Question about MOST bus, Professional Radio and CD-changer

[FinE87]

Hi there!

I have a following problem. I bought an E87 (2005), that had a Business CD/radio installed. The car had not any devices using MOST at all (eg. no navigation etc.). I bought a Professional radio (manufactured 2008) from eBay and just replaced the old one - and surprisingly everything worked as a charm. So I was able to play MP3s, sound output was better, and I could access onboard "computer" by radio. Even steering wheel buttons were fuctioning ok.

Now, after this, I also bought a 6CD changer and tried to install that. What I did was that I simply attached a fiberoptics cable between the Professional radio and CD changer. That did not work at all, in terms that the radio did not regognize the changer. So I browsed through some forums and found out that I should drop my beemer to dealer, who "tells the car" that it has a CD changer.

This is what I did (CD-changer was not installed at that time), dealer uploaded new configuration (added prof. radio and CD changer option codes) but that did not help. Configuration was done by ODB connector, since I did not have MOST service connector in place.

I'm wondering that:
1. Does the CD-changer require some other MOST device to work?
2. Should the radio be also told that CD-changer exist?

I would appreciate any help on this, I'm not keen to take my car back to dealer again without knowing exactly what to do..

[beejay]

Originally Posted by FinE87

Hi there!

I have a following problem. I bought an E87 (2005), that had a Business CD/radio installed. The car had not any devices using MOST at all (eg. no navigation etc.). I bought a Professional radio (manufactured 2008) from eBay and just replaced the old one - and surprisingly everything worked as a charm. So I was able to play MP3s, sound output was better, and I could access onboard "computer" by radio. Even steering wheel buttons were fuctioning ok.

Now, after this, I also bought a 6CD changer and tried to install that. What I did was that I simply attached a fiberoptics cable between the Professional radio and CD changer. That did not work at all, in terms that the radio did not regognize the changer. So I browsed through some forums and found out that I should drop my beemer to dealer, who "tells the car" that it has a CD changer.

This is what I did (CD-changer was not installed at that time), dealer uploaded new configuration (added prof. radio and CD changer option codes) but that did not help. Configuration was done by ODB connector, since I did not have MOST service connector in place.

I'm wondering that:
1. Does the CD-changer require some other MOST device to work?
2. Should the radio be also told that CD-changer exist?

I would appreciate any help on this, I'm not keen to take my car back to dealer again without knowing exactly what to do..

Hi There, thanks for that Info, I went to my local BMW dealer and was told that You could
replace the business radio with the MOST professional radio because none of the on board computer functions would operate on the radio (dealer said no fibre optics installed) my car is the same spec as yours, how easy is it to change the radio ?and where in the car did you fit your 6CD Changer?
any assistance appreciated

[FinE87]

Originally Posted by beejay

Hi There, thanks for that Info, I went to my local BMW dealer and was told that You could
replace the business radio with the MOST professional radio because none of the on board computer functions would operate on the radio (dealer said no fibre optics installed) my car is the same spec as yours, how easy is it to change the radio ?and where in the car did you fit your 6CD Changer?
any assistance appreciated

Hi,

Replacing the radio is really simple. First, detach the negative connector from the battery.

I used two old credit cards as "special tools" while removing trims around the radio. I think you'll find more detailed instructions easily from the internet. If you can't find any, please let me know, I'll take some photos about the process then. The radio itself is attached by two screws only.

I noticed that I needed to turn the connector cable 180 degrees (carefully) as the connector in pro radio was other way around than in business radio.

After you've installed the radio physically, just attach the negative connector to the battery again and turn the radio on.

If you need to change for instance the location information, remove the key and shut down the radio. Then insert the key and turn on radio. Press and hold the 'm' button until the service menu appears. Now you can change the location to europe (or what ever you need).

However, you should note that the pro radio should come from the car having same options than your's. It doesn't have to be from 1-series but options should be same. I mean that if the radio comes from the car having L7 sound system, the radio assumes that output is digital. If so, you need to take it to the dealer for reprogramming. In my case, the options were luckily the same. Althoug I still need to get my car to dealer to program my cd-changer.

Now about the cd-changer. It is located on the left side of the trunk, I bought the cd-changer retrofit-kit which had installation brackets and all the required cabling. I also bought the new cover for the left side trunk. Trickiest part was connecting the cd-changer to the radio and to fuse box.

You do need to connect the most cable to the radio to that big connector using parts in the retrofit kit. Then you need to get most cable some how to the trunk, I put it under the covers on the left side of the car. Most difficult (time consuming) is to connect the positive wire of the cd-changer to the fuse box. I had to remove for instance the glove box, detach the screws from the fuse box and attach the cd wire to the correct place by using mirror (as I did not want remove the fuse box completely). So if you are not sure what you are doing, I recommed you to take your car to the dealer.

[beejay]

Hi, many thanks for your help, if you could send me pictures of the install it would be a great help, incidentally did you know that according to BMW Cheltenham you can fit the CD changer in the Glove compartment, (they have a picture of it) I have one from my series 3 that I want to fit,so after I find a Pro Radio I will have ago, finally how can you find out what sound system is in the car?