Do It Yourself - BMW Aux Input Adapter
 

Last updated 7/15/04 ~7pm PDT

Time involved: 1.5 - 2 hours

NOTE: This only works for 2003 or newer BMWs! Even if your dealer tells you it will work, even if your radio has the right connector in the back, even if you wish really hard, it won't work unless your car is a 2003 or newer.

ALSO NOTE: This is NOT the BMW/iPod interface! This is a generic aux input that will let you hook up any audio source, including the ipod, and hear it through your head unit. The iPod interface does not work if you have or want Sirius or a CD changer, and it only lets you have 5 playlists to choose from, and it doesn't display song/artist names, so honestly for $150 I am not really sure it is worth it, imho, just to be able to fast forward and rewind.

Tools Required:

  • Phillips head screwdriver
  • Putty knife (or similar - to remove interior trim)
  • Power Drill
  • Needle-nose pliers (optional, for removing c-clip)
  • 5/16", 1/8", 3/8" drill bits (or, according to BMW, 3mm and 8mm bits)
  • Razor Blade (to clean up drilled holes)
  • BMW Aux Input Adapter for MY2003 or later cars
    • Part number w/o Nav: 65 12 0 153 501
    • Part number w/ Nav: 65 12 0 153 503 (note: instructions here are for non-nav cars, but everything is pretty similar. You will have a different and somewhat tricky procedure to pull the radio, and the harnesses won't quite match)

Disclaimer:
I am not a certified mechanic, do not work for BMW, have received no training from BMW, and you follow these instructions at your own risk. There are places where my instructions differ from those published by BMW for this purpose. In such instances, I am merely relating the procedure I followed, which is usually different for no other reason than there were no available BMW instructions when I went through this. I have marked such steps. Use these steps as a guide, but know there are other ways out there. Good luck.

Other links:

  • A DIY for XM Radio - useful if you want to place your aux input in the ashtray, he details how to get at that part.
  • Eurobuyers.com - where I got my aux input. Steve is a great guy and very helpful. Highly recommended.
  • Bimmerfest - great resource
  • e46fanatics - also great, more geared towards modifying your car
 
So here is my attempt to give back to the online BMW enthusiast community - a DIY for the BMW AUX input kit. This kit is available for MY2003 and later cars (3-series, X5, and Z4, I believe). These are the instructions for the e46 without the navigation system. As this is my first DIY, if anything here is wrong or misleading, please let me know. If you use this and it all works out, I'd love to hear about that as well. Well, here it goes
 
1. Sit and look at your aux input kit. The kit should include the adapter, a blue plastic C-clip (w/o nav kit only), some zip ties, and two screws. Note that there is a small round retaining nut that screws on the end of the 1/8" jack that holds the faceplate on.
 
 

2. Now ignore your new kit and go get in the passenger side of your car. Open and empty the glove box. The glove box is held in by 6 screws. Three across the top, one on either side (behind the strap and behind the damper thing that makes it lower slowly), and one pointing up on the right hand side bottom. Pull the glove box assembly towards you a bit and it should then pull down and away. It might stick a bit, just wiggle it and it should come free.

Note: Feedback I received on this step and the subsequent 2 steps indicates that this is not the way BMW says to disassemble the glove box. They say to take the door off first while it is in place (my step 4). Not sure whether this is easier or harder, just different. I liked taking the whole assembly out so I could work on the whole thing up in my apartment and see how it all worked. But the BMW way lets you avoid a few minor steps, like #3, but makes some other steps a little more awkward. Feel free to go either way on this. If anyone has a pdf of the actual BMW instructions for this, please contact me. The kit only comes with the instructions for the input part, not pulling the radio or glove box.

 
 
3. Remove the wire harness for the light and the one for the flashlight charger, which requires gently lifting the tab on top to release it. Un-thread the wiring from the channels in the box assembly to free the box entirely. Remove it from the car and take it to your workspace.
   
 
4. Time to take apart the glove box assembly. Your goal is to separate the box from the assembly that holds it in place, to get at the back of the box. On the underside of the box there are four screws holding it in. Take these out and set the parts aside. The strap holding the left side of the box in place is released by pulling a plastic pin out. You might have to put pressure on the other end of the pin with a screwdriver, but it shouldn't provide too much resistance. The damper has two tabs on its side to squeeze, which will let it slide towards the middle of the box and then down and out.
 
 
5. Take a deep breath, because you are about to drill into a piece of your $30-60K luxury sports sedan. Take a look at the back of the glove box. It is a deep plastic diamond-shaped grid. Decide where to place the input. The instructions put it almost all the way on the drivers side of the box, which is closest to the stereo. This is where I placed it. The pattern of the holes on the faceplate are such that you can avoid the pattern on the box in only one way. The larger hole in the upper-most portion of one of the diamonds, the two smaller holes on either side, in the lower-most portion of the neighboring diamonds. Look at the BMW instructions and my pictures _very_ carefully. This is in a hidden spot, so mistakes are not the end of the world, but you always want to be very very sure.
 
