[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Recently my BMW bluetooth has stopped playing music, the dealership is saying to install a new headunit and the cost for it is $5300 total after labour.
Has anyone else had this problem and should I get a headunit from another source such as a used headunit from a similar bmw which has had an accident or something such or is there any other recommendation anyone has?
The current ones bluetooth won’t work and they’ve already charged me $700 for the diagnosis and labour i’m not looking to pay $6000 just to fix a bluetooth problem

Will appreciate any help.
Thank you

[G30M]

can you explain what you mean by bluetooth stopped playing music

[BWilson263]

Originally Posted by g21

can you explain what you mean by bluetooth stopped playing music

I'm thinking that bluetooth on his headunit does not connect to a bluetooth device.

[LuvMyE92]

The last time I had a BT problem, the BMW genius suggested that I buy a new phone.

[MelbourneFinn]

I hope this doesn’t sound disrespectful, but have you checked the BT pairing? Does the BT work for phone calls? Perhaps you have already done this, but try removing all existing BT devices in the head unit and the car in your phone and start from scratch by re-pairing the phone. Also, if you have Apple CarPlay (or Android Auto - I don’t have experience of this), try switching CarPlay off in the phone.

Maybe these are too stupid suggestions, and if the dealership has already diagnosed they should have picked these up, but if everything else works over BT except music, then no issues with the BT module in the car… But if nothing works, then probably a pairing or BT module issue… You could also try pairing another phone (if you use iPhone, suggest Android, and vice versa) - have you tried that?

[G30M]

just a thought. can you factory reset the RAM by unplugging it and the plugging it back?

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Okay so here’s the update

None of the option except the radio feature work, i cannot send anything to my car using the MyBMW app such as navigation, nothing on the connected drive works nor connecting anything through USB or even a CD,
Calls however work through bluetooth
but not music, I have reset the car which was a hard reset which was done overnight, updated the software, unplugged and re plugged the headunit and the battery but the problem remains. Even tried to run it through different modules, but the problem remains.
I really appreciate everyone’s replies, the dealership is still charging the same price for a new headunit however i’ve found multiple headunits on EBay which belong to BMW.
Should I get one from EBay as they range from $600-$1500 all taken out of G series BMW’s.
I was just wondering if someone can help me here and tell me wether another cars headunit would be compatibile with mine if i get the exact same model?

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Originally Posted by MelbourneFinn

I hope this doesn’t sound disrespectful, but have you checked the BT pairing? Does the BT work for phone calls? Perhaps you have already done this, but try removing all existing BT devices in the head unit and the car in your phone and start from scratch by re-pairing the phone. Also, if you have Apple CarPlay (or Android Auto - I don’t have experience of this), try switching CarPlay off in the phone.

Maybe these are too stupid suggestions, and if the dealership has already diagnosed they should have picked these up, but if everything else works over BT except music, then no issues with the BT module in the car… But if nothing works, then probably a pairing or BT module issue… You could also try pairing another phone (if you use iPhone, suggest Android, and vice versa) - have you tried that?

So bluetooth calls work but no bluetooth music or even CD or USB music work, the only thing that works is the Radio and Calls and I can enter the address using the iDrive controller and use that for Navigation.
People at the dealership tried to connect their own phones and did multiple things, I myself opened up the car and tried to fix the problem but it seems a new headunit is the only way to go but something just doesn’t make sense, how do the calls work but not the music it’s so weird. The dealership however explained it to me saying, Imagine your phones battery dies and you don’t have a charger and need to make a call, the only way to make a call is to use another phone or buy a new phone so in this case the only way to go is get another car or buy a new headunit.

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Originally Posted by g21

just a thought. can you factory reset the RAM by unplugging it and the plugging it back?

did a hard reset on the whole car, did all possible resets

[TEF]

In my previous 5 series BMW (a 2016 F10 diesel), the navigation and a portion of the heads up display suddenly failed while under warranty. It was necessary for my dealer to replace a module in the center stack beneath the HVAC controls. What was supposedly a one-day repair dragged out into 4 days, because the initial replacement module from BMW had been previously installed in another car. According to my dealer, the module had probably been installed by another dealer and then returned to BMW. As a result, the part would not accept my car's software. It was only after my dealer received a second (and untouched) module that the repair could be completed.

It was my understanding that unless an electronic unit is wiped clean by BMW (or brand new), it cannot be installed in another vehicle. Of course, this seems to beg the question of why used radios are sold (on, say, ebay). Who would buy them?

[LogicalApex]

Coders in the forum can “virginize” them to make them accept programming again. But I have never used the services to know how reliable or cost effective it is.

The restriction lowers the value of stealing stereos from the car.

[Qsilver7]

You asked how can phone calls work but music doesn’t….Bluetooth telephony and Bluetooth streaming (A2DP) are two different technologies. BT telephony hit the market first…aroun d 2004/2005…and BT streaming (A2DP) didn’t hit the market until late 2010/2011.

