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How to retrofit Bluetooth and USB - Finished!

E8x 
158K views 56 replies 24 participants last post by  Avon 
#1 ·
Right, where to begin!

Firstly there is a how to thread already by Guy, Have a read . He paved the way with this retrofit, much respect mate.

Before I start with the thread, there are a few things to be aware of.

Firstly it is NOT possible to do this retrofit to a car that is fitted with a business head unit. If I need to tell you the differences between business and professional, you're probably better off paying someone else to do this install. To complete this install, you'll need a professional head unit, or sat nav installed.

Second, There were a limited run of Professional head units that have bluetooth and USB functionality built it. my advice on this is that if it doesn't have the bluetooth symbol on the sticker on top of it, it DOESN'T have bluetooth.

There were a few different professional head units. The first generation of Alpine made ones, which have 2 rubber knobs on them, these do NOT have built in bluetooth or USB.

The next version was the same essentially, with a few tweeks to the internals and the rubber knobs were replaced with better looking ones that had chrome rings on them. To look at, there are very few differences though. They are both called CD73 and when you look at the top, they have a big black heatsink at the 9 o'clock position.

Looks like this (image from google)



These CD73 units do NOT have bluetooth built in either! It's only the later built ones that have it, the design changed, the black heat sink is gone and the label on the top is different. If you're unsure as to which version you have, just remove the head unit and have a look at the top. The ones with bluetooth built in are few and far between, don't trust abn ebay seller that claims it's got it, unless you see the bluetooth sticker on the label, it doens't have it built in!

OK, so you've got this far. If your head unit doesn't have bluetooth and USB built in, here's where you go next. You can either replace it for one that down, they do pop up occasionally on ebay, or you can retrofit USB and then bluetooth with the addition of a box called a MULF. This is what I'll be doing in this guide.
 
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#2 ·
So if you're going down the MULF route, you'll need a few things. Firstly your head unit (or sat nav drive) NEEDS to have optical ports on the rear. The ULF lives in the boot and uses a fiber optic link (called a MOST bus) to talk to the head unit. Here's where you'll need to remove your head unit and have a look at the rear of it. I've rather crudely highlights the optical ports in this photo.



This is my head unit and you can see it has 1 set of optical ports, one transmits and the other recieves. Some head units have 2 sets, some units don't have any. Ensure yours has at least 1 set or you'll need to source another head unit.

If you have USB installed, but want to add bluetooth, all you need is

So here is what you'll need to comlete the retrofit, well this is what I needed anyway!

1 x USB retrofit kit (approx £285 from BMW, luckily i got a great deal on an unused one from ebay) looks like this



1 x Bluetooth antenna and microphone (approx £40 for the pair)
Approx 6m of speaker wire to connect the mic up. (£3-4 from halfords)
1 x SMB to SMB lead to connect the bluetooth aerial to the MULF (I'll dig up a link later)
1 x MULF (search BMW MULF on ebay, there are a few different types, 'MULF2 - High Basis SVS' was written on the label of the one I bought, expect to pay between £60-120 from one second hanbd, new i dread to think....)
A laptop with the INPA suite installed (you'll need NCS Expert and Tool32) and a lead to connect to the car, or someone else to do the coding for you.

If you have USB installed, but want to add bluetooth, all you need is the bluetooth aerial and microphone, the SMB lead and the speaker wire to connect the mic.

A normal set of tools is all you need, nothing special apart from a T20 torx bit.

Start off by discponnecting the -ve battery terminal in the boot, the space infront of the battery is where the MULF will live.

 
#3 ·
So onto actually doing the job. Fortunately this is an official BMW retrofit, so there is an official PDF. This is the version for the kit I bought. Earlier retrofits were slightly different, they involved a bit more wiring and the installation of a USB hub, you DON'T need this.


