Adding CarPlay to a 5 series

Bluecube

Bluecube

Bluecube

Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2011
Posts
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All going well, I’ll be picking up a nice 2019 BMW 540 next Thursday. It’s a fantastic drive but the equipment spec isn’t the best and one of the things missing is Apple CarPlay. A quick google indicates that I should be able to add it through the onboard system. Is it a simple process? I also see that there are various prices for this from £60 to £220 with no difference in the service provided - is there anything I should watch out for?

TIA
 
It should just be a software upgrade. Does seem to be quite a price range you've been given. It's not a complicated process, I believe BMW can usually do this too but not sure how much they charge.
 
BMW charge £220 from what I can see. Other options involve buying a key and inputting it yourself so I wonder if the software is already installed and just needs activating
 
Yeah if the car gives you the option to buy it then that's the easiest and best way but this will depend on what factory kit the car was fitted with. For example. if the car was never factory fitted with a wifi antenna then CarPlay activation won't be an option and you would have to plug in a wifi antenna yourself and activate CarPlay via other means.

It also depends on what head unit it's got - a 2019 G30 could have Entrynav2, NBT Evo or MGU if I'm not mistaken. Evo can have CarPlay activated fairly easily although the process varies depending on what software version is on the head unit and I think Entrynav2 can have it enabled too.
 
Be wary of aftermarket carplay activation - yes it's cheap but you need to be aware of the risks, and be willing to de-activate it every single time you take it into a dealer.

The coder thar provided my carplay activation for my old 2018 4 series didn't tell me to do that, and when it had a software update in a dealership it came back with stock navigation bricked, and I needed to pay a coder thar knew what they were doing to purchase a new fsc pack for my vin and restore these to the car to fix it.

If I'd de-activated car play each time it went in, which takes under 5 minutes with a laptop and enet cable, it would have been fine.
 
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If BMW are offering it, 100% do that.


I think you'd be mental to do it yourself, since the risk is too high:
  • Can void your BMW warranty
  • Can brick your iDrive
 
I’ll get back to you all. Don’t pick the car up till Thursday. I never got a chance to look at iDrive properly on the test drive and the salesman doesn’t know if Carplay is installed or not. Going the BMW route is probably best but I begrudge paying a couple hundred pounds just so a software setting can be changed!
 
I personally purchased a Carplay upgrade for my 2018 F82 M4 from eBay for £35 which came with the latest navigation maps and lifetime map upgrade fsc code. Installation was simple and took a matter of minutes although you will require an odb2 to ethernet adapter which is around £10 online.
 
Which I don‘t have. I absolutely love the car but the fella that originally specced it seems to have gone with the basics and bought it for the number on the boot as the only thing I can find that’s out of the norm is the HUD
 
If the info I’m looking at is correct then I definitely don’t have the tech pack as I’ve no WiFi, no display key and no wireless charging. Just the HUD.

I got in touch with BMW support regarding my Carplay issue who said I don’t have the required WiFi antenna but they also said I don’t have the Professional Media System option which I definitely have. On double checking this, I typed my VIN into what appeared to be a reputable VIN checker which said the car was fitted with a WiFi antenna… The TLDR seems to be that nobody really knows just wtf my car is fitted with :D
 
It probably doesn’t. You could pull the head unit to look for the connection (pink fakra connector) but if BMW say it doesn’t have it they won’t allow you to pay for CarPlay at all, even if you plugged your own antenna in.

Only options are to buy an antenna and use one of the non-official ways to activate it or to buy one of the Android replacement screens. You retain the BMW UI but have the ability to toggle between that and Android whenever you want. It will give you CarPlay and it works well, but it isn’t as sleek as the integrated ID6 CarPlay. Or you can buy an MMI box which effectively does the same thing as the Android HU but retains the OEM screen.
 
I can't see how this is worth it. If the system is very old and or has no navigation with traffic information then it really brings it up to date, I'm trying to work out how to put it in the Mini for this reason.

But yours isn't. I have both Carplay and Android Auto on mine and I never use either of them, what's the point? On iDrive 6 probably the biggest benefit of Carplay would be to use Spotify properly but even that I don't think is worth the effort and complications if the car is missing the components required for the official update.

You'll lose most of the useful functionally of your head up display as well.
 
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t
[TW]Fox said:
I can't see how this is worth it. If the system is very old and or has no navigation with traffic information then it really brings it up to date, I'm trying to work out how to put it in the Mini for this reason.

But yours isn't. I have both Carplay and Android Auto on mine and I never use either of them, what's the point? On iDrive 6 probably the biggest benefit of Carplay would be to use Spotify properly but even that I don't think is worth the effort and complications if the car is missing the components required for the official update.

You'll lose most of the useful functionally of your head up display as well.
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I‘ve spent far too much time reading up on this and I agree with you. CarPlay was always just a nice to have feature that I was disappointed not to get. However the inbuilt Bluetooth setup works very well for playing music and making calls on phones. The inbuilt satnav is great and being able to see it on the HUD is a fantastic feature.
 
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