In fact, the earlier versions of iDrive that could do both (telephony & music)…they both had to be activated in iDrive. Lots of owners would pair the phone for telephony and then freak out because they would get calls but no music. They would have to be walked back through iDrive to activate music. There are two icons that showed up when you select the devices you have paired. One icon was a phone, the other icon was a music note. Both would need to be illuminated for full BT function. If only one was illuminated…then only one function would work.

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Originally Posted by LogicalApex

Coders in the forum can “virginize” them to make them accept programming again. But I have never used the services to know how reliable or cost effective it is.

The restriction lowers the value of stealing stereos from the car.

I went through a coder and talked with him, he said if we can find a similar unit, he can program it to work for my vehicle, is he talking about virginizing it?

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Originally Posted by TEF

In my previous 5 series BMW (a 2016 F10 diesel), the navigation and a portion of the heads up display suddenly failed while under warranty. It was necessary for my dealer to replace a module in the center stack beneath the HVAC controls. What was supposedly a one-day repair dragged out into 4 days, because the initial replacement module from BMW had been previously installed in another car. According to my dealer, the module had probably been installed by another dealer and then returned to BMW. As a result, the part would not accept my car's software. It was only after my dealer received a second (and untouched) module that the repair could be completed.

It was my understanding that unless an electronic unit is wiped clean by BMW (or brand new), it cannot be installed in another vehicle. Of course, this seems to beg the question of why used radios are sold (on, say, ebay). Who would buy them?

my mechanic who’s also a coder, said if we find a similar unit, basically all units need to be fresh as once it’s in another car it gets VIN locked hence it only needs to be in one VIN car, but the mechanic said he could program and recode it to fit my car, see at the same time, the dealership is saying they’ll buy my unit back for $1800, why would they buy a unit that doesn’t work back for $1800 which made me think they themselves can also unlock the vin themselves and program it for another car after fixing it and then install it in another car back for $5000

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

You asked how can phone calls work but music doesn’t….Bluetooth telephony and Bluetooth streaming (A2DP) are two different technologies. BT telephony hit the market first…aroun d 2004/2005…and BT streaming (A2DP) didn’t hit the market until late 2010/2011.
In fact, the earlier versions of iDrive that could do both (telephony & music)…they both had to be activated in iDrive. Lots of owners would pair the phone for telephony and then freak out because they would get calls but no music. They would have to be walked back through iDrive to activate music. There are two icons that showed up when you select the devices you have paired. One icon was a phone, the other icon was a music note. Both would need to be illuminated for full BT function. If only one was illuminated…then only one function would work.

Now that you explain me this it makes a lot of sense i guess the A2DP part has a problem

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by MustafaNajmiKhan

my mechanic who’s also a coder, said if we find a similar unit, basically all units need to be fresh as once it’s in another car it gets VIN locked hence it only needs to be in one VIN car, but the mechanic said he could program and recode it to fit my car, see at the same time, the dealership is saying they’ll buy my unit back for $1800, why would they buy a unit that doesn’t work back for $1800 which made me think they themselves can also unlock the vin themselves and program it for another car after fixing it and then install it in another car back for $5000

In the US we call it a “core charge” . They are included in the price of the part, but refundable to incentivize you to return the part for recycling or refurbishing.

https://www.getbmwparts.com/core-charge

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

Originally Posted by LogicalApex

In the US we call it a “core charge” . They are included in the price of the part, but refundable to incentivize you to return the part for recycling or refurbishing.

https://www.getbmwparts.com/core-charge

if a unit has a core charge that means it can be reused/repurposed for another car right?

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by MustafaNajmiKhan

if a unit has a core charge that means it can be reused/repurposed for another car right?

It can be, but since the core goes back to BMW they would know and have the tools needed to properly refurbish it. If that means replacing a chip that can only be written to once or deleting the code from a BMW server or whatever else that entails.

You can see the Core Charge on the Head Unit @ GetBmwParts.com (they are a BMW dealer parts department in the US).

https://www.getbmwparts.com/oem-part...dHJpYy1nYXM%3D

Mind you, if they are installing the part at the dealer like they are in your case. I expect them to bill you the price without the core charge as they’d return the part. They’d only need to let you know about it if you said “hey I want to keep it”.

[MustafaNajmiKhan]

So here’s a whole update on this situation

All prices in Canadian Dollars

Called BMW got an invoice
$4750 Head Unit
$1800 Core Charge
$600 Labour
+Tax

so after taking the core charge out it would’ve cost $6300

The amount was too much for me to move forward with so had to look at other options, was able to find a salvage unit for $850 from ebay car parts after shipping it and importing it to canada the cost was $1150

The Unit was from another BMW hence OEM, came with the VIN number of the previous car and everything needed to prove its originality. Keep in mind bill of sale is something you might need and invoices to prove it’s a salvaged unit and not a stolen unit.

Found a programmer to program the unit with BMW software and it was another $400 for the labour cost, overall cost $1550

So here i saved up a lot of money and was able to get my cars headunit up and running again, it was a long process as it took me 4 months to solve all these problems as the headunit gave out on the 15th of December but now that i know the process and things needed will be happy to help anyone who has any questions on their own problems on a car which is out of warranty, Also what to look out for while buying used parts and any such issues.