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DIY: auxiliary input E60

91K views 38 replies 15 participants last post by  bimma328 
#1 ·
I finally decided to install the aux input in my e60 m5. After some research in the forums and finding out that buying an 80$ cable from the dealer just to remove the little green resistor board got me thinking, Im paying 80$ for a wire that i could be making for under 10$. So total cost for this project was actually around 7$ :)

It's my 2nd DIY post so bare with me im a little bit rusty! I will answer all questions if anything is unclear.

First here is a list of the tools you will need:

Philips screwdriver
Drill with 7/32nd universal drill bit (plastic wood metal)
Electric Tape,
Xacto knife,
Strong glue (gel crazy glue, polyurethane or contact cement)
Welding iron
little bit of elbow grease ;)

Now for the parts:
3.5mm audio female input (stereo very important)
3 female connector pins (tyco)
any audio cable with 3 wires inside(or 2 wires and a ground) about 1.5 to 2 feet in lenght

For the coding part you will need the K+DCAN usb cable and the software INPA with NCSEXPERT loaded into a 32 bit windows laptop.


Step 1: Code the car to make sure you can enable the AUX input before you do all this for nothing!

-Using the software NCSEXPERT you need to find the following module and change the following option:
For CCC systems, with navigation, add $NAUX in VO or module CAPPL : AUX_CONFIG = mounted (default is not_mounted)
For MASK systems 04-06 without navigation, add $NAUX in VO or module MASK : AUX_CONFIG = mounted
As soon as this is coded you should see your idrive screen reboot, once on double check is AUX all the way to the right.
If it is showing then you can build the cable and install it.


Step 2: The Cable

-It's pretty straight forward, you need to weld 3 wires to the 3.5mm female jack and weld the other end to 3 female connector pins.
One of them will be the ground, the other one Left Channel, the other Right Channel. Pics attached.

Step 3: The install location

-You can mount the cable in the glove box on the left side close to the emergency flashlight or you can mount the input under the radio.
-Once you decide the final location you will need to remove the trim where the air vents are. To do this open the passenger front door.
-Using a small prying tool gently pop the cover by starting from the edges and moving toward the middle.
-Once the piece is out, pop the hazard/unlock button and remove the connector.
-On the top left and right corner of the climate control buttons you will see 1 screw in each corner, remove with philips.
-Then gently pull the climate controls towards you, they should come out easily, apply a prying tool for the lower plastic board on each
side and pull towards you.
-Once the panels are out you need to remove 4 screws on the CCC unit (the metal plate under the cd slot) and 2 screws for the mask
unit.
-Pull the radio unit out, then unplug the big radio connector. (pic attached)
-Visually locate the black 12 pin connector (pic attached)
-for the MASK unit you wont find that 12 pin black connector, you can either purchase one from the dealer or connect the pins directly
if you connect the pins directly make sure they are all well insulated so they wont touch each other and short the input.
I attached 2 pics of the connector, one from the front and one from the back
-Before you put the radio back in it's location you will need to test fit the connector (attached pic) and make a whole to make space
for the newly installed input jack.
-Drill a hole where you want to mount the aux input and mount the connector, apply glue, let it dry before you install inside the car.

-Before you close everything, you need to test the system, turn the radio on and connect your smart phone, tablet or computer to the
aux input. Go to youtube and find the left-right audio test video. See if the sound comes out from the left and right speakers. If the
sound is reversed just change the left and right pin on the harness. If everything works reverse the installation and close everything.

Thats it!

Here are the pics!

1-Cable finished


2-Female 3.5mm stereo jack


3- Different type stereo jack


4- Tyco push pin female


5-Connector back view behind radio


6-Black 12 pin connector


7-Front view of 12 pin connector


8-Rear view of plastic board under radio


9-Hole to cut under radio



10- Final result!
 
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10
#3 ·
On a scale from 1 to 10 I would put this at 6. The first one took me about 2 hours in total. The next car took me about 30 min. It's not that bad
 
#4 · (Edited)
Added to master DIY, thanks. I think this applies to only pre-April 06 cars right without an AUX jack in the center storage area?
 
