I'm new here, wanted to introduce myself, and have a few questions

[Jon_G]

Hi All - I'm new on here and just purchased a 2012 x5m. I posted some stuff but got no replies, and figured maybe I should be more civilized and introduce myself first. Ha. I'm Jon, live in San Francisco, and spent about 6 months searching before just finally pulling the trigger on my ideal e70 x5m - Black Sapphire on Black leather, fully loaded with everything other than the obnoxious looking DVD player in the back and glovebox. Carbon leather trim. It's super clean, under 30k miles, and I'm super excited to receive it off the shipping truck later this week. It's coming from a private seller in Florida. I currently also have a 2005 6 speed black on black ZHP sedan that I love sitting in the garage. This will be my 4th BMW I've owned.

I had two mod questions that I'm hoping for some input on to get me started. I'm assuming these topics may have been discussed already, so any links to previous threads would also be super appreciated.

Question 1) Suggestions for 2012 e70 CarPlay and Larger Screen Upgrade? I have the stock CIC head unit on a 2012 x5m, and I'm looking for suggestions for CarPlay and screen upgrades. I saw the $649 CarPlay MMI Prime Retrofit for BMW and it seems like a decent option based on the website sales pitch, but I don't know much else about it. As for screens, there seem to be many 10" and even 12" upgrades available online, but none seem to have many reviews. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Question 2) I want to upgrade the boring black and silver idrive knob and I've seen a bunch of really cool looking upgrades online, but most do not say they are compatible with the e70. Any suggestions along with where to find them? I'm looking for something clean and simple, ideally with clean M branding.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, and I look forward to hopefully being an active member of the community here.

Jon

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by jonn_g

Hi All - I'm new on here and just purchased a 2012 x5m. I posted some stuff but got no replies, and figured maybe I should be more civilized and introduce myself first. Ha. I'm Jon, live in San Francisco, and spent about 6 months searching before just finally pulling the trigger on my ideal e70 x5m - Black Sapphire on Black leather, fully loaded with everything other than the obnoxious looking DVD player in the back and glovebox. Carbon leather trim. It's super clean, under 30k miles, and I'm super excited to receive it off the shipping truck later this week. It's coming from a private seller in Florida. I currently also have a 2005 6 speed black on black ZHP sedan that I love sitting in the garage. This will be my 4th BMW I've owned.

I had two mod questions that I'm hoping for some input on to get me started. I'm assuming these topics may have been discussed already, so any links to previous threads would also be super appreciated.

Question 1) Suggestions for 2012 e70 CarPlay and Larger Screen Upgrade? I have the stock CIC head unit on a 2012 x5m, and I'm looking for suggestions for CarPlay and screen upgrades. I saw the $649 CarPlay MMI Prime Retrofit for BMW and it seems like a decent option based on the website sales pitch, but I don't know much else about it. As for screens, there seem to be many 10" and even 12" upgrades available online, but none seem to have many reviews. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Question 2) I want to upgrade the boring black and silver idrive knob and I've seen a bunch of really cool looking upgrades online, but most do not say they are compatible with the e70. Any suggestions along with where to find them? I'm looking for something clean and simple, ideally with clean M branding.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, and I look forward to hopefully being an active member of the community here.

Jon

Hi Jon, welcome. X5M sounds good, be sure to post pics once you receive it.

All I can answer from my experience is #1.

I just installed the 10.25" screen from 4x4shop and one week in, love it. Its android 10 based and seems to work great, the way it was advertised. They also have a carplay option, but im an Android guy. There are various versions out there, but I went with this company based on previous buyers who've posted online. The 12" is a nice option but I thought it looked less OEM-ish.

https://www.xbimmers.com/forums/show...&postcount=883

Hope it helps

[X5 MAN]

Congratulations on your new dream car!!

2012 X5M and under 30k miles !! How awesome can that be, if genuine

If I were you, I would leave it at stock.

Once you mod the iDrive and screen, all sorts of glitches crop up..

But that's just me.

