not sure what happened with my camera/edit/publish flow, but I lost a day's worth of pics. I will try to describe things in detail as the BMW install instructions are really weak with regards to front harness installation.

some general rules:
- stay away from the airbags and the cross-member. a collision could damage
wiring on top of whatever else happens. also you may interfere with deployment which is absolutely not good.

- stay close to existing wiring where possible. when piggybacking on an existing harness attach the new wires to it where they attach to the car

- the harnesses are sticky and the cloth tape goop will get on your hands. BE CAREFUL touching your headliner, A-pillar trim etc. you will definitely get it dirty if you're not careful. all it takes is one little split second touch and you've stained your headliner.

- felt tape is pretty much mandatory as some of the wires aren't wrapping in cloth tape. remember cars move, shake and flex. if you want to avoid potential rattles wrap anything that's likely to touch, ESPECIALLY the center stack area.


there's a harness going up the front of the a-pillar and by the base of the windshield. I installed my BT mic and cell antenna cables on that path. I worked in opposite directions, starting from the cell antenna mounting location and starting from the radio opening for the BT mic wire.
<lost pics - sorry>

I temporarily mounted the cell antenna behind the rain sensor and 90 degrees to the install instructions. If it doesn't perform as expected I will relocate it to the right of the rain sensor. I just didn't want too much stuff on the windshield.


UPDATE: I moved the cell antenna. It's now tucked into the front of the headliner near the rear view mirror. Also it's not clear to me that the antenna boost actually works with the iPhone 4S anyway. I have not noticed improved antenna signal in the cradle.

if you have the glovebox area disassembled, put a light on top of the dash behind the airbag you will see an opening from below. you can feed your cell antenna wire from above and BT mic wire from below through that opening.
<lost pics - sorry>

you'll want to route the bt mic harness and cell antenna under the instrument panel cross-member (the big metal beam).
<lost pics - sorry>

tuck the harnesses tight to the right front corner of the area below the radio opening.
<lost pics - sorry>

I really didn't like where the install guide said to mount the bluetooth antenna (on top of the dashpad near the edge closest to the passenger. I checked clearances carefully and found there was room underneath, just behind the center cluster. It also allowed me to rotate the antenna cable 180 degrees towards the ULF connection. It's velcro'd in place, pushed forward in the vehicle as far as possible. Note use of felt tape. I WOULD NOT do this without felt tape as it WILL shake and you will have plastic on plastic contact.


Feed everything to the right opening in the center stack area (radio opening, climate control opening, above, below). Don't hook things up though until the ULF module and radio are installed. You have to massage the wire/harness locations quite a bit to get things to fit properly.

 

Something reminded me this morning, when I had my dash out last, I cured my biggest and most annoying squeaks (cabrio).

First in this picture below the clocks is a vertical spline which has no function outside of the assembly line. It's wrapped in fabric tape but it still squeaks. Cut it off.



Second, wrap the first 1/2 inch or so of the downtubes in fabric tape.if you are neat on a grey fabric tube it looks OK.

Third on the glovebox, the latch moves and is secured by two number 8 bolts. Move the latch to the place where it pulls the glovebox door in tightest.

Finally on the 3 dash trim pieces, warp all the edges in surgical tape so that you can't see it once assembled. The fabric tape doesn't stick properly and is a bit too thick.

 

^ this. excellent advice.

 

What should have been quick turned into 2-3 hours of work. 3 key issues to overcome:

-- the left hand side mounting location for the ULF bracket is right next to an instrument panel brace that prevents the bluetooth antenna wire from sitting properly. the bracket has to be modified.


-- the ULF and the radio are probably about 1mm apart (!) when installed. need to felt tape that area up for sure




-- there are so many wires and connectors behind the radio now that they have to be positioned just right for the radio to fit in around the rubber mounting/guide pin in the rear of the radio (front of the car). In my case I had to untape the factory radio harness and move the power wires elsewhere. You will have to move things around until they sit properly behind the radio, not sticking above and not very deep. BE CAREFUL manipulating the wiring as you could break a pin or pull a wire if you're not careful. It took all my fingers to get everything in place :-) Kinda crazy but the power wires wrap around the guide pin. Once you have it shaped the way you need grab some cloth tape and secure the shape so it stays in place.