#5 ·
Yes for pre-lci e60 bmw with or without navigation and with or without logic 7. If I get my hands on a lci e60 I will try to retrofit an AUX input and add an update over here
 
#30 ·
tyco pins




HI!
Apparently I can't send you a message since i'm a new member... I hope this works...

I'm getting ready to do an AUX addition to my 2006 e60 but the only piece i'm missing are the tyco pins soldered onto the ends of the aux cable...
can you please give me a part number or guide me in the right direction?

Your DIY was absolutely perfect and I can't wait to get into it asap.

thank you!!!
Matt
 
#6 ·
Wow! My car doesn't have the Aux jack at all I wonder if this would work on my car? Crap now I really need you to come down to Toronto :)
 
#7 ·
I will pass by no worries ! Want me to make you an aux cable. By the way what's the build date on your m5. Is it pre 03-2007? And your friends build date ?
 
#12 ·
Thanks man! if you could do this for us we'd love it, my m5 is 2006 but i think my build date 05.
 
#14 ·
Ok great! You thinking you might leave this week or next week?
 
#18 ·
I finally decided to install the aux input in my e60 m5. After some research in the forums and finding out that buying an 80$ cable from the dealer just to remove the little green resistor board got me thinking, Im paying 80$ for a wire that i could be making for under 10$. So total cost for this project was actually around 7$ :)

It's my 2nd DIY post so bare with me im a little bit rusty! I will answer all questions if anything is unclear.

First here is a list of the tools you will need:

Philips screwdriver
Drill with 7/32nd universal drill bit (plastic wood metal)
Electric Tape,
Xacto knife,
Strong glue (gel crazy glue, polyurethane or contact cement)
Welding iron
little bit of elbow grease ;)

Now for the parts:
3.5mm audio female input (stereo very important)
3 female connector pins (tyco)
any audio cable with 3 wires inside(or 2 wires and a ground) about 1.5 to 2 feet in lenght

For the coding part you will need the K+DCAN usb cable and the software INPA with NCSEXPERT loaded into a 32 bit windows laptop.


Step 1: Code the car to make sure you can enable the AUX input before you do all this for nothing!

-Using the software NCSEXPERT you need to find the following module and change the following option:
For CCC systems, with navigation, add $NAUX in VO or module CAPPL : AUX_CONFIG = mounted (default is not_mounted)
For MASK systems 04-06 without navigation, add $NAUX in VO or module MASK : AUX_CONFIG = mounted
As soon as this is coded you should see your idrive screen reboot, once on double check is AUX all the way to the right.
If it is showing then you can build the cable and install it.


Step 2: The Cable

-It's pretty straight forward, you need to weld 3 wires to the 3.5mm female jack and weld the other end to 3 female connector pins.
One of them will be the ground, the other one Left Channel, the other Right Channel. Pics attached.

Step 3: The install location

-You can mount the cable in the glove box on the left side close to the emergency flashlight or you can mount the input under the radio.
-Once you decide the final location you will need to remove the trim where the air vents are. To do this open the passenger front door.
-Using a small prying tool gently pop the cover by starting from the edges and moving toward the middle.
-Once the piece is out, pop the hazard/unlock button and remove the connector.
-On the top left and right corner of the climate control buttons you will see 1 screw in each corner, remove with philips.
-Then gently pull the climate controls towards you, they should come out easily, apply a prying tool for the lower plastic board on each
side and pull towards you.
-Once the panels are out you need to remove 4 screws on the CCC unit (the metal plate under the cd slot) and 2 screws for the mask
unit.
-Pull the radio unit out, then unplug the big radio connector. (pic attached)
-Visually locate the black 12 pin connector (pic attached)
-for the MASK unit you wont find that 12 pin black connector, you can either purchase one from the dealer or connect the pins directly
if you connect the pins directly make sure they are all well insulated so they wont touch each other and short the input.
I attached 2 pics of the connector, one from the front and one from the back
-Before you put the radio back in it's location you will need to test fit the connector (attached pic) and make a whole to make space
for the newly installed input jack.
-Drill a hole where you want to mount the aux input and mount the connector, apply glue, let it dry before you install inside the car.

