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Avin Avant-4 E39 Installation & Experience

34K views 42 replies 20 participants last post by  goose1207 
#1 ·
I finally found my dream E39 M5 a few months ago - it's a delight! Well, except for the nav/radio unit and screen. So, I decided to upgrade. I bypassed the many Chinese units on eBay in favor of the Avin Avant-4 unit and have no regrets. Here's a brief report.

I ordered the unit, wireless backup camera, wireless external TPMS, Apple CarPlay, etc. for my car system which already had BMW nav and DSP amp. It came soon, boxed nicely with a lot of stuff. Their website (www.avinusa.com) shows everything. I used a video showing how to install and wire for my E39. It wasn't perfect, but got the job done. Very helpful was another video in the M3 Forum.

The Avant-4 is impressive. Rather than describe all of it here, just see their website. It fits the E39 dash perfectly, looks like built-in, and works flawlessly. Installation is not easy, but it's very doable to those who like upgrade projects and have some time to get it done.

Unfortunately, the instructions are miserable, and customer support is spotty. Once installed, I had to go to a number of videos and procedures and download and install various apps to get the various options working, but they are working with one important exception - no sound on my car system. That's a biggie, and it's something others have experienced. Hopefully Avin will help me resolve it soon.

Anyway, overall, it's a worthwhile upgrade. My cost with all the bells and whistles was around $850. Certainly not cheap, but it gives a lot.
 
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#11 · (Edited)
I just got back from a 1.5 hour test drive of the new Avin wireless car play module, and I couldn't be more enthused. This thing (not so much the unit as the concept-- everything on my phone in a simplified interface on my car screen, without having to take my phone out of my pocket... as well as police locations) is everything I have ever wanted out of ICE but never dared to dream would actually exist in the e46.





.... I think I'm going to have to order Avins for the M5 and M3 wagon, as well, now.

I'm working on integrating a Qi charger into the car to complement it, for longer drives. Though, I’m not expecting a ton of battery penalty from it— when I was using wireless carplay in the X3, it used 12% battery over a 50 minute drive. Not bad for a constant GPS connection, constant internet connection, and constant data linking to the car, on a 1.5 year old phone!

Edit: and if the phone is in the car, carplay automatically launches when the head unit boots up-- exactly as I would hope for.

I'm so stupidly stoked about this.
 
#15 ·
Those of you who have DSP and have run the loom from the trunk to behind the unit in the dash - what's the best route? Does it have to go up the passenger side? I've got it up the drivers side to the footwell of the pedals but can't find a space to fit it through so that it comes out where it needs to. Any help/pics much appreciated.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Been playing with the Qi charger design a bit. The final version will be black-- just using white because I don't like it, so use it for parts that'll end up in the trash :p

Charger I'm using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QN1R1D1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Matching the shape of the charger test piece:



Installed in the actual shape, charger properly oriented:



Back plate cover with countersunk screw holes:



slot the phone goes into:



back cover attached at 2 of the 9 screw holes:



The entire thing will fit below the lip of the door card (towards the rear), which means it'll be 100% invisible once installed unless you're hovering over the door card looking for it. The taller surface will mount against the outside of the door card, so you'll just slip you hand in and be able to touch most of the phone to remove it.

Net iteration is remove the front bottom, as I realize it serves no purpose in holding the phone and should make getting the phone out easier:

 
#20 ·
Update on the E39 Avant-4 after one month's use. Basically, it's working great, just like advertised. I have the wireless rear camera which comes on automatically when engaging reverse gear and the tire pressure monitoring system, which wirelessly connects to the valve stem cap modules and constantly shows pressure and temperature. Finally gave up on the OBD module as it didn't routinely connect via Bluetooth - no problem as it wasn't all that useful to me. Wireless Apple CarPlay connects automatically and works just fine - it's neat having much of my iPhone available on the Avant-4 screen. Phone calls, nav, and music work great when my iPhone is connected. Although wireless, I prefer the wired connection for charging, especially when using nav on trips. When not using CarPlay, I have programmed the AM/FM radio to start up automatically upon car start - works just fine.

