# E39 Business CD upgrade



## sktn77a (Jan 4, 2010)

I thought I would add my recent experience upgrading my 2001 530i Business Cassette to a Business CD. I came across several wrinkles that don't appear to be posted anywhere on the web.

The head unit. They come in many varieties. Firstly, there was a different harness used starting the 2001 model year. Pre-2001s had the round pin, R17 harness; 2001-2003 had the flat pin, R40 harness (1996 and 1997 models may be completely incompatible due to a possible antenna amplifier difference). There is an adapter cable kit available to use the later flat pin head units with the older round pin harness - it's expensive, though ($139). The 2003 model year head units could play MP3 CDs and could also have an Aux cable installed for MP3 players using a standard 1/8" jack (keeping the CD changer, unlike the DICE, etc, adapters). They could also accept Sirius radio, although there’s some debate if all of them could. Finally, if your car was prewired for the BMW telephone, the three signal/ground wires from the BMW aux cable kit must be removed from the plug and inserted into the telephone plug already in the back of the harness. My head unit was a remanufactured 2005 X5 (E53) CD, which is identical to the 5 series (E39). The two models that I know play MP3s and have the AUX functionality are 65-12-6-943-433 
65-12-6-961-218. All of the available Business CD players are remanufactured units now, no matter where you get them from (BSW, EAS, BMW). I got mine on e-bay from the most prolific seller of these and got a 65-12-6-961-218 (supposedly the latest version).

I mounted the 1/8” Aux jack at the side of the (worthless) cupholders like someone who has put his install picture on the web. Nice and clean. I didn’t want to do the glovebox install as I didn’t want to mess with removing all the trim around there and taking the glovebox out (risking not being able to get adjusted back properly when I re-installed it). Everything works – CD, radio, Aux. 

One point that has caused much confusion on the net is the volume of the Aux input. Switching to the Aux input and hitting Audio/Tone there is an option for AUX + - to increase or decrease the volume of the aux input relative to the CD player or radio. Haven’t seen the published on the ‘net and there are a lot of questions out there on this.

I do have one quirk. I have lost the bass from my M5 10” subwoofers (?). There is some very faint sond there when I plug the MP3 player directly into the sub amp but I’m at a loss to know what’s going on. Anybody aware of any fitering that might have been introduced into the newer head units for any reason or problems with the low frequencey response of these later CD head units? I’m going to put my original cassette back in next weekend to see if it's a problem with the CD I got or if there’s some probem with the rest of the system (?)

I’ll post back when I figure it out.

Keith


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## sktn77a (Jan 4, 2010)

Well, I swapped out the Alpine Business CD head unit for the original Phillips Business Cassette and I have the bass back! So it looks like a bad head unit maybe? I'm sending it back to the seller on eBay and he's going to exchange it. I guess my concern is that it might be something to do with the (supposedly) balanced low level audio outputs from the BMW head units. Maybe they're slightly different on the Alpine than the Phillips and this is causing a problem with the sub amp (straight into the amp, presently, no Line Output Converter). I would imagine BMW would spec the head unit identically from all the different OEM manufacturers (?)

Anybody..... Bueller....... Anybody???

Keith


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## sktn77a (Jan 4, 2010)

Took the car in to the shop today, before I return the CD head unit. This is what they found at the input to the sub amp (output from the BMW head units):


OEM Phillips Business Cassette: 0v DC offset at idle, 3v DC offset at full power.
OEM Alpine Business CD: 3.5v DC offset at idle, 6.5v DC offset at full power.

Their diagnosis was probably a problem in the output stages of the CD head unit. Remember, both head units are working fine with the BMW amp - just the sub amp that's a problem.

Any other possibilites? Would this cause the problems I'm seing with the CD head unit and not the cassette?

Thanks

Keith


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## tom @ eas (May 5, 2004)

sktn77a said:


> I thought I would add my recent experience upgrading my 2001 530i Business Cassette to a Business CD. I came across several wrinkles that don't appear to be posted anywhere on the web.
> 
> The head unit. They come in many varieties. Firstly, there was a different harness used starting the 2001 model year. Pre-2001s had the round pin, R17 harness; 2001-2003 had the flat pin, R40 harness (1996 and 1997 models may be completely incompatible due to a possible antenna amplifier difference). There is an adapter cable kit available to use the later flat pin head units with the older round pin harness - it's expensive, though ($139). The 2003 model year head units could play MP3 CDs and could also have an Aux cable installed for MP3 players using a standard 1/8" jack (keeping the CD changer, unlike the DICE, etc, adapters). They could also accept Sirius radio, although there's some debate if all of them could. Finally, if your car was prewired for the BMW telephone, the three signal/ground wires from the BMW aux cable kit must be removed from the plug and inserted into the telephone plug already in the back of the harness. My head unit was a remanufactured 2005 X5 (E53) CD, which is identical to the 5 series (E39). The two models that I know play MP3s and have the AUX functionality are 65-12-6-943-433
> 65-12-6-961-218. All of the available Business CD players are remanufactured units now, no matter where you get them from (BSW, EAS, BMW). I got mine on e-bay from the most prolific seller of these and got a 65-12-6-961-218 (supposedly the latest version).
> ...


No e39 ever had MP3 or WMA capabilities, this was added to the X5 in 2005. However, the 2005+ radio can be installed to your 5-series as long as the PlugPak is used. Since you have Business Cassette (not many 01 e39s did), you still have the round pins within the connector.

Forget part numbers, these get superseded all the time. Where was the radio obtained from?


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## sktn77a (Jan 4, 2010)

Thanks Tom: Yes, I understand that the Business CD I have was from an X5. Supposedly should work fine in an E39, as you say.

Actually, the 2001 E39 cars did have the new R40 (flat pin harness) regardless of whether they had the CD or cassette. This makes sense that BMW would use the same harness in their 2001 cars, rather than have some that had round pins (R17) for the cassette and some that had flat pins (R40) for the CD. The switchover was at the beginning of the 2001 model year.

keith


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## sktn77a (Jan 4, 2010)

tom @ eas said:


> Forget part numbers, these get superseded all the time. Where was the radio obtained from?


Refurb from ChristyBMW on e-bay. They have excellent feedback and the guy seemed to know what he was talking about. He's going to exchange it no problem.

Keith


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## tom @ eas (May 5, 2004)

sktn77a said:


> Thanks Tom: Yes, I understand that the Business CD I have was from an X5. Supposedly should work fine in an E39, as you say.
> 
> Actually, the 2001 E39 cars did have the new R40 (flat pin harness) regardless of whether they had the CD or cassette. This makes sense that BMW would use the same harness in their 2001 cars, rather than have some that had round pins (R17) for the cassette and some that had flat pins (R40) for the CD. The switchover was at the beginning of the 2001 model year.
> 
> keith


Correct, the flat pin design (R40) started in 9/00 (2001 model year). Radios are compatible in the x5, e39 and e38 models.


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## dinot71 (Feb 24, 2009)

Does anyone know the correct part number for the Business CD that is compatible with the BMW AUX cable? I know it has to be made after a certain year but if anyone has the part number handy then I would really appreciate it. The radio is going into a 2001 BMW 528.


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## sktn77a (Jan 4, 2010)

Any unit with a date of 9/2003 or later will work with the aux cable. There are many part numbers so look for the date. My understanding is that the las t production series of E53 X5 head units (same as the E39 units) in 2005 will also play CDRWs/MP3s. The part numbers for these were: 65-12-6-943-433 and 65-12-6-961-218. I bought a -218 model and can confirm that Aux and CDRW/MP3 works.


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