Front to back needs to be tight too. rotate those extra connectors so they sit as flat as possible behind the radio


There's also alot of muscling around for the wiring and harnesses. in general most of the radio/center stack area harness bundles get tucked in to the right side space, towards the front of the car as much as possible.

crappy pic below the radio


My advice, be patient, and I would strongly recommend that the glovebox and both seats be removed when you're doing this. You'll be able to see above, below, rear and right side of the radio and ULF as it's being installed. I couldn't imagine bending down without direct view of what you're doing. I don't see how you could do the install properly that way.

More detail on the ULF install

Don't forget to detach the passkey sticker (below my finger in the pic). Put it on the card that came with the kit and store it with the owner's manual. If you lose your passkey there's another copy of the passkey on the label, but you'll need to remove the center dash trim and center cluster to get to it.


ULF installs using existing screws. Note the wiring harness across the opening. It doesn't show in the install instructions and prevents the bracket from mounting flat. It worked ok in the end though.



What the ULF will look like from the top connected and mounted. Note how far the bluetooth FAKRA connector sticks out on the left. The harness on the right is quite thick. Since it comes from the "top" of the ULF you need to route it around an instrument panel bracket to fit.



Do yourself a huge favor and wrap the bluetooth antenna wire completely. It's too long for the new antenna location. I ended up wrapping it loosely around the left center A/C vent. The bottom of the vent lines up almost perfectly with the ULF connector.



As mentioned earlier the left bracket is in the way of the antenna cable and must be modified. Getting it out is a bit of a pain and much easier if the driver's seat is out of the car.



While removing the bracket I noticed that one of my harnesses wasn't attached properly. May have been me when I was installating/removing the Parrot


Bracket after die grinding and deburring. Note felt tape around the notch to protect the wire from chafing.

 

From the translated install instructions

(hold the console phone cradle button down, then turn the ignition on. release the button after a few seconds and you should see the first pic below)
No self-respecting MINI owner is gonna let that name stand. Besides my M3 has the same ULF label so it's confusing. will rename the ULF "MINI ULF" "MINI PHONE" or "MINI HANDSFREE" per joylove's tip. Can't use "MINI BT" because I will have another BT device for music - "MINI MUSIC" if I can manage it :-)

- When prompted, enter the 4-digit "BLUETOOTH PASSKEY" (see code card or sticker on the ULF)
- To confirm a correct coupling appears in the display or in the on-board monitor "SUCCESSFUL"

Turn off the ignition - - pairing is complete

It takes a little while to upload your phone contacts. You'll see the following message in the interim


Phone auto-pairs when the car starts. Calls are quite clear Very happy with the setup.

UPDATE: Voice dialing requires an additional, separate setup process. Read further down the thread for more info. Works very well once set up!!




Will continue with Intravee and bluetooth music installation

Now go buy that retrofit kit before they're all gone..

 

Thanks for the great thread. The muting is all Ok with your HK audio?

 

So far so good. Will update folks on progress, especially around Intravee+Bluetooth Music activity. Already in touch with RichardP on that one.

I mean it man, better get those kits before they're gone. At $250+your own labor it's an absolute steal.
Maybe the price hasn't changed all that much after all - when you factor in the labor involved it could very well end up costing $1000+ to get a dealer to install this.

In hindsight the one thing I would try to avoid is the dashpad removal. It seems unnecessarily complex and risky. We should only be pulling the right A-pillar and figuring out t a way to get the harness to it from below. That said I've road tested the car and it's perfect. I haven't damaged anything either which is absolutely amazing considering the amount of disassembly that was involved.

 

Did you notice if your vehicle harness had MUTE and TELON wired back to the HK? Mine doesn't and the schematic says at least Mute should go back to the amp, however this just muted the radio+phone inputs.

 

There are 2 loose pins on the ULF harness that go to pin 10 and 11 on the radio plug. The radioplug post earlier in the thread shows them.


you can also look at the last/2nd to last page of the install doc as well to the schematic, pin numbers and labels. Those wires go between the ULF and the radio.

 

It really is "the reverse of removal" but with a few gotchas:

- if you took my advice and put the fasteners back in when removing parts, don't forget to remove them before reinstall. easy to forget and wind up with a screw in your way.

- rear console is going to be really full now with the console telephone harness. you'll want to fold it flat and tuck it in behind the ebrake. Just make sure there's enough slack in the armrest wire.

- the passenger airbag retaining straps need to be tucked into a very narrow opening behind the airbag. I tied them together with some weed trimmer line and then fished them through to the bracket area behind the glovebox.

- same trick with the auto climate sensor on the dashpad. this time tape the trim line to the 2 wires, then feed it though the dashpad hole.

