[kelvinso]

Originally Posted by Neekulaz

I finally took time to drive the car to BMWHK for repair, after the accident.

My SA inspected the fender, bumper etc. in detail and concluded the paint job will have to be on both fender and bumper, i.e. 2 pieces. I actually expected for that because the scratches do span across both parts.

In addition, my SA smartly spotted out that actually there is a dent on my rear door which is hardly noticeable. There is no puncture point for the dent . There was just a small area of the door bending very slightly inwards possibly because of the impact of the crash. Without crouching down to see the reflection of the parking line on the door (the line is curved at the dent area), it simply cannot be noticed.

My SA previously quoted over the phone that the paint job for each piece of component is $3,500, cheaper if more than one component. Today after the inspection he quoted me $6,000 inclusive of respraying the bumper and fender. He will also ask the technician to fix the very slight inward bending of the door, touch up two existing dents at other areas on my doors and to touch up two other very minor scratch points on the body.

Whilst $6,000 itself is expensive, it is not unresonable for the whole package. So I agreed to it

Will pick up the car on Friday. You guys won't see a damaged car in the next meet

And will go to police station to close file tomorrow. Really want this to conclude asap so I could go back to enjoy the "sheer driving pleasure" which a BMW new car owner should be entitled to.

6k is a reasonable BMWHK price. Hope it will settle all your nightmare and you can resume your enjoyment from this Friday:rocks:

[rikuF10]

Neekulaz,

Sorry to hear that the repair cost more than the initial quote, but I guess it is still reasonable given the additional work.

Nevertheless, this thing is coming to an end.....and after that, you can enjoy the car again.

[woo]

Neekulaz,

Do you ask them to send your car to their Shatin workshop? or TKW workshop? I did not have any experience in these two places before but my gut feeling tell me Shatin should be better for the paint job!

[cntlaw]

thanks for sharing the info, 6K for a minor paint job is not cheap but acceptable. Look positively, the damage could have been worse. Wish everything goes smoothly for you. Incidentally i spoke to my sm in ZF about his experience with rear damaged cars severities, he said some accidents require main beam realignment which can cost 200K He even saw cases which require a complete replacement of chasis 300K-400K!

[cntlaw]

Originally Posted by kelvinso

Yes, you can create songs under folder.
Have you finalized your CD-R disc? Try CD-RW next time, it works better than CD-R sometimes, due to different refractive index.

kelvin, long as the cd-r mp3 works on our cars , i m happy.
i only tested one cd once, so i will continue to try different discs and will check the format again. yes, my cd is finalized and i think the issue could be just the cd drive happened to hate the disc (refractive surface incompatibilities as you said) I use.
If the mp3 on cd works ok, i would not bother much on the ipod as I prefer to listen to one album or a compilations of my favourite songs repeatedly for a period of time and then stop listen to them for a while.

[cntlaw]

my colleague has used Ice Link from http://www.densionusa.com/
http://www.densionusa.com/
Ice Link is connecting to his BMW 5-series (old gen) head unit by replacing the cd changer with one product called Icelink. He said the sound is VERY GOOD much better than AUX in and he can control the track selection via the same audio head unit except he cannot view the song names on the head unit display. He told me there is a ipod compatible headunit you can buy from eBay something....

anyone has related info to share?

[cntlaw]

dear all
thanks for the mp3 cd info.
this morning I was able to play the mp3 cd on my head unit, will try playback in the cd changer later!

I am surprised the head unit is able to display subfolder name and track names!! I am very happy to see it

Now, last question, can the head unit display chinese(simplfied?) / Japanese / Thai language characteres sturctured song names ?

t

[RD Sport]

Originally Posted by cntlaw

dear all
thanks for the mp3 cd info.
this morning I was able to play the mp3 cd on my head unit, will try playback in the cd changer later!

I am surprised the head unit is able to display subfolder name and track names!! I am very happy to see it

Now, last question, can the head unit display chinese(simplfied?) / Japanese / Thai language characteres sturctured song names ?

t

It can display both Chinese and Japanese name but you would need to set your headunit default language to Japanese

[cntlaw]

Originally Posted by RD Sport

It can display both Chinese and Japanese name but you would need to set your headunit default language to Japanese

also tested successfully playback mp3cd in the cd changer !
but i have a feeling that the cd changer sound is never as good as the head unit
( even though mp3 is digitally encoded/decoded which should be the same regardless of which drive it is playback , right?)

[kelvinso]

Originally Posted by cntlaw

also tested successfully playback mp3cd in the cd changer !
but i have a feeling that the cd changer sound is never as good as the head unit
( even though mp3 is digitally encoded/decoded which should be the same regardless of which drive it is playback , right?)

That's my feeling.....the headunit sounds always better than the CD changer.

But I know the decoding should be done in the headunit via the MOST bus, it should be digital signals and should not have any difference.

BTW, I will say my E36 CD changer sounded better than my E90 changer now...

Don't know why. I reported occassion sound distortion of my CD changer to BMWHK. They checked last time for 1 day and said they do not notify this problem....
Anyone here has the same problem as mine?

[rikuF10]

it depends on the connection between the CD-changer and the head unit. If it is tranmitting analogue signal, then it will be loss over the long connections.

Even for digital connection, there is still some difference. For optical connection vs. coaxial connection, the bandwidth is different. Thus, the transmission rate is different. Most home Hi-end CD Player (transport/decoder) uses Coaxial cables connections because of its higher-brandwidth and less affected from interference.