 
6. Get out your drill. I used a 5/16" drill bit for the larger hole. BMW recommends an 8mm bit, but my bits were in english units. This was just big enough to fit the jack through. You want a hole large enough that when the faceplate is removed from the jack, the entire exposed metal portion of the jack can fit through. Drill that hole. I used a 1/8" drill bit for the two smaller holes. I used a razor blade to clean up the holes a bit. Thread the jack through to ensure it all fits. You should be able to push it through, fit the faceplate on the end, and thread the retaining nut on to hold it in place.
 
 

7. Now you have to drill a hole through the rest of the glove box assembly to feed the wires through. BMW recommends a 8mm bit here for a pilot hole, and then expanding it to 20mm, which seems excessive to me. I used a 3/8" bit for this, and things seem to move freely. To mark the spot, I temporarily reassembled the glove box, and scratched a mark through the big hole you just drilled onto the housing behind it. Then I disassembled it again, and used that mark to drill.

Note: Some feedback from another bimmerfest member: 'I used a 1/2" Greenlee chassis punch to make a vertical slot about 1/2" wide and 1" tall.' You get the idea, you have to put a hole in the assembly large enough for things to move around, since the glove box opens and shuts, causing some movement of the wires through the hole.
 
 
8. BMW says you should connect the harness to the radio first, then thread through the rest to the glove box. I ignored this, and first put together the jack and faceplate in place in the glove box. Push the jack through the holes you made, put the faceplate over the top of it, and thread on the retaining nut. Use the two screws provided to secure the faceplate to the box.
 
 
9. Reassemble the glove box. Note that when you attach the box to the assembly, you have some leeway in where to attach it, so that you can ensure that the glove box engages and disengages from the latch nicely. You can make it hard to close the glove box if you do not reattach it exactly where it was. It is possible to adjust this later when it is in place, so don't stress too much. This is hard to put into words. Basically, if at the end of this your glove box seems to work much less smoothly and engages and disengages from the latch in a difficult fashion - this is where you went wrong.
   
 
10. Bring the whole glove box/wiring assembly back to your car. It is time to take the radio out. The best tool for this is the one BMW has and won't sell you. A good alternate is a putty knife. I didn't have either, so I used a combination of a flexible metal ruler and a butter knife, both protected with tape. Whatever works.
 
 
11. Start with the passenger-side trim. It is held in place using friction pins. Starting on the right-most side, gently pry off the trim. Use gentle but constant pressure to pull it straight off towards you. I think there are four pins. Work your way towards the radio. The trim should pull right off.
 
 
12. With that trim piece removed, the right side of the small center trim piece is free. You will have to pry off the left side near the steering wheel to get this piece free. With that piece removed, you will see the two screws that hold the radio in place. Remove these. The radio will pull free easily.
 
 
13. Time to thread the aux input adapter harness into the dash. I reached my hand into the hole left by the radio and was able to push the aux input harness up through the area to the left of the glove box, over some of the climate control ducts (?) and into the hole left by the dash. This isn't hard. I could put one hand in the radio hole and touch the fingers of my other hand reaching up from the glove box hole. So threading it isn't much of an issue. There is enough slack to leave the glove box on the floor of the passenger side the whole time.
   
 
14. There are two harnesses on the back of the radio. You are interested in the larger one. To remove it from the radio, Pull the outside rim of the harness up towards the top of the radio as you gently pull it away. It should come off easily. With the harness free you should see where the aux input adapter harness fits into this larger harness. To insert the aux input, you have to remove the blue c-clip from the bigger harness, which holds another small harness and the aux input in place. This is the same c-clip as came in the kit. If you are gentle and do not damage it, there is no need to use the one from the kit. Remove the blue clip, place the aux input harness into place and replace the blue clip. Reconnect this master harness to the radio.
 
 
15. Test it out. The "mode" button on the radio should now be able to access the "AUX" function. Hook up your iPod or whatever other inferior audio device you intend to use and play to your heart's content. But don't get too wrapped up in the music, you still have to reassemble the whole mess.
 
 
16. Put the radio back into position and reattach the two screws. Press the center, then the right trim back into place. You should have a decent amount of slack left in the aux input wiring. I used one of the supplied wire ties to bundle this up. There is plenty of space behind the glove box, so it isn't necessary to be extra-space-efficient. The wires are wrapped, so rattles shouldn't be a problem, but if you care deeply about preventing such things, there are plenty of places along the entire route of the wires to zip it to. Then zip up the excess into a bundle.
   
 
17. Time to reattach the glove box assembly. Reattach the flashlight charger and light, and thread their wires through the supplied channels. Raise it into position. Note that it pushes up and away from you into place, and should stay put without screws. Attach the 6 screws back into place and you are done! Note: you may want to test out the action on the glove box, and adjust the four screws that position the box on the bar it rotates around to make sure it engages smoothly.
   
 

You are done. Rock on!