- leave the a-pillars for last. It's really easy to drop the screw and metal plate so be careful. otherwise you may have to remove kick panels to retrieve them

 

Glad you got everything finished and great pictures.

I use my Full MINI Bluetooth Kit almost every day and charging the iPhone in the center console with the snap in adapter makes it a clean integrated look.

For iPhone user you can also hit the button on your phone (while in the cradle) for the iphone help and hold it down and the system will prompt like another version of bluetooth.

The other (smaller) bluetooth kit is a simple version of this kit.

This DIY will also help people who want to fix other things around the dash and center armrest because now they can see how things work.

Do you have an audio clip yet of how to talk to the system using audio commands? It has a notepad feature and its funny to hear it talk and read the notepad. This was very cool feature for MINI back in 2005.

Also inbound calls ring through like the euro phone and it is unique.

 

UPDATED AND SIMPLIFIED

The BT kit's been working very well. My wife is thrilled with it and says she thinks it's better than the Parrot we had before and the OEM setup we've used on other vehicles. Phone audio is crystal clear, and folks we're speaking to don't notice we're ona handsfree kit. That's a great endorsement.

I've run into some snags though around address book integration. It seems like the ULF is having some trouble with contacts sync which makes "Dial Name" voice response dialing not work. You can dial using the MFSW and radio display, just not by voice.

UPDATE: Actually there's nothing wrong - it's designed that way. There are 2 different ways to dial with the ULF:

- Display dialing. The ULF pulls the contacts from your phone and displays them on the radio or nav screen. You use the "R/T" and arrow buttons on the MFSW to access them, then hit the phone button to dial.

- Voice dialing. This is basically a separate system in the ULF that has to be setup independently using voice commands. It DOES NOT use the phone's address book that was synced to the ULF for display dialing. Each voice dial contact needs to be setup manually so you can record a name for them.

More detail if you're curious about this:

You would think that the sync'd address book would be available for voice dialing, but it isn't, probably because the ULF didn't have reliable enough "speech to text" to match what you say to a specific address book entry. Even brand new systems like Ford Sync have problems with this, though they actually work pretty well since they also include a display you can interact with - they display what they think matches your "utterance", and then you confirm.

So.. in order to voice dial you have to manually create address book entries using voice commands like "Save Name". The steps to do this are indeed covered in the MINI ULF user's manual (P/N 01 29 0 394 857). It just doesn't explain why you need to do this. Read on for more info. Many thanks to RichardP at Intravee for pointing this out.

By the way - as mentioned in the post describing the kit contents back on page 1 - the MINI ULF manual is basically identical to the BMW Owner's Manual for Voice Control (P/N 01 41 0 155 409)

Some ULF technical details (read the BMW ULF Owners Manual for a general overview of how things work):

The only detailed ULF tech info I've found on the ULF comes from bimmernav. There are some good troubleshooting tips for the ULF setup on this page. Nothing was wrong with my setup though.

There are several generations of ULFs as explained here. The R53 kit came with a "492" module with a 2004 date (unknown ULF generation). My E46 has a "552" (1st gen) module.


Here's the situation in detail which behaves exactly the same way on 4 different phones I've tried (iPhone 5/4S/3GS and Samsung Galaxy S):
EDIT: THIS IS NORMAL BEHAVIOR. EXPERIENCE IS PRETTY LAME, BUT IT'S NORMAL

Again this only happens when the ULF is in BT PAIRING mode.

If after successfully pairing you turn the ignition off and then back on, all is well:UPDATE: Pairing with the ULF in my E46 M3 behaves exactly the same way, except there's no beep when the connection's dropped after pairing. It's certainly not a good experience, but it is expected behavior.

Here's the problem - the phone book is not available via voice dialing. If you say "Dial Name" to the ULF it replies "Phonebook empty".

UPDATE: That's because you have to add voice dialing address book entries manually.

If you read the MINI ULF manual says that in order to transfer contacts the ULF has to be in BT PAIRING mode! Since it was dropping the connection when in that mode the phone book is not transferred.
UPDATE: not sure what the MINI ULF manual is referring to. There are in fact 2 separate address books in the ULF, one for "display dialing" and one for "voice dialing". Only the "display dialing" address book is populated when you pair a phone to the ULF.

UPDATE: The E46 ULF's phone book was not empty, so it acts differently.

This excerpt explains why the phone contacts show on the display even though the phone book isn't transferred:
EDIT: THE NEXT 2 PARAGRAPHS TALK ABOUT SENDING UPDATED CONTACTS FROM THE PHONE TO THE ULF.