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

Hi Jon, welcome. X5M sounds good, be sure to post pics once you receive it.

All I can answer from my experience is #1.

I just installed the 10.25" screen from 4x4shop and one week in, love it. Its android 10 based and seems to work great, the way it was advertised. They also have a carplay option, but im an Android guy. There are various versions out there, but I went with this company based on previous buyers who've posted online. The 12" is a nice option but I thought it looked less OEM-ish.

https://www.xbimmers.com/forums/show...&postcount=883

Hope it helps

Thank you for sharing! It does look really nice and I agree it does have that OEM feel from the pics. I will definitely consider this one.

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by X5 MAN

Congratulations on your new dream car!!

2012 X5M and under 30k miles !! How awesome can that be, if genuine

If I were you, I would leave it at stock.

Once you mod the iDrive and screen, all sorts of glitches crop up..

But that's just me.

It's genuine! I just got it tonight. Seems great so far. .

Thats an interesting note regarding the iDrive and screen having glitches if messed with. I will definitely keep that in mind. I'm interested to see what others say. Are the glitches coming from the different screen or would something as simple as adding something like bimmertech's MMI CarPlay solution and keeping the stock screen, still be glitchy?

[Dave00]

Congrats on the new X5M!!! I saw your note about your 2005 ZHP and I also had a 2004 ZHP (sedan - Alpine White) - didn't have the 6sp as mine was the auto (let down - I know) and I really miss that car!!!!

Also, for your X5M, I have a 13' myself with very low miles as she currently sits at 23K and with the pandemic I just don't drive very much and have only put a couple thousand miles on her over the past year. Mine is in the Melbourne Metallic color and you'll love your car as these things are amazing. The one thing I did (mod-wise) was to add a Dual Catch Can setup to help keep oil vapors off the intake valves on these DI motors. You'd be amazed as to how much oil I collect and I'd strongly suggest this mod if you're inclined and want to do it yourself. Lastly, if you don't mind me asking, what did you get yours for (pricewise) as the market is all over the place on these and I'd like to see what another low mileage unit went for?

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by Dave00

Congrats on the new X5M!!! I saw your note about your 2005 ZHP and I also had a 2004 ZHP (sedan - Alpine White) - didn't have the 6sp as mine was the auto (let down - I know) and I really miss that car!!!!

Also, for your X5M, I have a 13' myself with very low miles as she currently sits at 23K and with the pandemic I just don't drive very much and have only put a couple thousand miles on her over the past year. Mine is in the Melbourne Metallic color and you'll love your car as these things are amazing. The one thing I did (mod-wise) was to add a Dual Catch Can setup to help keep oil vapors off the intake valves on these DI motors. You'd be amazed as to how much oil I collect and I'd strongly suggest this mod if you're inclined and want to do it yourself. Lastly, if you don't mind me asking, what did you get yours for (pricewise) as the market is all over the place on these and I'd like to see what another low mileage unit went for?

Hey Dave - Nice to meet someone with such similar good taste. haha. I'll have to look into the dual catch can. I haven't done one before. Thanks for the tip! As for price, after watching the market for 6 months, I can confidently say if yours is in great condition and only at 23k miles, you can likely get over $34-35k for it depending on the part of the country and your actual setup. You may want to put it on BAT if you actually want to sell it, as that mileage would be the LOWEST I've seen since I've been watching. I bet it would get a ton of interest. Every e70 x5m I've seen with under 40k miles (which has been about 4 over the past 6 months) have gone for at least 32-33k miles and sold within a week. I saw a loaded but stock one go in about 30 days in New Jersey for 36k, with 32k miles. It had wood trim too, which usually isn't the most desirable.

[Dawgz]

Welcome to the board!

