NBT retrofit to my 2006 E60
 

After some long thoughts, I decided to do the NBT retrofit. So, I went to Germany to do it. And here is the story of my upgrade:

I had CCC in my cat with navigation and voice, and bluetooth, and that CCC was horribly slow, did not have the maps for the area where I live, it could only play music from a cd or mp3 music from a cd, and not all codecs. Now, I really like driving my car, and I thought it was a shame to have such an outdated entertainment/navigation system there.

After some searching on the inetrnet, I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade to CIC, as there were ready made kits for CIC upgrade, and that was not too difficult upgrade, meaning I could almost do it myself, but with all the options I wanted (bt streaming), the price was very close to NBT, so I said why not, and just went directly for NBT. So I went to Germany to a company that specializes in upgrading to NBT, they said they needed two days, I said fine, and came back two days later to pick up the car. My first impressions with the new system were great. It is MUCH faster than the one I had (CCC). Everything is smooth, and most of the stuff works out of the box. Then I went to my hotel, and had my first surprise. After I started the car that evening I saw many errors on the screen. The most obvious one was "Discharging while stationary" and the date, and all of the settings were reset. I called the shop, and they told me it is probably that the emulator had some errors, and I should come again, for them to replace the emulator :((( Unfortunately I could not go the next day, so I went some 10 days later, and they replaced the emulator, and all appeared to be fine, except for a few issues:

- the car had some new electrical faults while driving(???)
- after the car went to sleep, the NBT would reset its settings meaning it would switch to german, and time format would change to 12h instead of 24 as I like it.

I called the shop, but they were confused, so I just drove back home, and had the car checked by my local indy mechanic, and he diagnosed the problem as a broken voltage regulator. After that was replaced, electrical faults disappeared :) but the switching back to german language remained :(((
Another email to the shop, and they told me it is difficult to program it to work with english after a startup :((( and since I am not in germany any more, I am unable to go there and explain to them in more direct terms that I need this fixed. However, once I go back there again, I will not leave until they fix that issue.

Now back to NBT - the good things

- it is FAST
- NAV really works
- if you are in a country that supports it, traffic info is available, and nav automatically offers different routes based on gongestion
- you can play even FLAC files
- you can stream music from bluetooth device
- you can set some of the buttons as actions, for example button 1 navigate to this address, and whatever nbt setting you like (call someone, whatever really)
- I have a touch controller and I can write down the addresses or search using writing
- I now have DAB radio (which works in countries that have it)
- I have a rear view camera

What does not work:
- No map display on HUD
- when reversing, lines do not move as I turn the steering wheel
- manual, and other NBT F10 settings do not work
- oil level display does not work
- tire pressure monitor does not work (because I do not have tpm sensors in the first place)
- language keeps switching back to german after the car goes to sleep

Is it all worth it? The money, the time, the hassle.

Well, in my opinion - yes. If you plan on keeping the car for the next 3+ years, then yes. The convenience is great, and the system is really easy to use. MUCH better than CCC, and CIC. If you already have CIC then, the benefit would not be that obvious, but with CCC or no nav at all, it is a great upgrade.

Thanks for taking time to post pros and cons only thing holding me back to go from CCC to NBT is no map display in HUD.

I did the CIC swap on my own, it was totally worth it. I actually feel like I bought a BMW vs a 2005 car for 30 grand. (back in 2011 I bought the 2010)

Did you ever get to fix the language part? I have similar problem however i purchased a retrofit kit from bimmerretrofit.
However only language sound setting and sourve of audio is reset on mine, everything else it remember, strangely when using my spare key only language is set back to german.

map display in the hud?? what car do you have?

there is no map display in the hud of mine. its like 1982 atari graphics anyway, lol how could there be map display? lol

you still have it? im planning to do mine on my 2008 soon. already have the cic. and android screen also. but want the latest and greatest. and the android screen is too dim.

How do you measure the oil if that doesnt work?

in the n54 e60 the i-drive is the only way to check oil levels.

Hi can you share with us the parts and and how you did it ?