-Before you close everything, you need to test the system, turn the radio on and connect your smart phone, tablet or computer to the
aux input. Go to youtube and find the left-right audio test video. See if the sound comes out from the left and right speakers. If the
sound is reversed just change the left and right pin on the harness. If everything works reverse the installation and close everything.

Thats it!

Here are the pics!

1-Cable finished


2-Female 3.5mm stereo jack


3- Different type stereo jack


4- Tyco push pin female


5-Connector back view behind radio


6-Black 12 pin connector


7-Front view of 12 pin connector


8-Rear view of plastic board under radio


9-Hole to cut under radio



10- Final result!
Nice write-up. :M5thumbs:

Are the "3 female connector pins (tyco)" the Tyco MQS 0.5mm P/N: 962885-5?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" /><o:p></o:p>
 
#31 · (Edited)
Nice write-up. :M5thumbs:

Are the "3 female connector pins (tyco)" the Tyco MQS 0.5mm P/N: 962885-5?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" /><o:p></o:p>
AGM5. Yes 0.5 mm I believe
HI!
Apparently I can't send you a message since i'm a new member... I hope this works...

I'm getting ready to do an AUX addition to my 2006 e60 but the only piece i'm missing are the tyco pins soldered onto the ends of the aux cable...
can you please give me a part number or guide me in the right direction?

Your DIY was absolutely perfect and I can't wait to get into it asap.

thank you!!!
Matt
The termials can be ordered from Newark
 
#19 ·
How freaky! I installed my cable in back in Oct as not having this was really peeing me off. It wasn't until last weekend that I did the programming to finish off. I could have done with a guide like yours so was considering posting my method for others (not far off from this). Looks like you saved me the effort and did a thorough job to boot! :applause:

My dash looks slightly different to yours - it's a UK '05 2.5l M5 Diesel.
 
#20 ·
Great DIY, thanks!
Was just trying to begin doing this, but I am not familiar with NCSEXPERT and I cannot figure out how this works!
Possibly a cable problem as well; I am trying to use a Evolve cable they have send me to program my ECU with their Alpha N tune. Do you know if this cable should work, or a simple way of testing if it is compatible with NCSEXPERT?
A link to some help using it would be great as well, as I can't find anything that helps me.
 
#22 ·
Cool Cat. The only way to see if the cable works is to install INPA and opening it and if the program sees your ignition ON and your Car ON then the cable should work. There are a lot of information on bmwcoding dot com. Sorry for the external link. It's really a good site for coding information
 
#24 ·
Cool Cat it's important you install inpa properly. Make sure it's the version that shows bmw rectification group UK. If you want I can email you the proper files. Let me know.
 
#33 · (Edited)
^ No problem. It was a PITA to identify the correct terminal and sourcing a supplier, so I don't mind saving others the trouble. :cheers:
 
#35 ·
AG,

I've ordered the parts now waiting for them to arrive, I plan on installing the AUX input in the center arm rest. I've designed and had a small plate cut on which I will mount the 3.5mm jack along with a dual USB port. I'll connect each usb port to a 3A 12VDC to 5VDC converter which I will power with the 12V lighter jack in the rear of the center console. This way I can have power and aux connection tucked away. I'll be sure to take pics.

I already started with the coding for the AUX, considering i'm a newbie it felt like I jumped through hoops of fire to get the AUX to appear. Despite many errors and tons of research to fix them I still got an error at the end with NCS expert. In frustration I gave up and decided to go get a beer... it was then that I realized I had done something right since I now have AUX as an option!!!! yay!!kinggf

Though I could really use any help with one more thing. I REALLY would like to enable MP3 playback. I've done so much research on this that my head is about to explode.:crying:
I know I shouldn't ask but won't hurt.... do you or anyone know of a simple guide to tell me what to change where?! Maybe point me in the right direction? please?

As always, thankful for any advice.... and if I can be of any help to anyone with my limited knowledge, i'm in the Atlanta GA area and would be more than happy to try and help.

Thanks!
 
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