[laselvasurf]

Welcome! I responded to your thread about the idrive controller knob as well. I have an Avin screen in my 13 X5M and have been fairly happy with it. It has it's quarks, and annoyances, but it looks totally OEM and once things are figured, works quite well. Some issues I have with it are that the M button on the steering wheel will switch between the OEM interface and the new Android interface. There is no way to change this according to Avin. This means every time to put the vehicle in or out of M mode, you have to touch the screen to return to CarPlay or the android screen. This is honestly my biggest complaint. The other issues have to do with audio routing/quality. The simplest way of using the aftermarket screen is to run it through your aux input and then wire an external mic. The problem is, no matter what mic you use, it'll sound like crap compared to the oem bluetooth setup. Because of this, I use the OEM bluetooth for music and talking on the phone and use CarPlay for navigation/waze. This means every time I drive the car I have to switch away form CarPlay for any music playing and the same for any phone calls as CarPlay is the default and that cannot be changed.

For me, it's a very worth while upgrade, but just know it's not going to be OEM level. I have an i3 with wireless CarPlay and a raptor with plug in car play and both are better integrated IMHO.

Just a side note, I'm in Santa Cruz and have almost the exact same X5M as you. If you're ever in the area or just want to see what things look like with my Avin head unit, let me know.

[Dave00]

Originally Posted by jonn_g

Hey Dave - Nice to meet someone with such similar good taste. haha. I'll have to look into the dual catch can. I haven't done one before. Thanks for the tip! As for price, after watching the market for 6 months, I can confidently say if yours is in great condition and only at 23k miles, you can likely get over $34-35k for it depending on the part of the country and your actual setup. You may want to put it on BAT if you actually want to sell it, as that mileage would be the LOWEST I've seen since I've been watching. I bet it would get a ton of interest. Every e70 x5m I've seen with under 40k miles (which has been about 4 over the past 6 months) have gone for at least 32-33k miles and sold within a week. I saw a loaded but stock one go in about 30 days in New Jersey for 36k, with 32k miles. It had wood trim too, which usually isn't the most desirable.

Follow this thread for details on the catch can setup and Dawgz (already chiming in here) is the brain child behind the setup. Not that hard and definitely worth it as I'm catching quite a bit of oil.

https://www.xbimmers.com/forums/show...0#post26944870

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by laselvasurf

Welcome! I responded to your thread about the idrive controller knob as well. I have an Avin screen in my 13 X5M and have been fairly happy with it. It has it's quarks, and annoyances, but it looks totally OEM and once things are figured, works quite well. Some issues I have with it are that the M button on the steering wheel will switch between the OEM interface and the new Android interface. There is no way to change this according to Avin. This means every time to put the vehicle in or out of M mode, you have to touch the screen to return to CarPlay or the android screen. This is honestly my biggest complaint. The other issues have to do with audio routing/quality. The simplest way of using the aftermarket screen is to run it through your aux input and then wire an external mic. The problem is, no matter what mic you use, it'll sound like crap compared to the oem bluetooth setup. Because of this, I use the OEM bluetooth for music and talking on the phone and use CarPlay for navigation/waze. This means every time I drive the car I have to switch away form CarPlay for any music playing and the same for any phone calls as CarPlay is the default and that cannot be changed.

For me, it's a very worth while upgrade, but just know it's not going to be OEM level. I have an i3 with wireless CarPlay and a raptor with plug in car play and both are better integrated IMHO.

Just a side note, I'm in Santa Cruz and have almost the exact same X5M as you. If you're ever in the area or just want to see what things look like with my Avin head unit, let me know.

Hey! Appreciate all this! Thanks!

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

Hi Jon, welcome. X5M sounds good, be sure to post pics once you receive it.

All I can answer from my experience is #1.

I just installed the 10.25" screen from 4x4shop and one week in, love it. Its android 10 based and seems to work great, the way it was advertised. They also have a carplay option, but im an Android guy. There are various versions out there, but I went with this company based on previous buyers who've posted online. The 12" is a nice option but I thought it looked less OEM-ish.

https://www.xbimmers.com/forums/show...&postcount=883

Hope it helps

Hi Nyc Dito - Thanks for the information! I checked out your pics, and it looks great! Have you had any issues since then now that it's been over a month? Also, how is the blue anti-glare screen? In their sales video they made it look VERY blue, which seemed strange. How is it on your end? Is it blue? Is the image clear? I've heard one thing to look out for is that sometimes anti-glare = pixelated due to the film. How is yours? Hard to tell from the pics. Lastly, how is the audio quality so far compared to stock bluetooth?