The guide pretty much covers the installation, which saves me repeating it! There are a few things I'd add though. I chose to routs the cables to the socket that sits behind the handbrake slightly differently. I ran them up the N/S of the boot, behine the trim and then dropped down and fed them under the carpet infront of where the rear seat base sits. then down the near side of the transmission tunnel. I't a bit of a struggle to get them fed into the centre, but entirely possible. This pic shows the rough path I took. Removign the trim on the back of the centre console and releasing the screws that secure the centre console to the transmission tunnel makes life much easier. There's a couple at the back, one under the hanbrake gaiter (if I remember right) and one further forward on the passengers side of the centre console, hidden under a little plastic cover.



I chose to do it this way because I couldn't be bothered to mess about removing the passengers seat!

You should end up with enough slack in the boot to connect up the MULF.



As for the cable from the boot to the rear of the head unit, run it along the passengers side cill, it's easy to tuck under all the trim pieces. You will at this point of already removed the head unit, and surrounding trim, (there's a few guides on here, have a search) leaving your dash looking like this.



Ignore all the wires coming out to the bottom left of the hole, that's the old hands free kit that got removed in the process of this installation.

You can then feed the wires from the MULF up into that area, remove the trim piece that sits under the glovebox (3 x torx screws and 1 x plastic expanding rivet) to give better access and reveal some cable looms you can attach the cable you've just run to with the ty wraps in the installation kit.

In the photo below you can see the +ve and ground leads connected into the multiway connector on the back of the headunit.



You have to remove 2 wires from this connector and insert them into a plug, then replace the wires you removed with ones form the loom you just installed. This is supplying power tot he MULF. There is a little blue retaining clip you have to remove from the multiway connector to allow you to release the 2 wires you need. Here's the 2 replacement ones in place.

 
#4 ·
Now, in the photo below you can see the orange and green fiber optic cables, sat across the ashtray.



However, my car originally came with fitted with a business head unit and no MOST bus options (DAB/CD Changer etc). You can see the slot in the back of the multiway connector where the optic cables should go, but I needed one of these little buggers to mount them and attach to the multiway connector.

BMW part number 6113 8387214 (£2.35 delivered thanks to Jon at Cotswold!)



Optic cables installed, you can see they have directional arrows on them



As does the plug housing they connect to.



So you can't get it wrong. The plug then slides into the multiway connector, it'll only fit in 1 orientation.



Once that's done, you can refit the head unit, be careful not to damage or excessively bend the optic leads, they are easily damaged and can't be repaired!

You can now install the ULF in the boot and connect the bluetooth antenna.

 
#5 ·
Now you need to run the speaker wire from the MULF along the passengers cill, up the A Pillar (i just tucked it behind the rubber seal) and along the front of the roof lining to the switching centre in the roof. There's guides on here on how to remove it already, so I won't bother with that. I cut a few connectors with spare loom on out of a scrapped E39 a while back, so I just spliced them onto each end of the speaker wire. I've got some of these left, if you are doing this retrofit, PM me and i'll sling a few in the post. Or if you want to buy them, BMW part number 6113 0005197. I also had a 3 way connector for the microphone too. I think it's BMW part number 6113 8377072.



To install the mic in the switching centre, simply remove the blanking plate that's fitted and fit the mic in it's place. The arrow on the top of the mic needs to point forwards!!!



The wiring is simple.

Mic pin 1 -> MULF pin 1
Mic pin 2 -> MULF pin 19

Rebuild the car, it's coding time.........
 
#6 ·
OK, coding. To complete this, you'll need a laptop with NCS expert and Tool32 installed. Both of them are part of the BMW standard tools package.

Before you code this, if you've fitted a professional head unit, you will need to code this to the car first, the head unit acts as the MOST gateway, so to talk to the MULF in the boot over the fiber optic leads, the professional head unit MUST be coded correctly.

The first thing to do is add the option codes. $644 for bluetooth and $6FL +KMP3 and +IPOD for USB. Remeber to chose E89 as the platform for any 1 or 3 series.

Depending on your cars build date you may need to temporarily change the date to a newer one, please contact me and I'll tell you how to do this.