Anyone knows our BMW CD-changer is doing D/A conversion in the box or at the headunit?

[kelvinso]

Originally Posted by RikuE90

it depends on the connection between the CD-changer and the head unit. If it is tranmitting analogue signal, then it will be loss over the long connections.

Even for digital connection, there is still some difference. For optical connection vs. coaxial connection, the bandwidth is different. Thus, the transmission rate is different. Most home Hi-end CD Player (transport/decoder) uses Coaxial cables connections because of its higher-brandwidth and less affected from interference.

Anyone knows our BMW CD-changer is doing D/A conversion in the box or at the headunit?

That's my question. In the past, all CD changers have the built-in D/A converter and signal is transmitted through analogue cable to the Headunit. Now the transmission medium is called MOST as far as I know and I suspect the D/A conversion is done in the headunit instead (anyone can confirm)

My EEE degree knowledge is too old to answer all these technical questions nowadays

[rikuF10]

our BMW head-unit and CD-changer are made by Alpine, correct?

I remember I had a set of Alpine gear many years ago.....the DIN cables is only tranmitting analogue signal over one of its hair-like wires.

[rikuF10]

I just check Alpine's website for its CD-changer info.....all of their CD-changer has D/A converter on board the changer.

So, I suspect that our OEM changer is the same

[sunnywuh]

Tony & Kelvin,

i never knew CD is able to recongize MP3 folders, how do that actually work?

Tony,

There is one shop that sells this Ice-Link stuff in Hung Hom, here is the link
http://www.dension.com/icelink_info.htm
http://www.takeone.com.hk/

[cntlaw]

Originally Posted by RikuE90

I just check Alpine's website for its CD-changer info.....all of their CD-changer has D/A converter on board the changer.

So, I suspect that our OEM changer is the same

if the D/A converter is embedded with the cd changer, this answers the question why the cd changer playback sound quality may not be as good as the head unit's. ! So this means, the cd changer is sending analogie audio signals to the head unit's line-in , the long length and bad quality cable connecting the cd changer to the head unit is usually the major devil. So, the poor sound quality of playback in cd changer will have no exception for mp3 files.

I will trust your confirmation about the D/A converter in the cd changer is true.

[cntlaw]

Originally Posted by sunnywuh

Tony & Kelvin,

i never knew CD is able to recongize MP3 folders, how do that actually work?

Tony,

There is one shop that sells this Ice-Link stuff in Hung Hom, here is the link
http://www.dension.com/icelink_info.htm
http://www.takeone.com.hk/

yes, it works. More than 400 of my mp3 cds are bought from Bangkok. One cd has more than 10 albums. Each album is stored in a sub-folder with a folder name same as the album name.

On the head unit, there is a option button called LIST. When LIST button is pressed, the display will show all the subfolders names and also the track names if you choose to expand the subfolders by scroll to highlight that subfolder and press ENTER. You can move around the subfolders, track names, current playing song by pressing the same option button.

Above feature is very useful if we were to decide to search by albums rather than by tracks. Once you move the cursor to point to the subfolder and expand it , then only the tracks underneath that subfolder will be displayed for further srolling!

i love my E90 more now!

[cntlaw]

yesterday evening I have done my own e90 meet at the central IFC the road which I have suggested to use it as a official meet point on HK Island.
Taken some photos with my handphone:

[HO]

Originally Posted by RD Sport

It can display both Chinese and Japanese name but you would need to set your headunit default language to Japanese

RD sport,

How can I set headunit default language to Japanese/ Chinese as I cannot read Chinese Songs name

Thanks

[RD Sport]

Originally Posted by HO

RD sport,

How can I set headunit default language to Japanese/ Chinese as I cannot read Chinese Songs name

Thanks

You press the button "menu" on your head unit, then choose "config" and choose "lanaguage" and then set it to Japanese (It doesn't have chinese but if you set it to Japanese, it can display song names in Chinese)

[RD Sport]

Originally Posted by cntlaw

yesterday evening I have done my own e90 meet at the central IFC the road which I have suggested to use it as a official meet point on HK Island.
Taken some photos with my handphone:

Thanks t, looks good to me

[cntlaw]

Originally Posted by HO

I want to share my experience in installing the rear spoiler DIY. Betalink kit includes glue, sandpaper, spatula and BetaClean. Betaclean is actually a bottle of gasoline ( use to fill up the lighters). You need to clean both surfaces before applying the glue . The most critical step is to hold the spoiler in position by using a clamp and keep it for a least 12 hrs.

For the first time, I only used strong tape to hold it in position and it popped up immediately. Then I reapplied the glue and using a clamp to fix it for 6 hrs( as suggested by menu) and end up in popping up again after a few hr. Finally, I removed the glue residue from the end ,reapplied the glue and clamped it overnight. Up till now, the spoiler still in position.

I have asked my friend who work in BMW and know that they use glue ( which also use to stick the edge of window) to stick the spoiler and bodykit and he thinks Betalink is similar product to that. You can try to buy it in 五金店 and buy the black coloured glue which use to stick the window.

Will post some close up pic of my installed spoiler later.

Thanks again for sharing this important procedure. Based on what you have suggested, I think I will ask my garage to use the glue for sticking the windshield for sticking the spolier as it is such a heavy piece of plastic against strong wind. Since my garage has once done the windshield for my Benz, I am sure they know how to apply the glue.

Now, what about the shark fin, can I simply use double side tapes for the shark fin ? anyone to share, tks

t