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by Jon_G

Hi Nyc Dito - Thanks for the information! I checked out your pics, and it looks great! Have you had any issues since then now that it's been over a month? Also, how is the blue anti-glare screen? In their sales video they made it look VERY blue, which seemed strange. How is it on your end? Is it blue? Is the image clear? I've heard one thing to look out for is that sometimes anti-glare = pixelated due to the film. How is yours? Hard to tell from the pics. Lastly, how is the audio quality so far compared to stock bluetooth?

Hi Jon,

I actually got back from a road trip and had some good time to play and use the unit. Heres where I settled.

The blue screen is exaggerated on their videos. I even emailed them about it before buying to confirm. When I received it, thankfully it was nothing like their videos. Its all about the angle of light, in normal conditions or 90% of the time, you hardly see the blueish tint. The image is clear, i do not see any pixelation. I am not using the supplied screen protectors either.

Audio quality I had to play around with to get it at equal levels with the OE side of audio. I am not an Audiophile, but love nice sounding music. I mainly stream from Apple music and that alone I would think would hinder real quality sounds. But overall, i am pleased. If I were to upgrade speakers (I dont plan on it), maybe I'd be a little more concerned with the capabilities from the unit.

I do not BT music on the android side, I settled on BT music from the BMW side. So comparing BT to BT, I couldnt help you. I might mess around with it later, but I'm good with my setup for now. I mainly use the unit for Waze and Apple Music, or stream shows and movies (pretty neat for road trips!).

PM me your number and I can send a pic from my cell.

EDIT;

I saw you post on Argentos thread about carplay. So the unit I have, has it. We connect through the zlink app on the unit. We set it up and didnt like needing to have siri to use the feature. So we turned it off. Was pretty cool, but not for us. My wife is Apple user, Im android so I have no need for it.

No trick on their part in editing (4x4shop vid), it connects pretty quick. When I enable my hotspot from my phone, it connects the unit a few seconds later. When i try connecting the hotpsot from my wifes iPhone, I have to turn off and on the wifi from the unit as well. I dont need to do that with my Samsung.

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

Hi Jon,

I actually got back from a road trip and had some good time to play and use the unit. Heres where I settled.

The blue screen is exaggerated on their videos. I even emailed them about it before buying to confirm. When I received it, thankfully it was nothing like their videos. Its all about the angle of light, in normal conditions or 90% of the time, you hardly see the blueish tint. The image is clear, i do not see any pixelation. I am not using the supplied screen protectors either.

Audio quality I had to play around with to get it at equal levels with the OE side of audio. I am not an Audiophile, but love nice sounding music. I mainly stream from Apple music and that alone I would think would hinder real quality sounds. But overall, i am pleased. If I were to upgrade speakers (I dont plan on it), maybe I'd be a little more concerned with the capabilities from the unit.

I do not BT music on the android side, I settled on BT music from the BMW side. So comparing BT to BT, I couldnt help you. I might mess around with it later, but I'm good with my setup for now. I mainly use the unit for Waze and Apple Music, or stream shows and movies (pretty neat for road trips!).

PM me your number and I can send a pic from my cell.

EDIT;

I saw you post on Argentos thread about carplay. So the unit I have, has it. We connect through the zlink app on the unit. We set it up and didnt like needing to have siri to use the feature. So we turned it off. Was pretty cool, but not for us. My wife is Apple user, Im android so I have no need for it.

No trick on their part in editing (4x4shop vid), it connects pretty quick. When I enable my hotspot from my phone, it connects the unit a few seconds later. When i try connecting the hotpsot from my wifes iPhone, I have to turn off and on the wifi from the unit as well. I dont need to do that with my Samsung.

