I have been researching this for months. Most of what I know comes from the BMW forums as they have been arguing about it for over a year.
I personally like to listen to my engine. I notice if things sound wrong so a sound that stops that is not what I want.

Before you go down the road you may want to pull the fuse on the stereo to hear how quiet the exhaust and engine are without ASD.

From all my information there are 3 ways to turn ASD off:

1 - You can pay your dealer to switch it off in the software - This way it will not error code when they scan the engine. You could also do this yourself with E-Sys (on the M5 F10 you can even change the sounds that the speaker emit).
2 - You can unplay the ASD Module (I have found enclosed drawings of where the ASD unit is and how it works) - you will likely be able to listen to your stereo etc with this method but not 100% sure if you have the standard radio. Also the car will give a fault code as the ASD unit will not show up with a diagnostic scan.
3 - "Hardware bypass simply reroutes the analog inputs/outputs of the ASD so no engine sound reaches the OEM speakers/OEM amp. The ASD still is connected, still function, still can be diagnosed but it simply outputs nothing." Quote Technic @ bimmerpost.com
The first picture is how that modified connector will look

 

The first of these 2 pictures shows the actual position of the ASD unit (it's not where is shown on the parts diagram). The last picture is how the software coding looks.
I want to thank Brandon form Sewell for his help on this. We should all support their business.
I think these findings are a good step in the right direction for those of us who like to hear the "real" car.....although that may be less than you imagine!

 

Gregory,

Thanks for sharing the info. Would you say that the car without the ASD sounds similar to Green mode?

Matt

 

Nuke-em. Firstly I don't really use green mode. I would say that this ASD is even on in green mode so it is even different again. Not sure if there is any noise cancellation going on in this system. Pull the fuse in the glove box and let us know your thoughts.

 

curious what the price is to have the dealership disable it so I can remove it. That's excess weight that I'm happy to remove.

 

Thanks GregoryK

 

Not sure how much the Mini dealer would charge but in the BMW forums they talk about it being $100. Not much -but you would have to pay to have the software updated if you hate it. There should be an option to defeat it in the sound menu IMO.

 

I agree Gregory. It should be an option in the sound menu.

 

Good going. I assume my R56 doesn't have this feature. I'm curious as to how people like the sound of it. It's weird to me that while you are playing music (which I do a lot), the input is also playing fake engine/exhaust sounds at the same time. I assume the volume of the fake sound doesn't go up when you turn up the music, so maybe the music drowns it out at high volume. I know my exhaust fake burbles are louder in the Sport Mode and almost nonexistent in normal mode.

 

Gregory, I take it that you went with the software defeat. If disabling by simply pulling the active sound's plug, is it known whether that would affect the normal stereo functions?

 

RKW - Know I am working on my dealer to see how much they will charge.
Interesting stuff. I pulled the plug from the box. It's easy to do - you pull the back seat and then the front of the rear panel ( the part that intersects with the back of the drivers door. You need to pull the sill trim along the drivers door first. Then you can see it and reach in and pull the plug. Unfortunately this cuts out the stereo though so I will have to build a bypass rig #3 above.
What is interesting is that I have been driving the car all day with the ASD unplugged. You can still hear the exhaust but you hear more road noise and the engine more. I suspect that there is some sort of electronic sound deadening going on with the ASD. I have posted before that I had trouble hearing my wife talk when in the car with her and there is a deadness in the car. That seems to be gone with the ASD unplugged.
I am obviously plugging it back in for now but thought that it was very interesting that if I am right about the noise cancellation that MINI have to have the engine noise piped in or you would not hear it.

 

...and the problem is...?

 

That's cool, it makes your wife hard to hear! Maybe it is a noise cancelling feature. I might actually like it, there's quite a bit of road noise in my car. My 2007 was really noisy on the highway with windshield/wind noise, not so much road noise unless the pavement was funky. The Coupe's windscreen is much more raked so that's not a problem. Interesting.

 

Rear trim panel removed to expose the ASD module.

 

********For anyone interested in actually doing this themselves.*****
Easy way - Contact "Technic" on the BMW forums and buy a harness from him. These devices seem to be identical to the BMW ones and he sells a bypass to $75 including shipping.
My way - Bought an old HK amp from Kijiji. I bought one that looked perfect for $30CN. You are better to buy one that does not work. This amp uses the same basic female connector and they are impossible to buy anywhere. My amp came with the male part so I had all I needed to build my own loom!
1 - pull the female connector from the existing amp.
2 - look at the wiring diagram and connect the in/out pins for the ASD unit. I used small 3" pieces of wire. This allows the sound to bypass the ASD amp unit.
3 - there are 8 outputs on the HK system from the head unit and 8 returning to the amp...so you 8 pieces of wire.
4 - when you look at the original connector there are 22 wires (you have used 16 already (8 in and 8 out) you need to run the remaining 6 wires to the ASD unit from the new female connector to a new connector (in my case it came with the amp - but you can buy from Mini for about $6 (comes in 3 pieces) and 6 pins @ $1 each).
61138364882 Black internal
61138364884 Grey internal
61138364862 Covering cap
You just need to match the pins - Red/green goes from pin 5 to pin 5
5- Plug it in and you are good to go.
I must say my car is way quieter but everything I now hear is real. I honestly think the stereo sounds better now that I have done this.
###looking at the pictures the wiring diagram did not travel well. PM me and I will email you a copy####

 

Hey GregoryK, Great DYi! Now that you've completed the bypass do you think your Mini needs additional dynamat or similar material?

 

Maybe in the wheel wells. I think I was wrong about the noise cancellation of the asd.

 

Double post delete

 

I don't have the HK option, so no amp in my car. Not sure how the mod is applied in my situation. I was going to add some aftermarket amps and speakers to liven my system, but now I'm concerned that the active sound feature is going to totally misbehave with these upgrades. Any words of wisdom on how to proceed?

 

Curious about this as well. I have the standard sound system and wanted to figure out ways to improve the sound

 

I will try a dig up a writing diagram for you guys. It is very similar as the head unit feeds the outputs through the ASD then out the other side straight to the speakers. There are 2 ways to bypass the asd. One is to cut the outputs before they go into the asd then feed them into your new amp. This will give a diagnostic error code on the asd. The second it's to build a bypass like I did to the head amps outputs go directly to the speakers....You can run the wires straight from the bypass to your new amp....if you are doing that.

 

A wiring diagram would be awesome. Does the signal output from the asd go directly to the speakers? Or does the signal from the asd feed back into the head unit? I'm not sure where to tie in for the amps. I would prefer a workaround that will not cause diagnostic errors. Many thanks.

 

zx9rider - Check the original posting. Picture 5 is you system. Sound does not go back through the head unit.....goes straight to the speakers from the ASD.
The error code only shows when the car is scanned - you can tell the shop what you did and they will not focus on the error. My harness will still feed power to the ASD but it will be bypassed by any sound.

 

The file format for these wiring diagrams are SVG files. Here's a PNG copy but if you text me with your email address I'll email you the file.
You can use this online viewer to look at it and write down the wiring colors
http://scriptdraw.com/
or if you have Vector Works that will work even better.

 

This active sound design feature is just for the "S" models and does not include the "Justa"? Correct?
Thanks.......