Quote:
Originally Posted by Free_Willy
Hello All,
I'm new to this forum and BMW. But I have been doing a lot of reading here and on babybmw.net. I'm in Brisbane.
I have a 2006 130i that I picked up very cheaply. The seller told me that the radio occasionally cuts out. Which it did when I test drove it. But now it's driving me insane.
My car has iDrive and when I try to connect to my phone via BT I receive a large red error saying I need to contact BMW service.
So my research tells me that the MULF is stuffed, which apparently is quite common.
I rang bmwbluetooth.com.au and I can get my MULF repaired for $400 plus postage. which seems reasonable to get rid of the annoying problem of all the idrive system cutting in and out. Especially with 12 months warranty.
But my question is (and I've been doing lots of research), can I upgrade to a MULF2, which I can buy a 2nd hand one for $250 and retrofit USB with the appropriate cables etc under the arm rest like the later model cars?
My research seems to say that I can, but I don't know anything about coding and I'm also not sure if this works with iDrive because everyone who has done it successfully, does not have iDrive.
is there anyone in Brisbane that knows either about coding this stuff or has done any retrofitting?
any help appreciated.
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This one is tricky.
Quick question, does the radio work on a normal radio station? Or even a CD?
If it doesn't, this doesn't have anything to do with the MULF.
Do you know what type of sound system you have?
The bluetooth error is most likely the MULF.
However, just given that your radio isn't working and your bluetooth is also not working leads me to think that there could be something else going on.
Yes you can upgrade to the MULF2, but i'm not too sure what is going to happen in terms of wiring. It won't be a direct replacement, run some extra wires and yay everything is working, type of situation.
But i think there are better options in terms of repair.
Given you have an '06, you will have the First generation "CCC" iDrive - it's functional, but thats about it.
Since you just bought this car and i think you might keep it for a while, you might want to think about upgrading to the second generation CIC iDrive.
It's a completely different system and a thousand times better. It has a better user interface, is easier to use, and you can do more things with it. And you get a "combox" with it (this is similar to the MULF but will allow bluetooth audio streaming and internet connectivity among other things)