My new toy -E90 320d LCI

[Ratslaaf]

As I said before, I had the benefit of knowing what I needed to take apart in preparation of the installation:
- remove boot lining. The base and the lining on the left.
- remove the rear seat. The bottom and back pieces.
- remove all floor trim by the doors.
- remove the passenger seat and sub cover under seat.
- remove the glovebox and footwell trim.
- you are supposed to remove the drivers seat as well, but I took a short cut here. More on this later.
- remove radio and climate control. You will also need to remove the armrest centre console
- remove A Pillar trim
- remove the passenger side vanity mirror and the dome light switch housing.

As you can see, this is a pretty hectic job!!!

 

[///Moose]

Looking good bro...

 

[Ratslaaf]

Installation of the loom in the boot complete. I was lucky to also get the boot cable guide as well, making the installation truly OEM!

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Added in the connections in the MOST loop. I didn't follow the guides on the web as many cars are different. One of the MOST pairs always has a black shroud on it, so the process is to mate up MOST cables with a black shroud to a cable that doesn't have a black shroud:



Next up, you need to connect the body earth to the loom:


And the connector block bolted back:



Tidy up the new loom a little:

 

[Ratslaaf]

Installation of the Mic is quite a pain. Technically, it's loom is supposed to go from just past the passenger side B pillar, across the centre console to the drivers side of the car. This then joins up with the loom going up the drivers side A pillar to get to the courtesy light console in the roof. Having stripped the car where this loom came out of, I decided that I really, really don't feel like going that far, so decided to just go up the passenger side A pillar and be done with it.



I made sure to route the wire behind the airbag and then stuck it to the frame with cloth tape to make sure it does not come loose.

Getting it into the roof lining was a pain. Like I said before, you need to remove the passenger side vanity mirror and then try your best to get the courtesy light cluster out, without damaging the roof lining. I scratched my head on this one a little...

It turns out You need to move the roof lining away from the roof, stick your hand in there and push the two clips holding the cluster in the lining. It's a little hard to see in the pic but the clips are on either side of my thumb



Once the cluster is out, you need to remove the little cover where the Mic needs to go.

 

[Ratslaaf]

And a pic of what the Mic looks like and how it clips into the cluster:





Next up is the Mulf that I managed to find. This one came out of an F10, I was worried that the software on it might be different or somehow incompatible, but turned out to be fine

 

[Yulz9081]

I also want the USB retrofitted to mine but have no DIY skills whatsoever

Great work buddy and welcome to the Space Grey club

 

[Ratslaaf]

^^^ Thanks man.

Yeah, I'm afraid there's a ton of DIY required on this, especially as this is not plug and play. I had to put a fair amount of time into researching only to realize I'll have to do a lot of my own changes to make this work. Truth be told, one of the reasons the LCI doesn't come pre wired is because the 2010 series Professional radios could be ordered with USB and BT built in, thus making the MULF redundant.

The reason I didn't go for this option is because I couldn't find one of these newer head units locally from scrap yards. You could import from Europe through eBay but that would easily be R8k before any shipping. This route I took was a loooot cheaper.

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Anyway, back to the fun stuff...

Pic of the BT antenna mounted into the cover just above the passenger footwell.



On a side note. Ever wonder what R300 worth of bits and bobs look like from BMW? Behold, I was convinced this must've been made from platinum or something. But I needed this to finish off the loom...

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MULF loom complete, with stupidly expensive connectors and cover. Thanks goodness this is all I had to buy from the stealers...





The MULF mounted on its bracket, ready for installation



And all nicely finished in the boot

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Last install task to be done. Getting the USB and AUX input sorted in the armrest compartment. I'm almost seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

The easiest way to get to the connector is to remove this part, it actually comes apart pretty easily



You then unclip the air duct and pull it out. It's a bit of a pain, but trust me it does come out





Getting it back in properly is even more fun. By this time the neighbor came around to check out the commotion as I was swearing like a sailor with Tourette's.


Anyway, my pretty new loom complete and ready for installation



Job done!



Truth be told, I make it sound like it was easy, but I'm glossing over some of the details like making up the USB connections as this took me a while...

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And does it all work? Of course it does dammit!!

iPod working



The additional sources when pressing the Audio button. You could actually have a second USB port in the Glove compartment, but for this you need a Hub. I couldn't find one and don't really need it, so I skipped this part.



And finally, the phone working nicely as well




The observant ones will notice that I didn't discuss the coding part yet. Truth be told, that was an episode in itself which I would elaborate on a little later. For now, I'm just basking in success

 

[Gunner-Win]

Congrats on an epic DIY. Thanks for sharing as well. :clapper:

 

[sash]

congrats on the DIY, that requires as much effort as mechanical DIY. raise:raise:

 

[Ratslaaf]

Thanks gents, although I doubt I'm anywhere near ready to pulling an engine :roflol:

 

[Gunner-Win]

Thanks gents, although I doubt I'm anywhere near ready to pulling an engine :roflol:

Yeah me too. Pulling wire is so much easier. :roflol:

 

[Ratslaaf]

Hahaha, well that depends.

 

[car_fanatic]

Awesome DIY. raise:

 

[silverz3]

:clapper: good job

 

[Ratslaaf]

While I had the inside in a million pieces, I decided to change the trim as well. I found a nice set of gloss black trim at MD House, I like this a lot more than the standard silver trim

 

[S1NGH 911]

Excellent DIY :clapper:

 

[WSM238]

Nice colour! Love the car! :clapper:

 

[iceburn]

While I had the inside in a million pieces, I decided to change the trim as well. I found a nice set of gloss black trim at MD House, I like this a lot more than the standard silver trim

now that's something different :clapper: looks good

 

[DeanoBlado]

Nice DIY, i have a question for you, in the centre of the dash on top you have the air vent or two of them actually. How do you get that plastic cover off? I have a bad rattle coming from there and i want to sort it out.

Thanks

 

[Ratslaaf]

Both had a wash, so I just couldn't resist taking a shot of them side by side

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Nice DIY, i have a question for you, in the centre of the dash on top you have the air vent or two of them actually. How do you get that plastic cover off? I have a bad rattle coming from there and i want to sort it out.

Thanks

If I understand correctly, it's the piece of trim that goes all the way from the passenger side to the Start button? The part that I replaced in the pics above? If so, you basically pry it off, starting from the passenger side. I strongly recommend you get plastic trim removal tools to do this. Using a screwdriver will just end up leaving marks. If you in the Benoni area you can pop past and use the stuff I have.