E30 Zone

Does anyone know whether its possible to fit the new BMW iDrive satnav/voice activated headunit/screens to an e30?

If you have enough money, anything is possible!!

I cannot even imagine the cost of an entire iDrive system from BMW
Nor can I imagine being capable of removing every component necessary from a breaker!!

What drugs do you use ?

i expect it is possible, given a complete e60 donor car, and about 5 years constant work rewiring eveything from the wingmirrors to the light clusters

Kos wrote:What drugs do you use ?

the ones you cant afford!!!

how about just the standard headunit/screen system sat nav etc and not the idrive???

maynee007 wrote:

Kos wrote:What drugs do you use ?

the ones you cant afford!!!

Clearly you are the one with too much money if you really want to do such a thing

given the parts and labout costs work needed for such a conversion you would probably be better off buying a used e60.

A home built e30 idrive system would render the car almost unsellable....i cant even image trying to debug that system!

right boys i get the picture...how bout sticking a standard screen in from a 06 3 series satnav/radio/cd/bluetooth????

Y not a earlier model like 5/7series one.

maynee007 wrote:Does anyone know whether its possible to fit the new BMW iDrive satnav/voice activated headunit/screens to an e30?

You would be better off installing a Double-Din After market one, it will work of the standard ISO leads if you have them, if you got funny ones then Chop and hard-wire the standard bare male ISO PC03-08, Pretty flush and sleek looking ones out there but could be about £300+. That's the aftermarket route.

This is a stab in the dark here:-

If your installing one from a new BMW like the double dins they had in the E39 and E46 then you'd need everything it works off and you'd need either:-

CT20BM01 17 Way ISO from Connects2
or
CT20BM02 40 Way ISO from Connects2 depending on the leads that unit uses to connect it to the BMW one.

But im pretty sure those Double Dins have the parking sensors hooked up to them so it might bring up a few errors, and of-course the re-arrangement of the dash. So yeh that's a rough idea on what you could be dealing with possibly.

To be perfectly honest it would be cheaper and easier to install an after-market one as they have built in Bluetooth/DVD compatibility/and some expensive ones have sat-nav. I know Kenwoods and some ///Alpines use a full Garmin system.

Hope this gives you a rough picture, I won't be entirely correct but I'm pretty certain it would involve this type of depth and stuff

And the i-Drive is probably the same value as some E30's its roughly £1300-£1700 option on the news BMW's

thanks guys....i think aftermarket double din is the way forward, seen a sony one for about £600 includes satnav, has anyone got any pictures off double din conversions to dash???

maynee007 wrote:thanks guys....i think aftermarket double din is the way forward, seen a sony one for about £600 includes satnav, has anyone got any pictures off double din conversions to dash???

Here you go:-
This one has the centre dash heavily moded and all the stuff relocated below very easy, enough space and some trimming and fabrication is required.


This one has kept the existing centre dash standard and the double din has been placed in the pocket below again trimming and fabrication is needed. This looks like a better format and a more flush finish (from an e34)


Hope this helps.

In the pocket version (second picture) if you go for this method I would suggest you buy a centre console of eBay and do some trial fits before you go sawing into the original one you have at least that way you can fabricate a mock up, thin MDF would be the most likely material to be used like minimum 2-3mm in my opinion

check this link:

http://www.mp3car.com/worklogs/134401-1 ... -320i.html

Just get a single din motorised screen, saves having to butcher the dash board

i dont think there is a single din pop up that has satnav...i think the pic posted by tanveer of the e34 is an excellent mod which seems easily do-able. really appreciate all the advice...im starting my post up of my M3 rep tonight, probably be in the engine s50 section as im dropping in an s50b32...

Loads of pop outs have sat nav options more or less all the alpine ones do both new and old ones

Another idea for you is, get a single din head unit which has bluetooth and ipod connection and everything else and get a separate satnav and build a little box thing for it and make it fit flush in the pocket lol.

Bit of a lame idea but its a thought lol

I have seen older E46 with replacement head units with screens complete with Nav/bluetooth and CD drive similar to this
http://www.autodvdgps.com/bmw-e46-3-ser ... -1029.html