2009 X5 Combox Retrofit from Bimmer Tech / Patryk

[m5james]

Very cool, but not cheap. My 2010 X5M doesn't have Bluetooth audio, so I just added a $5 dongle to the USB port in the center console. My buddy owns the company Carista and his app enabled DVD while driving. I'm guessing the other options i can disable with my laptop.

[-c-]

Originally Posted by m5james

Very cool, but not cheap. My 2010 X5M doesn't have Bluetooth audio, so I just added a $5 dongle to the USB port in the center console. My buddy owns the company Carista and his app enabled DVD while driving. I'm guessing the other options i can disable with my laptop.

Not sure but since BMW have stopped all support for this combox I think Internet and all that jazz would no longer work. Or does it ?

[Bklynjoker]

Originally Posted by apw2607

If you just updated the ccc to CIC and kept your existing TCU and MULF then BMW assist and the iPhone interface would still work as it worked before. No problems.

You can replace the TCU and MULF with a combox with telematics but you will be wasting your money. There is no way to transfer the IEMI code from the TCU to the combox. Each device has a unique code. This means BMW USA would have to register your combox with telematics for use with BMW assist. They simply wouldn't do that as this retrofit is not sanctioned by them so if you want combox just buy combox media. It's a bit cheaper. You will have to give up assist services.

Note though. You can still call BMW assist ... It's just you'll need to do it from your cellphone.

I've been wanting this since. I'm in the same boat, I have a "11"LCI with BMW assist but no connect & apps... Can you please list what I need to have your update & Can these parts be bought on eBay? Please I'm very interested in this upgrade

[Bklynjoker]

Originally Posted by apw2607

As a follow up to my CIC retrofit post

http://www.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=589250

I'll share my experiences of retrofitting the 2012 Combox - Media in a 2009 X5. For those folks that are not familiar with combox, it replaces two ECUs (TCU and MULF) that provided BMW Assist and USB/Aux/old smartphone capabilities. The Combox also improves on the MULF's ipod integration allowing voice search, album art and digital playback of music. It also provides the gateway to BMW apps and can be configured to use two european only capabilities .. BMW Live and Internet Browser.

As I mentioned above, I installed Combox Media. This provides all the services above, apart from BMW Assist services. You can purchase Combox - Telematics, but in my case that would have being a waste of time. Despite what you might read on the forums, the *only* way to enable BMW Assist services in a combox, is from BMW themselves, and theres no way that they would have done that for me, given my car never had the combox in the first place ... along with a retrofit CIC. I just couldn't be bothered to even go there with them.

That said, I was prepared to "give up" BMW Assist. Thats a choice you need to make, if you want to do this retrofit.

As I said in the title, I used Bimmertech again, since they had done such a fantastic job on the CIC retrofit. They provide a full retrofit kit that includes the combox, as well as a retrofit harness. Installation is painless and take about 10 minutes. Simply disconnect the plugs from MULF and the TCU ECUs. Terminate the MOST connector to the MULF with the supplied termination adapter. Connect the supplied retrofit harness to the existing car harness MULF and TCU connectors. Remove the USB and Bluetooth connectors and move them over to the Combox. The remaining Roof antenna and backup antenna connections are not used since there is no BMW Assist telematics.

Once the installation was done, Bimmertech took remote control of my laptop again and programmed / coded the car. It was all very painless and over quickly.

So to summarize, I went for a pretty archaic CCC idrive system to the very latest CIC hardware and software, with the very latest connected drive features.

BMW Live has a lot of potential, and am quite excited about what comes in the future with that.

Note, BMW Live and the internet browser feature require's a phone that can be bluetooth tethered to the car for data. The iPhone can do this, so long as you have a plan that supports this.

The one thing I didn't do is plugin or video. These two items, I'm not bothered about, since I have DVD and a DVD changer !

This retrofit is completely reversible, involves no changes to the existing wiring harness, and can simply put the older TCU and MULF back in the car (along with the CCC too).

I'll answer any questions, but for pricing, speak to bimmertech direct.

Have you tried YouTube.com. Can a video be played with that browser? Prob not but would be really cool