Thanks for your reply Nyc Dito! One follow up, the unit you have has what? Sorry, I'm forgetting the context. Are you saying you stopped using CarPlay because you are forced to use Siri to type? Is there no way to type on the touchscreen, or type using your phone?

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by Jon_G

Thanks for your reply Nyc Dito! One follow up, the unit you have has what? Sorry, I'm forgetting the context. Are you saying you stopped using CarPlay because you are forced to use Siri to type? Is there no way to type on the touchscreen, or type using your phone?

HI Jon,
No worries.

So when I connected my wifes iPhone through Zlink for the carplay feature, it connected it after a few seconds but made me enable siri. In order to use Zlink/Carplay feature, this was required. My wife normally keeps siri off (disabled on her phone) so she asked to not enable it on the car either. I did just to see if it would connect and have the features as shown in 4x4's video, it did. I didnt go much further than that, its a feature we do not use. I could only assume it works fine, I can mess around with it this weekend. I have no clue if I need to type using the monitor or phone, again I can only assume that I would use the monitor.

These are the main specs of the monitor;
4x4Shop Android unit
10.25"
Qualcomm snapdragon Android 10 - 4G RAM + 64G ROM (8 core)
1920x720 LG display with Blue anti-glare

I didn't buy any extras aside from navigation splitter for the factory harness.

Overall, im happy and love the modern look of the screen. That alone to me was worth it. Small things annoy me as a user like not being able to change the native ringtone on the monitor side. Or being able to alter the BMW side screen brightness. Or change the native Android launch screen when turning on the car, right now it says "HD screen 1920x720" or something. Its set right in the middle, a bit dim for me. Android side is fine and adjustable.

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by laselvasurf

Welcome! I responded to your thread about the idrive controller knob as well. I have an Avin screen in my 13 X5M and have been fairly happy with it. It has it's quarks, and annoyances, but it looks totally OEM and once things are figured, works quite well. Some issues I have with it are that the M button on the steering wheel will switch between the OEM interface and the new Android interface. There is no way to change this according to Avin. This means every time to put the vehicle in or out of M mode, you have to touch the screen to return to CarPlay or the android screen. This is honestly my biggest complaint. The other issues have to do with audio routing/quality. The simplest way of using the aftermarket screen is to run it through your aux input and then wire an external mic. The problem is, no matter what mic you use, it'll sound like crap compared to the oem bluetooth setup. Because of this, I use the OEM bluetooth for music and talking on the phone and use CarPlay for navigation/waze. This means every time I drive the car I have to switch away form CarPlay for any music playing and the same for any phone calls as CarPlay is the default and that cannot be changed.

For me, it's a very worth while upgrade, but just know it's not going to be OEM level. I have an i3 with wireless CarPlay and a raptor with plug in car play and both are better integrated IMHO.

Just a side note, I'm in Santa Cruz and have almost the exact same X5M as you. If you're ever in the area or just want to see what things look like with my Avin head unit, let me know.

laselvasurf - I recently did my install of my 4x4 shop android HU, and I'm still evaluating, but I did run into the same "m" mode takes you back to factory issue. The good news is I have a solution:

Go into your android main menu > setting> factory > enter passcode > vehicle > mode key selection-select ‘disable’

See screenshot attached.

Hope this helps. I know you're on an avin, but it should be the same thing I believe unless your firmware is so old this wasn't a setting yet.

[Nyc Dito]

How are you liking the unit so far?

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

How are you liking the unit so far?

So, I think I have the exact same unit as you. So far I'm liking it. It looks great, it's fast, and the music quality (using my individual audio factory speakers) is plenty good when streaming over Spotify etc. I know you said you use Apple Music, and I'm assuming it's the same quality.

I've had a few things I've had to figure out, and a few I still need to figure out as well. I also find the brightness of the factory idrive to be very low, and have yet to figure out how to make it brighter. I haven't spent a lot of time on that part yet. If you figure it out, please let me know!

Second, my Spotify skips sometimes, but I have yet to figure out what's causing it. It does it even with albums I've downloaded, which leads me to think it's either the android HU or my hotspot/bluetooth set up in the car. I gotta work on that too.

