BoomerLDS

Hello,

I just purchased 2004 BMW 525i and I am wanting to know a lot of info on the car. I previously had a 2012 Passat.

Questions still have:

-Bluetooth, the car was made in 2003, but an 04. Do I go to the dealer for a software update?

-Headlights, are they adaptive and does anyone know a good place to buy HID kits for them?

-Type of gas, I assume it is recommended to use premium but can I use regular gas?

Are there any fun features on the car, such as with the key like rolling down and up the windows?

route60six

i also have an 04' 525i (built in 03'). i havent figured out the answer to the Bluetooth question yet either, if youre looking to play music ive found that an FM transmitter is the way to go (for me anyway). its cheap and simple and requires no coding, i bought an AUX input wiring harness for mine off ebay but didn't realize that it had to be coded as well. i would always recomend using premium fuel, its what your car prefers to drink. and as far as the adaptive headlights if youre unsure, pop the trunk and remove the right side access panel to get to the battery, and see if you have a fuse in the spot for adaptive headlights. (theres a fuse diagram in the black box mounted to the trunk lid) usually the headlights will "raise up" and tweak out for a second when you first turn them on if you have the adaptive headlights. i buy all my parts from Euro Parts West in Scottsdale, AZ he'll ship anything you need anywhere in the country (or outside the country). great guy that runs the place. moving on.... holding the unlock button for 10 seconds will roll down all the windows/sunroof, but you have to stick the key in the outside drivers door lock and turn it to the lock position and hold it to roll them all back up. you can have it coded to roll them back up with the key i believe, i haven't gotten around to it yet myself. the "sport button" trick is fun to play around with. some people say it doesn't do anything and its all in your head, I think they just dont know how to wire shit personally, because its night and day when you switch into sport mode. youll have to buy a button or toggle switch and some extra wire/connectors. theres several DIY's on YouTube its not too difficult. theres a module in the trunk, located in the spare tire dungeon, if it hasnt already been relocated you should relocate it to the left side tail light access panel and stuff it back there somewhere it wont get wet. theres issuses with water accumulating in the spare tire well and sizzling that module. hmmmm....what else.... It wouldn't hurt to do a throttle adaptation and transmission adaptation reset (if applicable) its pretty simple just search for it in one of the threads. holding the DSC button for a few seconds turns the traction control off. you gotta keep holding it until you see the triangle, it"ll say DTC active first, keep holding it to turn the shit off if you wanna have fun in it. youll notice theres no coolant temp gauge. me living in Phoenix i just cant deal with that type of blasphemy, theres a trick you can do called the "OBC unlock" and theres some cool stuff you can access on the instrument cluster including a digital temp reading, although its a pain in the ass to unlock it. you pretty much hold the trip reset for 20 seconds-ish and then press it 18 times to get to menu #19 which will then ask for a 2 digit code. the code is the last 5 digits of your vin added up. mines 27, so i press the trip reset 27 more times and then itll unlock. then you can keep pressing the trip reset to cycle through menus. #7 is the temp. and theres sub-menus so 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 etc... #9 is current voltage. theres threads on here with better instructions just search for OBC unlock. the seatbelt chime is annoying as hell and can easily be bypassed by putting a jumper wire into the yellow harness under each seat. just follow the wires from the seatbelt buckle back to that yellow harness. if you unplug it, you should disconnect the bat-tree first or else youll get an airbag light even if the car is off. me personally i just cut the wires at the yellow harness and twisted them together and called it a day. theres DIY's on u-toob for that too. lemme think.... make sure to clean out the sunroof drain tubes once in awhile. they get clogged and cause water to leak into the self destruct module and set the car on fire. also, theres an "e-box" under the hood on the passenger side underneath the cabin air filter tray. make sure theres no signs of water leaking into that. and while you have the hood up, a CCV delete and oil catch can install is super cheap and will save you hundreds of dollars down the road when the CCV fails and sucks oil into your intake manifold. thats all i can think of for now... feel free to ask me anything ill try my best to give you an accurate answer. IMO the 04'-05' were the best ones, having the M54 engine that was (for the most part) bullet proof. just alot of wierd bugs/glitches for the first year of the e60