There is a guide on how to add/remove option codes
Add the options to the CAS and the FRM or NFRM depending on which one you have fitted. Then shut down NCS expert and open it again. Chose ZCS/FA/VIN, then ZCS f.ECU, chose E89, then CAS. This will read your cars options. Once that has completed, you need towrite down the 18 digit VIN at the top of the page. Including the last check digit that you don't normally bother with. Once you have that, select back. You should see then that the default job is SG_Codieren and get coded lists all the various modules fitted. Hit code car, then confirm it with F1. NCS will then run through all the modules updating them. If one fails, then try to code them individually. I couldn't get 1 to code, but it wasn't an important one. As long as you have 2RAD in the list, you're getting there!

Once all teh modules are coded, turn the ignition off and lock the car. LEave it for at least 16 minutes until it's gone to sleep. Then got back out to the car. Once you get in, you should now see TEL and USB on the option available on the head unit. Now it's time for tool 32. You need to code your VIN to the second had MULF. To do this, connect your computer and start tool32 up. Once it's opened, hit file, load SGBD Group file, then chose ULF2_hi.prg from the window.

Then from the list of jobs in the select job window, chose 'c_fg_lesen' and hit the run once button. This should read the VIN currently stored in the MULF, a little window will pop up telling you what it is. Then chose 'c_fg_schreiben' from the list of jobs, and type the full 18 digits of your VIN (remember to include the check digit at the end) into the Arguments box, and hit run once.



Once that's done you can run 'c_fg_lesen' again and you should be able to see your VIN is now stored by the MULF.

That was about all I had to do to get Bluetooth and USB working in my car. Total time including coding was about 5-6 hours. pologies it's not up to my usual standard, but it was pissing it down for most of the day!

Any questions, please ask.

Now, what to retrofit next..............
 
#8 ·
JHZR2 said:
Wow that's awesome, thanks!

Can you advise how it differs, especially the coding, if I already have USB but no bluetooth capability?

Does this get you full BT (including music streaming), or just phone?

Thanks!
Sam question.
Good thread!

Cheers
 
#10 ·
After 12 months of thinking about doing this I'm no clearer as to my options :(

Can someone tell me that knows what my options are?

I have Pro HU and nav with bluetooth for calls but not music. USB in glovebox for uploading music to hard drive, but not in arm rest.

I'd like either the USB/AUX in arm rest OR just bluetooth streaming of music straight to car.

Anyone help? :(
 
#11 ·
Wibbles said:
Ben GT said:
After 12 months of thinking about doing this I'm no clearer as to my options :(

Can someone tell me that knows what my options are?

I have Pro HU and nav with bluetooth for calls but not music. USB in glovebox for uploading music to hard drive, but not in arm rest.

I'd like either the USB/AUX in arm rest OR just bluetooth streaming of music straight to car.

Anyone help? :(
You need a combox retrofit to do that & coding. Either buy a combox from ebay & get/make an interface cable from your MULF to Combox or buy one from Bimmer retrofit in Canada, or you can buy the kit from " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and they will code your car remotely. Figure £600 to do this if you buy from a vendor - figure £300 if you do it yourself.
Thanks Wibbles :)

So its the MULF2 I need and a cable? That it? Mulf2 is £120 on ebay...
 
#24 ·
Hi Rob,

Thanks for a great and informative post. I have a question which I don't think is covered...

I appear to be lucky enough to have a Pro HU with the Bluetooth built-in - a result!

What parts/steps to I need to get it working?

- Bluetooth Antenna
- Mic
- Coding

Is that it?

If you / or someone else on the forums would be so kind as to highlight exactly the components I need for my scenario, that'd be great - and much appreciated :)
 
#25 ·
Hi,

Could someone help please. I have 2010 1 Series with USB and DAB fitted. I have the mulf usb/Bluetooth fitted in boot.

I have fitted the mic (front light fitting connected to mulf) and the antenna.

I took the car to be coded but the garage did not really know what they were doing (ex BMW mechanics!). They upgraded the rest of my car but could not get Bluetooth going, They spent a lot of time trying to be fair, but this was new to them. Is there someone who could do the coding for me please. I live in the Oxford area.

Thanks in advance
 
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