My last issue I still need to figure out is with regards to the climate controls no longer showing up when I'm using the android side. I asked 4x4 about it, and they surprisingly said "it's not supported' which I found very disappointing given they originally told me all factory idrive settings were still supported. Technically I guess the climate is still "supported", I just have to exit out of the android system first, which is obviously not sustainable with a regular use case.

[brs79]

Hey everyone, I’m new to bimmers as well & glad to be part of a lively forum.

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

How are you liking the unit so far?

Sorry for the delayed reply. I don't get notified for some reason when people reply to threads on subscribed to on here. I don't know why.

Anyhow, I think the unit looks amazing, love the black the bezel. The picture is great, very high resolution, and the "blue screen" upgrade offered by the 4x4 shop helps for most all potential glare issues I have come across. It's been great in that sense, a major upgrade over the factory system in that I now have android, and in my use case, car play, but also a great new screen.

There are only a few issues I'm having with it.

1) This is the big issue: Car play Audio skips like a scratched CD. Sometimes it's ok, and other times it's constant every 15-30 seconds. Its totally random, and so far after lots of trouble shooting, I still have not found a resolution. I have streamed from various apps (spotify, Apple Music, pandora) with stuff downloaded too, so it's not an internet issue. It is, however, annoying to the point that as of right now it's almost unusable as the skipping drives me and anyone in the car nuts. I'm hoping I can find a solution.

2) The climate control, radio, and CD changer info no longer shows up. I have to exit out of the android unit to use any of those, which makes it so I literally don't use them. Luckily I can get by with the climate control most of the time with just the buttons and don't need the GUI. The CD changer and radio GUI wouldn't even be necessary if I could get the streaming apps to work in CarPlay, so I'm still holding out.

If anyone has a solution for the CarPlay audio skipping, I'd be extremely thankful. The 4x4 shop has been most responsive within 24 hours over email, but so far none of their solutions have worked.

[Jon_G]

Originally Posted by brs79

Hey everyone, I’m new to bimmers as well & glad to be part of a lively forum.

Welcome!

[CarFan]

Resurrecting an old thread: Last week I paid to have the BimmerTech MMI device installed. I've not had a good experience. I went with BimmerTech because I wanted to be able to have tech support if it was needed. It seems that was a good choice.

The referred installer charged a fairly high fee $299 to install the device. They provided no instructions or assistance at their location even though problems appeared almost immediately. They added that BimmerTech sends them lots of business so they don't refuse to install their products, but they would have preferred that I had contacted the installer directly initially to have them order and install a CARPLAY device and they'd be more service oriented. But since I didn't they didn't have any assistance to offer regarding why the device was operating normally.

Their referred installer was nearly 2 hours away. Upon getting home I tried doing some troubleshooting using online videos. Here's my issue. About 3/4 of the time it doesn't automatically boot up. And getting it to do so manually requires a number of reboots.

The phenomenon is this. You get in the X5 and things looks like they are going operate normally then the screen simply goes black. Its like its about to start but it doesn't. After several reboots you can finally get to the MMI Prime screen. There you can go to the settings screen and manually select and deselect the pair phone and hope after a few more manual reboots the systems turns on AA. If you get out of the vehicle for longer than 20 mins, the freeze and manual re-booting is necessary once again.

I complained to BimmerTech and they gave me some tips and after several days of back and forth they finally told me it was a phone problem -- and therefore there was nothing that they could do. I use an Android operating system. It would be great if in addition to listing VIN on their site they also asked for details about our phones before they sold you their devices since they only work well with a few phones.

In any event, I acquired an Iphone and while it worked initally, within the same day it was doing the same thing as before. It wouldn't start up automatically and it took several re-boots to get it working and you couldn't leave the vehicle for more than about 20 mins before these problems would recur. Now however add that in the middle of a drive it will suddenly stop and the screen will go black.

BimmerTech now says that their device is faulty. At my expense, I can pay an installer to remove the old device and they will send me a new one.