NBT/CIC/CCC retrofit in E39/E38/E53

[Commanderwiggin]

The harness looks just like the one Nick posted above, except I got mine with the flat pin harness that the newer radio modules use because I already had a C43-BM53 adapter harness and I might eventually run the NBT in my e39. Anyways, what do you mean your e46 already has the CAN bus stuff in the main connector? I'm pretty sure you are mistaken. You have an IBUS wire, same as everyone else, which is in the place of one of the CAN lines on the NBT.

I sourced my NBT from an LKQ yard on ebay. It came from a MINI Cooper and cost $500, but I don't recommend getting one from a MINI Cooper unless you don't want the DVD drive in it. The MINI's mount the NBT vertically, and therefore have no DVD drive in them at all. The problem with the EURO NBT is that it doesn't even have the tuner for SiriusXM. That is a separate card that gets plugged in on the right side (looking from the back). The sticker on the top of the NBT even says that it is only equipped on US/Canada models.

I think if I had a working monitor, I would be able to better diagnose my issues. I'll try to hook up my laptop using Esys at some point and see if I can at least talk to the NBT. It should if the CAN signals are in fact waking it up properly.

I meant I-Bus for the 17pin round connector. So does the harness need additional can wires hooked up behind the cluster?

I won't be using the DVD drive...never use discs anyways. Keep us posted on the fix!

- - - Updated - - -

I just found the manual...so what signals does the harness receive from the CAN exactly? I don't have a DME in my car so as long as it doesn't receive DME specific information that my AEM Infinity isn't sending...I have full cluster information fyi but yeah...just trying to see if I need to get the CANBus outputs modified for this which I can configure.

[//m320is]

So only the U.S./Canada Nbt's have the capability of Sirius? Are the units physically different? I cannot go without my Sirius so are you saying I have to source my own Nbt instead of buying a complete "kit" if you will? I can imagine that the prices on them are going up on eBay now.

[Commanderwiggin]

So only the U.S./Canada Nbt's have the capability of Sirius? Are the units physically different? I cannot go without my Sirius so are you saying I have to source my own Nbt instead of buying a complete "kit" if you will? I can imagine that the prices on them are going up on eBay now.

If you want Sirius...you should source the unit in North America...this does suck.

[GSXRliterbikz]

So, I have some unfortunate results from my testing this evening. I plugged the adapter harness, adapter, and NBT up to the harness on the car and then hooked up the monitor and idrive controller, then ran the CAN wires to the cluster. I just used crimps for now, but I have verified that the CAN signals are still going to the cluster, so I know I got the wires making good connections and the NBT CAN lines are twisted with the cluster wires. Anyways, the radio seems to be turning on and I've got the fan on it running, IDrive controller seems to be lighting up with the headlights turned on, so it should be getting the CAN signal to do that. The problem is, nothing on the display. I can't tell if I'm even selecting a source to even see if it is working other than the display. If anyone has any ideas of what I can try to do, I'm all ears. I hooked up my ipod to the usb cable plugged into the greenish port and it wasn't being recognized or charging, so I'm not sure I have it in the right one. I can do a bit more diagnosing, but it might have to wait until next week since I'm heading out of town this weekend. I'm thinking about ordering another display, but I'm not really sure I want to buy another risky one from the X5 seller on ebay, without someone else confirming that even one of them works. In fact, the seller is in Georgia, which is on my way, I could probably even pick one up, but still wouldn't be able to test it until I got back. Much sadness The other thing is that it could be that I still need to code the NBT, but I'm kind of doubting it. I would think it would show up at least something on the screen even if it was coded for another car.

When I plugged mine in just to test, it worked right away, even without being tied to the cluster. I just plugged into the radio, controller, screen, and Bluetooth antenna.
Screen came on as soon as I turned on the ignition.

[MJ DOOM]

With everything plugged in and ignition on, is you getting a red light on the rear of your nbt unit? Should hear the fan too.

[blackknight530i]

With everything plugged in and ignition on, is you getting a red light on the rear of your nbt unit? Should hear the fan too.

Yes to both.

[MJ DOOM]

Yes to both.

Oh ok, might be a bad display. But with ipod plugged in, it should show bmw logo on ipod but it won't play automatically though. I would try to read unit with esys before ruling it out.

[Redshift]

Sorry to hear that, Paul. I know you've been waiting eagerly for the parts to show up. Bummer.

[blackknight530i]

Sorry to hear that, Paul. I know you've been waiting eagerly for the parts to show up. Bummer.

Thanks. Yeah, it is a bit unfortunate, but it could just be a bad display from a seller who said it could be bad. I tried to save a few bucks, but maybe I need to just get one that's been tested.

[blackknight530i]

So, the same seller that has the as-is f15 monitors for $100 is selling some that are tested good for $250 with free shipping. I made him an offer and if he accepts it, I'll let you know what I get it for.

[TerraPhantm]

Do you have pics of the harness? I think I'll be more lucky with the canbus stuff as the E46 has it on the main connector already.
Where did you source the US- NBT Unit? I still want to believe the EURO units can be converted to Sirius via coding somehow...Hoping rather. If not I may have to look into sourcing a US version myself because I use Sirius a lot in my E70.

If by main connector you mean the OBDII port, the e46 does not have the can bus there. Easiest place to tap into it is the steering angle sensor

[Akash3230]

Hey guy i would like to purchase this i dont know if this would work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=261905594364

[pabloMG]

Its ok,but you need to tink a several facts, the price is ok you need more the cable for video,usb cable,the ibus adaptor,and you will need a solution for the bezel.
The question is what sw have the unit(need to be at last)and you whill need to proper code it the unit,

[BMWPlanetDude]

I think if I had a working monitor, I would be able to better diagnose my issues. I'll try to hook up my laptop using Esys at some point and see if I can at least talk to the NBT. It should if the CAN signals are in fact waking it up properly.