Regarding routing the wiring to the trunk, I basically followed the BMW DIY Guy's video, of which there is link on the avinusa.com website. This was running the large wire and radio antenna wire through the driver's side dash, down the door trim, along and under the left door sill molding, under the back seat, and through the back seat bulkhead (had to drill a hole). In the trunk the wiring goes under the left side panels and carpet to the electronics compartment.

Bottom line: I am extremely satisfied with the Avant-4 in my E39 M5. Another nice feature: it looks OEM and fits nicely in the dash.
 
#22 ·
Hi, I'm not certain which version of the wiring harness I have, but it's the one for cars with the original BMW nav. It's a 6-meter one with 4 connectors at one end and one connector at the other - sounds like the one you're asking about. Anyway, the single connector plugs into the largest blue Avant slot in the dash. The other end with the 4 connectors goes into the trunk, and one of the connectors plugs into the wiring harness which originally went to the BMW radio. Each connector goes into only the place it's designed for, so you can't mess that up. One important note: assuming you're running the radio antenna wire along with the harness we're discussing above, triple check which end goes where. It's easy enough: just find the end which plugs into the Avant unit, and that's the dash end. The ends look similar. Hope your installation goes well.
 
#23 ·
One of the items I am struggling with right now is the radio/AppleCarplay.

Is it possible to listen to the radio with the Apple Carplay connected and displayed? Like using Waze for navigation but listening to the radio? I know in my Volvo with factory Apple CP it's possible. Every time I try to switch to the radio the screen flashes but then it goes back to Apple Carplay and I can't get the radio to be the audio source.

My preference would be to have the radio start automatically and the Apple CP to only connect when I select it, but despite trying to mess with the settings it seems to always connect automatically and take precedence over all other apps.

Any help would be appreciated!
 
#24 ·
I had the same problem that when touching Radio, it would show radio briefly then switch back to Car Play. I resolved that by going to I-bus App, the wrench, Other settings, and Automatic app start. Select Radio. This will start the radio when starting the car and should resolve your (and my former) problem. Let us know.

Another thing - you mentioned using WAZE - I like it, too. The problem I had until an hour ago was that with CarPlay on and using WAZE on my iPhone, the radio would continue to play, which meant WAZE and the radio were competing with each other on the speakers. I had hoped that I could listen to the radio - or music - along with WAZE and, when WAZE was talking the other music would shut off temporarily and then come back when WAZE went quiet. I'm still looking for that, but in the meantime I have discovered that one can turn off the radio using the large Radio Button, which has an on/off button.

Hope this helps.
 
#27 ·
I added fast wireless charging to my car and it works great.
Now you guys are all talking about Avin 4.
Has anyone seen this new 10.25 model?
 
#29 ·
Got eonon in my M3. Never buy this junk again. Very poor sound quality. Super slow and bugging. Ths list goes on. Nothing good about this brand, even customer support.

Will try the AVIN for sure!
Avin is overpriced and just a reseller, they don't write any of the software. So when their vendor stops giving them updated images, you're stuck with a buggy, outdated unit. Do some research and get a higher-end (still half of Avin's price), well supported / community supported chinese varant. Something that XDA developers support.

I bought an Avin unit a number of years ago without doing much research. It was slow / buggy from day one, didn't do half of what was promised or did it very poorly. Then 3-4 months later Avin says "sorry, no more updates for your unit" and it's stuck on a super old version of android.

Support was slow to respond, nice, but slow. They did offer to sell a new updated unit for 600ish dollars, but I'll go with a unit that XDA has hacked so I'll always have upgrade choices.
 
#30 ·
Had an Avin once, super pricey compared to the competition, one day just died like 3 days out of the one year warranty, shipped it back to china for repairs and came back still broken, like others have said, they all come from the same factory, just buy a cheaper one from the competition and flash it with a custom rom and software.
 
#34 ·
I think a better link would be

From my understanding looking over the threads, it appears that they don't support speficit units, they support head units based on their processor, PX5.
Maybe someone who has experience flashing ROMs on head units can clarify that.

PX5 is exactly the processor that is used in 10.25 head unit.
 
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