It has no satnav or bluetooth but they splashed out on full electric heated sports leather seats,electric steering column adjustment and a cd changer. One thing which I'm finding very strange is the idrive....It must be the very first one to go in a 5 series. It has a comms menu (up) which has basically nothing in it, and OBC menu (right) that is the same info that I can get on the small panel between the dials, and entertainment menu(down) for the radio and cd and the Climate menu(left) for the climate stuff.

Is there any point in me upgrading this software on my car?....also when parking the car I do not get the car pic on the screen with the parking aid visuals...Is this normal? I get the beeps, just not the image on the screen.

Have found out the electric steering column adjustment does not work.....I hear the motor trying to move the column but it does not budge, may see if I can DIY fix this.

Feel free to laugh at my old e60....but advice on any upgrades would be good too

cheers

SilberGrauE60

you may also notice the "i" menu on the iDrive -- push straight down on the controller -- this has settings for a lot of systems, plus the service menu giving the time/miles to go for the next services...

heated seats is likely the cold weather package. cd changer is likely the Logic 7 premium sound.

jimmies

Hi Silber,

I had forgotten about that part....it has a couple of things in there...service stuff and screen brightness. Would there be any point in me upgrading this software? Is there anything to be gained?

rene525d

mine is late 06 and the idrive is the same as yours, however i get the picture of the car when PDC is on or car in reverse. Earlier this year i upgraded my car software at BMW and there were no changes to the idrive.

jimmies

Hi Rene,

So should I get the parking aid visuals??? or was there a very early version (mine?) that did not have it? Is it something that has to be enabled in the options?

rene525d

When PDC engages, you should have a visual on the idrive screen. Even older models should have that. What do you get on iDrive a black screen or the menu screen?

jimmies

IIt stays on the main menu screen. the beeps work as expected though

e60oholic

You should be able to open up the settings by pushing down, under the vehicle settings it should have an option to turn the picture of the car on. At least my 04 does

bruce_miranda

There is an option in the idrive to turn the visuals off - isn't there. I'm beginning to forget what the CCC looked like, having lived with the CIC for over 8 months now.

Might be best for the OP to state region and if possible what the original Build spec of the car was. The is no telling what the car has become now as compared to what it is now. When someone buy's my car they too will be scratching their heads I'm sure....

jimmies

not sure of the original build spec....but it is a UK car built in Sept '03....there is an option to turn the screen off.....I'll have another dig at it tomorrow, but if you guys say that it should be a standard feature then I'm sure it is there somewhere.

The car is totally standard....that will most likely change in my hands though