If a manual transfer of the address book must be made, the ULF must be in
setup mode for manual transfer. The corresponding data can then be transferred.

If phonebook data is modified while the phone is wirelessly connected to the
vehicle the changes will not be displayed in the vehicle if the phonebook is
scrolled via the steering wheel or display screen, changes will only be transferred
the next time the ignition is cycled.

Another item for future reference - de-pairing / resetting the ULF is pretty easy but you need to do it exactly right:
1) put the ULF into BT PAIRING mode
2) once in BT PAIRING, hold down the console phone button for 10 seconds. you should hear 3 beeps and then see a RESET message on the radio.
at this point your BT pairing settings have been cleared out and you can start fresh.
EDIT: You also need to "Clear Phonebook" in voice commands to delete the voice dialing phonebook.

Some other comments if you want to pair more than one phone:
- the ULF only allows one active paired phone at a time (my Parrot allowed 2 - handy for driver+passenger).
- the ULF has only ONE voice phone book, no matter which paired phone you have active.

UPDATE: I've posted video on YouTube

 

Fantastic how to.very well documented and detailed.cheers..

 

The voice activated dialling command does NOT use the phone phonebook. You have to enter each number into the VR module (which is integrated into most ULF's) phonebook. You have to use the command 'Save Name', then say the name, then say each digit of the number and then finally say 'Save'.

 

Thanks guys! Hope you find it useful. It's such a nice setup, and if you're willing to put the effort in this DIY should help anyone equip their R53 with it.

Indeed with a iPhone 4/4S it's absolutely turnkey. For other phones (android, iphone5 etc) you can mod the generic cradle cover to feed a charging cable to the back of it.

What's still missing was never designed in - Bluetooth Music and CD-Changer adapter integration while in the cradle. Definitely feasible to do it without cutting the harnesses, but it's quite a bit of work, all undocumented. I'm tackling that work on my E46 M3 first. CCFJ1 has done this in the UK by gutting a cradle and snap-in, plugging in a dock extender cable in place of the original snap-in connector, and then connecting the other end of the extender cable to the cd-changer adapter. This gives you docked phone+music+charging, phone via ULF BT connection, music and power to phone via the cd changer adapter connection. This video shows an E46 nav but it's the same as the R53. In fact nav or no nav is irrelevant as far as the cradle mod is concerned.


you're talking about Siri right Mike? I actually haven't tried that yet as my son's got the 4S now. you have full access to the home button and screen while in the cradle that's for sure.

Does it still include an ULF? I remember seeing bluetooth wiring diagrams in WDS for a "non-ULF" version (see links in the first post of this thread)

Absolutely. I detailed the daylights out of my interior during this project. It's spotless now under the seats, everywhere.

This part of the system is not working properly yet. I suspect it's the ULF version included with the kit and/or incompatibility with the iPhone(s) and Galaxy S phones I tried. It was definitely installed properly. As I indicated above my M3 has a 552 module while this kit came with a 492 version. The voice prompts are different.

Yes you definitely get the inbound call through the speakers. I haven't noticed yet if the callerid is displayed on the radio or not, but you can glance to the phone display if you have to.

 

I believe the 492 module is a 3rd gen ULF based on the build date. It doesn't show up on bimmernav's list of ULFs though which I find strange.
EDIT: joylove pointed out that the label shows 5th gen.

Lots of threads out there talking about phone pairing with the ULF behaving exactly as described earlier here (pair successfully then immediate dropped BT connection until you turn the ignition off and on again to exit BT PAIRING mode). So nothing here that's any different from other ULF installs. In this state your phone is paired, you can take incoming calls and you can dial using R/T and arrow buttons + radio display of name and number. Without contacts sync between phone and ULF there will be no voice dialing though.

After some more digging I found this post by good ole John (ccfj1) on m3cutters with some interesting info about sending contacts from the phone to the ULF over bluetooth. Will let you know how it goes, but if this works the voice dialing should be up and running.

 

Wow

 

more info from across the pond. RichardP at Intravee mentions that the voice dialing entries need to be entered manually by using the Save Name voice command. That makes perfect sense for a few frequently used numbers. I'll update this post as I work with the voice commands a bit.

