A messy heap of E46 optional extras questions

[Kingy]

How does the bluetooth on an E46 work? I was talking to a guy about his car for sale, and he said that he'd never used his bluetooth as it'd only got a holder for certain types of Nokia phones? Is this right? I realise you can probably change the holder (which hopefully charges the phone?) but can the bluetooth be used with a phone in your pocket, or do you have to keep the phone plugged in?

Is there an iPhone holder?

Is there a way of getting a nav equipped car to play mp3's/ipod's/iphones? If so, does it control it on screen?

How many channels do you get on the TV? The standard five, or freeview?

How much should I aim to pay for a hard top / wind deflector, and do they make a noticeable difference to noise etc?

Is there anything that you do to 'care' for a convertible hood?

The guy I was talking to about said his car had adaptive Xenons, the kind that look around corners when you're driving. I thought this was a realatively new thing, and not something that you'd find on the E46? So, is he talking out of his arse, or am I wrong and the Xenons are adaptive as standard, or am I wrong and there were Xenons, and then adaptive Xenons?

With regards to retro fit costs, I've heard it said that you can retrofit nav, but it costs a grand and you have to take the car apart, so I'm not doing that, but how easy is it to replace the standard halogen light units for factory OEM Xenons? Is there anything else to consider, or would I still need the ballast stuff? How much for OEM Xenon's?

How easy is it to retrofit factory bluetooth, and the folding mirrors? How much for each?

Is the drive of the E46 Convertible much different to the Coupe?, I realise that the Convertible will be slightly heavier than the Coupe, and will subsequently lap the ring in twelvety less seconds, but I don't care. I do care about the handling though, and have heard about something called scuttle shake? What is this, how do I notice it, is it really that bad, and does the E46 have it?

Cheers in advance, and apologies for babbling...

 

[Kingy]

There is no iphone eject box insert for the e46 and I doubt there will be as it is too wide to fit in there. You can use it in your pocket but it's likely that you'll need to replace the bluetooth ULF unit (the brains) with the latest version, which will cost a fair bit. The older ULFs don't work with the iphone, not even the one in my 2006 Z4.

What's a ULF? How expensive / is it easier than the complete bluetooth retrofit?

TV tuners are normally just analogue but there is a digital version available which is just a straight swap.

Where is the TV tuner? Another dash out job, or nice and conveiniently located? With regards to the TV, I understand it cuts out when the car is in motion? Does it cut out altogether, or can it be set to just turn off the picture, so I can hear the football commentary etc? Any idea how much?

With regards to ipod integration check out the Intravee - http://www.intravention.co.uk - nothing compares to it.

Excellent, I'll take a look at that later... Do you know if it's easy to fit?

Retrofitting xenons isn't easy to do properly as you won't have the autolevelling. You could use them without this though but you will need to get your light control module flashed so it doesn't check for a working halogen bulb..

I was talking about swapping the headlight unit completely. Would this still not give me the self-levelling?

Bluetooth is probably harder to retrofit than the nav, not only do you have to remove most of the interior (as you do when fitting nav) but you also need to run the mic cable up the a pillar to the roof.

Arse. Can the aftermarket bluetooth kits be fitted easier? If so, do they work with the steering wheel button? (actually what does the steering wheel button actually do?)

Adaptive xenons were indeed available on the e46.

Were adaptive xenons a different option to 'normal' xenons? Or are all factory xenons adaptive?

Cheers for your help...

 

[Kingy]

I wouldn't worry too much re the TV tuner stuff, the ones I have seen have been pretty useless in terms of reception

Ah, ok, cheers...

 

[Kingy]

The ULF is the main bluetooth unit, it's not separate to a retrofit it would be part of it.

Is that part difficult to fit?

TV Tuner is located in the boot behind a carpet panel and not hard to get to. You can quite easily code the tuner to work on the move but bear in mind it is illegal. Despite the other posts here I found reception to be pretty good and it's especially nice to have TV if you're stuck in a traffic jam. You can also easily connect a DVD player to it.

How easy? Download a guide and press some buttons easy? Can the screen brightness be adjusted so I can't see the TV, but can hear it? What sort of connections does it have? Or would it need wiring / soldering? I'm a numpty at anything more sophisticated than scart or HDMI...

The intravee is easy to fit, you plug it into the CD changer wiring in the boot and then you can connect an Alpine CD changer or ipod adapter into it.

Ah, so does that mean I'd have to have the ipod in the boot then? That rules the iphone thing out anyway then...

A 3rd party bluetooth unit can be used in conjuction with the steering wheel controls but you won't get the nice integrated phonebook on the nav screen etc. If you want to see who is calling you'll have to either look at the phone or get a bluetooth unit with a display.

Does the integrated phonebook work with the phone in your pocket or does it need to be plugged in? Does the eject box do anything other than charge the phone?

The self levelling part of the xenon headlights involves sensors on the axle etc so just replacing the headlamp unit won't give you this feature.

Not all xenons are adaptive iirc, I think it was a more expensive option.

Cheers, do you know if normal xenons can be upgraded to adaptive xenons?

 

[Kingy]

It depends what you mean, it sits behind the carpet panel in the boot and plugs into some wiring. However that wiring isn't there in cars without factory bluetooth so thats part of the big retrofit, you need to run a wiring loom from the rear to the front and it's a big job.

Excellent, so that's an option then... Is there a list of phones that do/don't work with the old ULF?

To fit a DVD player you just add a lead to the TV tuner which has phono sockets, two audio and one video. You can either buy this lead from BMW or make one yourself using some pins available from BMW, some wire and phono plugs. The pins can then be inserted into the plug on the TV tuner, there are some blank spaces in it for this. Not sure how low the brightness goes, I never tried it.

So if I got an MP3/DIVX compatible DVD player, that might be another option for playing MP3's if I don't get an ipod...

You can put the ipod wherever you want. I ran a cable from the rear to the front of the car and installed it in the cubby hole near the key.

To run the cable I just removed the door sill trim and ran it along there..

Does that provide power as well? If so, that could be a decent way of powering an iphone as well as getting the benefit of the MP3 storage, which by the sounds of it, the eject box wouldn't do anyway...

I doubt it to be honest, it would be a massive job I expect.

Ah well I can make my peace with not having adaptive Xenons, the real reason for wanting them is to improve the shocking halogen dip beam...

 

[Kingy]

BTW only the Bi-Xenon headlights are adaptive, and only working in adaptive mode when the light cluster switch is set to 'Auto'

So yeah, in order to have adaptive lights you need facelift xenons, if the car is not a facelift you will need new wings and lower brow trim also you will need the light sensor on the windscreen and the light cluster unit to match and probably also a reprogram to get it all working.

I'm only looking at post facelift cars... & I've been put off retrofitting anything bar the upgraded Bluetooth and Ipod, long before I thought I might have repace the bodywork!!!

What's Bi-Xenon? Can you get non-adaptive Bi-Xenons? How could you tell if they were bi-xenon or adaptive xenon if you were driving in the day?

 

[Kingy]

I wouldn't mind knowing the answers to these questions too as I am going to look at a 330 soft top tomorrow.

Haven't seen you around for a while!

No relapses to your epilepsy then? Have you still got your ST24? Didn't you have the same wheels as Drex did on his Scoob?

Hope we're not looking at the same car!

 

[Kingy]

It uses an Alpine KCA-410i ipod interface which does provide power - unless you have the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately with the 3G Apple removed the firewire charging which most car ipod adapters use because it is 12v. I would expect someone to bring out a converter though if they already haven't - As I don't have my 3 series with nav anymore I haven't looked into it.

Does the nav include the ability to navigate to postcodes/POIs?