Updating software on a g30 bmw

ginjaninja · 24 Feb 2020 at 14:38

when buying a g30 from a bmw main dealer is it a reasonable ask to request that the software, firmware, idrive version are all updated to latest prior to sale? should this cost money and could i do this myself anyways?

i am particularly interested in full screen car play but thats another can of worms it seems...dealers seem clueless about software versions and software updates...

I understand map updates are OTA via subscription and a separate issue.

thanks

acemastr · 24 Feb 2020 at 14:57

ginjaninja said:
when buying a g30 from a bmw main dealer is it a reasonable ask to request that the software, firmware, idrive version are all updated to latest prior to sale? should this cost money and could i do this myself anyways?

i am particularly interested in full screen car play but thats another can of worms it seems...dealers seem clueless about software versions and software updates...

I understand map updates are OTA via subscription and a separate issue.

thanks

Very much depends on the dealer. I took my Toyota, and my Mustang, back to the dealer and asked for them to be updated and they did it.

If you can find a service bulletin for it they'll have to do it.

Dangerous Dave · 24 Feb 2020 at 16:43

Dealer won't update the software unless they can claim it under warranty so the best method is to take the car back a couple of weeks after buying and say the iDrive is crashing when access phone apps etc making no mention of software updates.

They will then be able to do a software update under warranty. I find unless you know the dealer tech well mentioning updating the software for no reason will get pushed back.

Dandle · 24 Feb 2020 at 18:13

Absolutely, make it a term of the sale. I agreed to buy both of our BMWs as long as the cars had a full software update before we picked them up.

ginjaninja · 24 Feb 2020 at 19:35

my dealer will not update the software even if i pay for it....asked the salesperson directly who is desperate to sell me a car, i even offered to pay extra for it..utter madness...i dont want to have to resort to games, but maybe thats the only way to play bmw uk. very frustrating. would love to understand why the dealers are so hesitant to engage in technology discussions.

Scythe · 25 Feb 2020 at 21:34

ginjaninja said:
my dealer will not update the software even if i pay for it....asked the salesperson directly who is desperate to sell me a car, i even offered to pay extra for it..utter madness...i dont want to have to resort to games, but maybe thats the only way to play bmw uk. very frustrating. would love to understand why the dealers are so hesitant to engage in technology discussions.

Very unusual. On my F30, iDrive software is updatable via a USB stick, and the file (and instructions) were available on the BMW website.

[TW]Fox · 25 Feb 2020 at 21:37

Scythe said:
Very unusual. On my F30, iDrive software is updatable via a USB stick

No it isn't - you can do a firmware update of the communications software but this isn't the same thing as a full iDrive software update.

IAmATeaf · 26 Feb 2020 at 12:05

My personal experience. The dealers I've dealt with will not update the firmware unless they absolutely have to. In my case I complained that the iDrive was randomly restarting so they updated the relevant modules. Another time, the steering rack needed to be replaced and for this they needed to update the entire car (so I was told). As it was covered under warranty they had HQ approval to do the update which covers them if something goes wrong during the process, again no idea if true but I was told it takes around 3-4 hours to update the car, like a Windows cumulative update

IAmATeaf · 26 Feb 2020 at 12:52

Personally, I wouldn't worry and as it's still under warranty you can always book it in when you find issues. Though this does mean the inconvenience of having to take the car there to get it done.

ginjaninja · 26 Feb 2020 at 16:07

[TW]Fox said:
No it isn't - you can do a firmware update of the communications software but this isn't the same thing as a full iDrive software update.

yes indeed i want everything updated, worryingly the saleperson said that there were as much as a full version difference in idrive between different G30 manufacture dates. I definitely want to be on the latest version. and not from 3 years ago (which is what it currently is)

[TW]Fox · 26 Feb 2020 at 16:44

You are vastly overstating the difference there will be.

A full version difference requires new hardware not just software.

ginjaninja · 26 Feb 2020 at 17:29

[TW]Fox said:
You are vastly overstating the difference there will be.

A full version difference requires new hardware not just software.

sure its a peace of mind thing...i have since spoken to connected drive services and they have confirmed the vehicle is on November 2017 software and November 2019 is available and the dealer should install as part of the sale...<interesting

Dandle · 26 Feb 2020 at 17:49

Raise it with the sales manager, if he wants to shift metal he will agree it. It costs them nothing to update it as they will leave it overnight if it's a big update. If anything fails they will just claim for it but that is unlikely to happen anyway.

IAmATeaf · 26 Feb 2020 at 19:36

They probably won’t be able to claim as I’m sure HQ will ask why they were updating

Dandle · 27 Feb 2020 at 00:23

IAmATeaf said:
They probably won’t be able to claim as I’m sure HQ will ask why they were updating

It's easy to answer questions like that to make sure it's covered. They wouldn't have any problem at all.

ginjaninja · 29 Feb 2020 at 15:33

Dangerous Dave said:
Dealer won't update the software unless they can claim it under warranty so the best method is to take the car back a couple of weeks after buying and say the iDrive is crashing when access phone apps etc making no mention of software updates.

They will then be able to do a software update under warranty. I find unless you know the dealer tech well mentioning updating the software for no reason will get pushed back.

having investigated, i believe that you are very right. BMW wont update unless a fault is present. Would it help if you were a bit more explicit on the example fault so i describe it well enough, i dont fully understand "crashing when access phone apps"

Dangerous Dave · 29 Feb 2020 at 15:50

ginjaninja said:
having investigated, i believe that you are very right. BMW wont update unless a fault is present. Would it help if you were a bit more explicit on the example fault so i describe it well enough, i dont fully understand "crashing when access phone apps"

I got an update done by telling them the iDrive system was crashing every so often when I plugged my phone into use the Spotify app for music. I didn’t notice any improvement being on the newer software.

On my wife’s Mini, Apple car play would hang every so often and reboot the system. Told them that and they did a full car update which didn’t sort the Apple car play (the next iOS update did)

The software must have done a large update to the camera system as it made the adaptive headlights significantly better at detecting oncoming traffic and stop/start reacts to the car in front now. So starts the engine as the car moves away in front or if you are at a roundabout and no car in front it dosn’t stop the engine so you have no delays getting on the roundabout. This brought it inline with the newer BMW stop/start systems where a camera is fitted.

IAmATeaf · 1 Mar 2020 at 11:59

Crashing for me meant that the idrive system would just randomly restart, so the sound would go off and you’d see the normal startup screen that you’d see when starting the car.