Your monitor is defo dead
No CAN bus on CID NBT screen. This is passive component, you can't even flash/code it like you could before. It is like a TV really with power and video signal.
Way to test for sure is to make sure radio powers up and stay up. For example if iBus is not wired, radio will not turn on, it will come up for about 30 sec, then shut down, and screen will not come on either.

So if your radio shuts down after a few seconds, then there is an issue with iBus/CAN wires.
If radio stays on all the time, and screen stays off, then screen is dead.

[blackknight530i]

Your monitor is defo dead
No CAN bus on CID NBT screen. This is passive component, you can't even flash/code it like you could before. It is like a TV really with power and video signal.
Way to test for sure is to make sure radio powers up and stay up. For example if iBus is not wired, radio will not turn on, it will come up for about 30 sec, then shut down, and screen will not come on either.

So if your radio shuts down after a few seconds, then there is an issue with iBus/CAN wires.
If radio stays on all the time, and screen stays off, then screen is dead.

Radio stays on. Dead screen.

[MrFlam]

That's too bad. Hopefully you get anew monitor up and running soon.

[kahlilj]

Radio stays on. Dead screen.

. Had been watching this much anxious anticipation sorry to hear the monitor is shot. Bummer.

[blackknight530i]

So, here's some good news. The same seller that has the As-Is monitors for $100, is selling a bunch of tested good ones for $250 (I offered $225 and he accepted) with a 30 day guarantee/warranty. He still uses some crappy payment system that doesn't seem to work (ProPay), so if it doesn't, just send him a nice message saying it didn't work and he'll send you a PayPal invoice that will work. Mine has been ordered and will hopefully be in on Monday or Tuesday if I had to guess since he's just down in Acworth, GA, which is pretty close to Charlotte, NC where I am. I'm considering leaving this one in the housing and mounting it on top of the dash in the e38 where the grill is, but we'll see once my bezel comes in from BMWPlanetDude. I like that the outer glass should provide some anti-glare protection that might not be there when it is stripped. I do know now how to properly strip the outer glass without damaging the actual LCD glass like I did last time (small chip), so I could do it if I decide to go that route.

This project has now cost me $1850 for everything, but could have been $100 less if I hadn't taken the risk of getting a really cheap monitor. To me it's still totally worth it, especially if I get Sirius working and a really nice mount for the idrive and monitor.

[blackknight530i]

So, the guy got it shipped and dropped off today, but it's FedEx home delivery which I think doesn't operate on Monday, so it may not be here until Wednesday. Oh well.

[Commanderwiggin]

I have a video input from an auxillary device...no sound.

How would I set this up with the NBT so I can listen to the music playing off my iphone/radio/cd while seeing the video from the auxillary input? (The video is a custom set of gauges)

[DanoreyV12]

The same seller that has the As-Is monitors for $100, is selling a bunch of tested good ones for $250

Does the idea of that he is maybe just selling defect ones for $100 not come to your mind? If one in good condition sells for $250, I would plug
all of them into nbt. Even if I just get 10$ more per unit it would be more than worth it.

I'm a bit suspicious about this guy. Avoiding PayPal may underline my guessing.

[blackknight530i]

Does the idea of that he is maybe just selling defect ones for $100 not come to your mind? If one in good condition sells for $250, I would plug
all of them into nbt. Even if I just get 10$ more per unit it would be more than worth it.

I'm a bit suspicious about this guy. Avoiding PayPal may underline my guessing.

30 day warranty is why I am okay with it. If it doesn't work, I'll get my money back.

[noahabel]

Now it does sound shady. It was one thing to sell untested monitors with the belief that he didn't have the ability to test them; that would imply there's at least some chance you'd get a working unit.

But if the guy CAN test them, and is selling verified units for more, than the $100 units are clearly duds.

He's not offering the warranty on the cheap ones, right?

Sounds fishy/scummy.

[blackknight530i]

Now it does sound shady. It was one thing to sell untested monitors with the belief that he didn't have the ability to test them; that would imply there's at least some chance you'd get a working unit.

But if the guy CAN test them, and is selling verified units for more, than the $100 units are clearly duds.

He's not offering the warranty on the cheap ones, right?

Sounds fishy/scummy.

Consider this hypothetical situation: The guy runs a salvage yard and he gets a bunch of these cars in wrecked. Some start up or at least can run the electronics, some don't. The ones that get pulled from cars that simply turn on get put in the "Good" bin, the ones pulled from cars that can't turn on get put in the "unknown/untested" bin. They part the cars so quickly they don't have the time to put the "unknown/untested" monitors in the known good cars to test them. I can't confirm that this is what is going on, but it sure seems like a plausible situation. These monitors go for a lot more on most other auctions, so to sell some that he hasn't tested for a heavily discounted price makes sense to me. If they don't work, they didn't pay that much for them, if they do work, they got a great deal. I'm not upset with the guy for selling them like that. As long as my confirmed working one works in my car, I could care less about the cheap ones. I plan on taking my non-working one apart and see if it is repairable. If so, I'll buy a bunch of his bad ones, fix them up and resell them. To be honest though, the good ones are still cheaper than most of the ones on ebay by far. I would have had to pay $350 for one of the other ones and it would have to ship from Europe, whereas I paid $325 (total including the bad one) for a confirmed working one from the US that gets here quick and ships free. Also, it has not been confirmed that all the $100 ones are "clearly" duds.

[GSXRliterbikz]

Anyone know if these can be mounted sideways or face up?