Mal Maddock (UK)

When another iPhone user travels in my car with their bluetooth enabled it interfers with the Mic so that a caller cannot hear me properly, however, I can hear them perfectly.

Also I report that a faint echo has materialised, I was hoping the recent iPhone software update might address this but it hasn’t.

My car has been booked into BMW on the 18th August 2008 to have this looked at. iDrive loaded with extras cost me no less than nearly £2.5k so I expect it to work. Still cant get over slow processing speed, incorrect track name when playing from iPod every now and then. I dont believe Vauxhall have this problem!

Again will keep you posted. Scoopz, really must assign a weekend to catching up mate!

Called my local dealer (western australia, perth) and they told me bmw australia hasnt released the cradle for 1phone 3g yet. Only for iphone, and told me they tested it and it didnt fit the 3g…

I have the Mini equivalent of iDrive fitted to my Cooper Clubman. My current iPhone with V2.0 software works fine with the car. The new 3G iPhone will fit the ‘old’ iPhone cradle but it’s not the perfect fit of the old one.

Hope that helps!

M

I had little confidence that it will fit before, and now with *Bill Gybels* response above I am 100% sure it won’t ! I will check it out though and if it fits then I will let you know on here.

Cheers for the minutes above to our conversation and it’s obviously useful for your other readers.

My 3 Series 320d M-Sport’s iDrive (build Date May 2008) syncs fine so there is a definate pattern here. Not made a call yet over the iDrive as O2 have failed to port us over yet (and it will be a week tomorrow). I digress I know but isn’t that bad form?? Credit checked O2 yesterday, found their chief execs home address through companies house and sent him a letter 1st class last night. You wouldn’t believe how nice and helpful one of his minions was today further to him reading the letter over a bowl of cornflakes…. Will keepp you posted. Bye 4 Now

It’s not possible to compare iDrive versions across the different model ranges, I know I started with my 5-series iDrive (CCC) versions on v.24 and have systematically had updates to v.25, v.26 and v.27 done under warranty. I tend to find the Service Bulletin PDF that’s meant only for the dealers detailing issues fix with each release and then just go in complaining of one of those issues so they fix it under warranty. However, the revisions for the 3-series whilst likely to be similar will not be exactly the same so the latest v.28 for a 5-series might correspond to v.17 on a 3-series…etc

There is absolutely no way to find out your current iDrive (CCC) version yourself, there are 3 hidden menu’s that I’ve discovered and written tutorials on how to access but even then none of the variables, tags, etc within the hidden menu’s represent iDrive software revision. If you go to your local dealer and ask them they *should* be able to tell you if they’re feeling helpful.

Links to hidden menu’s:

BMW E60 M5 Hidden iDrive Instructions
E60 Hidden Navigation Menu Instructions
E60 Hidden OBC (On Board Computer) Instructions

NOTE – the above 3 hidden menu’s I have confirmed as working in all iDrive versions on the 5-series BMW M5 and 5-series. I’ve never tried them on any other model but don’t see why they shouldn’t work.

I’m going to take my cradle into town tomorrow and see if I can try a 3G iPhone in it and will report back.

Scoopz

Would my version of Idrive be any more up to date than yours? How do I find out my revision?

Does the cradle you have work with the 3G iPhone?

Thanks for your help (really useful blog)

Really you help more than u imagine, I will let you know about what happen to me later

thanx
Naz

If you call up your local BMW dealer and ask for the parts department, give them either your vehicle registration or VIN number (in lower left of front windscreen). They can then enter that info into their system which will tell them if the iPhone cradle would be compatible with your car.

I had a 2001 5-series which had a built-in motorola phone cradle but didn’t have integrated bluetooth.

- Does your car have BMW factory fitted bluetooth? If not then I’m afraid it’s game over.

- Does your car have the space under the armrest for the BMW snap-in adapters? If not then it’s not a simple case of just buying the adapter shown in the photos.

Sorry I can’t give a definitive answer but it all depends on the spec of you car when it left the factory.

You can try entering car details on the BMW bluetooth site and see what crops up:
http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/bluetooth/

PS – The new 3G iPhone is getting official revealed on the 9th April so if you can install an iPhone cradle and are planning on updating to the latest iPhone hold off for a little bit, no doubt the new 3G iPhone won’t fit in the old iPhone cradle and BMW will eventually bring out a “3G iPhone adapter”.

Regards

Scoopz (Admin)

i just wana ask, if i can fix this part on any model of BMW

i mean i have BMW 330ci – 2002 ! it will fix or not ??

thanx

Thank you for you comments, firstly let me address your query about the temperature of the iPhone after 20-30mins in the cradle. My iPhone has shown absolutely no signs of temperature increase whilst on charge in the BMW cradle so you may want to keep an eye on that, perhaps swap it out for a another cradle with BMW or try a friend’s iPhone? Were you using the phone for the entire time it was on charge in the cradle, on a 20-30 minute call? If so the phone will be drawing more current to simultaneously charge and make the call.

I don’t know of any way to check the charge level going to the phone. Perhaps with the iPhone developer SDK kit there are engineer/developer modes that may show current battery level, battery draw, charge level, input current, etc

I doubt there are any settings your BMW dealer could change regarding the cradle but I might be wrong.

Regards signal…I’ve yet to notice an increase in signal with ANY external aerial connected to car kits I’ve ever owned (mostly all Nokia kits). Although I don’t really travel anywhere where signal drops below half most of the time so I’m not the best candidate to test it.

Scoopz (Admin)

I have had my dealer installed both the ipod Kit and the iPhone kit as per the above illustration. Everything works and my iPhone (v1.1.4 unlocked) syncs the phone #s (even in multiples, home/work, etc for 1 name) to my iDrive.

As for signal, I have yet to fully discern if the cradle (with the external antenna shark fin) have increased the signal quality. I will need to do a more through test to ensure it’s not physcological.

One thing I would like to ask the rest here, who have installed the same cradle.. I noticed that the iPhone seems to be un-naturally hotter after plugging it into the cradle for say 20-30 mins. Is this normal? If the cradle is doing a high current charge, then it’s not good for the battery.

Is there a setting somewhere to check what is charge level that the cradle is delivering to the iphone? Can this be changed/set at the dealer level (perhaps my dealer set it to ‘high’, etc)..

Thanks-Ben

I didn’t need to get the bluetooth firmware updated for the iPhone to function correctly, however, I have had 3 firware updates on my car relating to different issues with the iDrive crashing, etc I think I started on version CIPv24 and am now on CIP v27.

Voice dialling works a treat, it’s standard on my car but may be a cost option on other models. The iDrive also remembers the top 8 numbers you call most often and places them in a “Top 8″ list on the iDrive for easy access and to avoid having to scroll though too many name entries.

For the record, I have 450+ contacts in my iPhone with multiple numbers for most of them. There are even more contacts with email addresses only but these are not sync’d to the iDrive since no phone number exists.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Scoopz (Admin)

Cheers