UPDATE: "Save Name" works perfectly. Very nicely implemented - you can say a variety of phrases like "Add Name" "Add Number" "Save Number" - they all work. Will post some videos later today

From the BMW Voice Control Owners Manual

 

 

Ah the old ULF/iPhone/contacts grief. You ain't the first or last. I've seen some anecdotal evidence on it. Some very early hands free kits (not BMW specifically) would only copy contacts that were stored on the SIM rather than in the phone. I've also read the ULF is a little sensitive to special characters in the name, such as + * and a trailing white space, along with photographs assigned to a contact, and those might make an individual contact not be transferred. Let me know how you get on with the OBEX Push CCJF recommends. I've also read of people going for long drives and magically finding their contacts have transferred. Also I have the iPhone 5s with the latest OS and on a 2008 E83 with TCU the contacts do transfer, so it is capable of doing it. I also have a V6 ULF in my parts bin and if memory serves it also cannot load my phone book.

I suspect your hardware is v5, since it says so on the sticker. The FCC filings suggest the V1-V4 were obsoleted (and possibly recycled into later models) when they found instability at extremes of temperature in the VCO and had to change the loop filter values. There may be a CSR changenote on that out there somewhere if they followed the reference design. Anyway that would be a reasonable reason to pull in the V1-V4 from the sales channel and only ship V5-V13 after that. I would say SW version would be the most important since if it has been updated it will flush out some of the bugs.

 

I'd love to do this with my R53...but I've got the Euro arm rest (the one with the lid that hinges open...not the slider kind pictured here). Do I have to switch to the other style of arm rest, or is there a kit out there that works with the Euro one?

 

You need a paring button for the ULF to do the pairing function. BMW used to sell a button but it went EOL two years ago. You can make a button from a non-latching push-switch. I think some people sell a push button with a connector that fits to the eject box socket for about $55 online.

 

There's an ULF pairing button available in Germany for about $30 shipped. It's a perfect copy of the one used on E46s without the talking head logo on it.

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=963753

 

Nice find and a good price. Of course it's easier to make a round hole than a rectangular one if you can find a kit with a round button!

 

yup. it's absolutely manageable though. I see

-- alot of people complaining about the ULF pairing issues, then alot of frequently bad info followed by snarky people crapping on iphones.. no systematic analysis of things. hopefully I can help fix that here.

-- some lightly covered, not very helpful documentation from BMW/MINI.
UPDATE: Actually this is a bit harsh. Let's just say everything you need to know is there but each topic is very lightly covered.

-- alot of overblown hype about "latest gen" ULFs being critical. While it's clear later versions of the ULF software will have enhancements and bug fixes, it's just not true that all ULFs except the last generation are garbage. It all depends on how you intend to use the system and what kind of phone you're using.
UPDATE: this is spot on I think. You need to know how it's supposed to work before falling for a story that says you have to upgrade the module. My fifth gen unit works exactly as intended with a brand new iPhone5. The "design intent" is a bit quirky, but it works

what I don't ever see though:
-- detailed explanations of what the various ULF and TCU changes are about, probably because Visteon and BMW don't release that info. That's just silly. What's clear is that that Visteon have updated the software several dozen times with little or no explanation, at least not publicly.

Yeah that's probably variation in implementations of the OBEX and PBAP bluetooth profiles between the various vendors involved. The newer the software the more likely things are covered. But I'd be willing to bet that most "fundamental" interoperability bugs were fixed years ago.

Yeah this is key. From my testing it appears that the "temp phonebook" used for display dialing is transferred when the phone is paired. I need to confirm but I believe it's updated each time the phone connects to the ULF.

As to the OBEX Push stuff, on the iPhones running iOS6 you can select what to share with the ULF - full contact list, recent calls and favorites. Favorites should definitely be set up for voice dialing. You can't do that with the ULF without recording voice prompts for each contact.

It's good to have that info.. the TCUs were built by different suppliers though, GSM in EMEA and CDMA in the US. I think Moto supplied some of them. I don't believe *any* R53 ever came with a TCU. This handsfree kit was ULF based and is only compatible with 2005/6 R53s..

You should let me borrow it for a bit. Would love to mess with it in my E46, compare it to the 552 unit.

I suspect you're right there. It's funny b/c that 492 MINI ULF part number is not part of that "gen 1-13" list of ULFs that bimmernav have floated around over the years.

Good to know. Sounds like a good reason to upgrade an ULF in older installations. The only other credible thing I've seen about hardware revs on the ULF is the blurb about upgrade DSP on newer versions improving voice quality. Don't know if I have the new DSP or not in the 492 ULF. All I know is it sounds terrific, mic placement is perfect, noise cancellation quite effective.

^this definitely makes sense