Hey guys, I have been looking around the forum a lot now and found lots of info about retrofitting various stuff and I just want to make sure I got this straight.

First of all, I have a 2007 Cooper D with Xenon. No nav, no MFSW.

Retrofit Bluetooth: Seems possible. I want it to work with the regular display (no nav) and the MFSW buttons. I have an iPhone 4. What do I get?

MFSW: I need to get the buttons and probably the switch block. Otherwise I should be ok? After programming of course.

Cruise: I need the module and then it should work with the MFSW? Is programming needed here as well?

Have I got this straight? I want everything to work as the OEM does, I don't want any extra screens or controls.

Please help me out if you have any info. I haven't got my car yet, I will pick it up next Monday. Just doing some preliminary research.

Thanks!

 

My suggestion...
Get a car with the options you want.
On first gen minis anyway, retrofits with oem options were usually very $$...so the most cost effective option might be a different car

 

Being a Cooper D you are I am guessing not in the USA.

This is gong to be a VERY Expensive retrofit. With a car that is already 4 years old it would be cheaper (much much much) cheaper to find a 2007-2008 with the options and purchase that.

Now on to what you need.

1. steering wheel controls
2. Switch block behind steering wheel with light and wiper switches
3. Cruise control actuators.
4. bluetooth module
5. And before any of that is purchased a VERY VERY VERY good look at the wiring harness to see if it is compatible. It may not have all the wiring needed and if it does not then it will not work and you will have to add or change harnesses and that is a really big job.

 

Ok, thanks for the info and the suggestions.

Getting another car is not an option right now, since this is a pretty unique car otherwise. It is styled by a company in Germany in a special way asone of only five cars. That's why I went for this one. If I can get the retrofits made in will be a bonus, otherwise I will just leave it as it is.

I would have no problem spending around €1000-1500 to get these upgrades made and hopefully that will be doable. I hope my steering wheel is prepared for the MFSW as some others have been, then I will go ahead and see how much this would land at.

 

The steering wheel itself should not be a problem unless it is also custom.

As for the parts they will probably cost you more that 1500 euros. These are not cheap parts.

Maybe getting them from a wreaked car would be the way to go.

 

I would not recommend spending the money on the OEM bluetooth. It is known to have all kinds of problems with iphones. I paid the $500 to get bluetooth in mine and it's useless. The microphone is horrible and any time I try to use it the party on the other end says I sound like I'm in a cave and can't stand talking to me.

I've done some online research and it seems like it might be some kind of software compatibility issue between the car's bluetooth and the iphone's bluetooth software.

All I know is that as of right now, the OEM bluetooth in my Mini is useless.

 

I have the original steering wheel so that will probably not be a problem.

Wrecked Minis are few and far between here in Sweden but I will try to find it first before buying new parts.

Miami: That doesn't sound good. Is there any other way to get BT that works with the steering wheel controls and that actually is usable? How about Bimmernavs variant?

 

This is total BS. There are 100's of thousands of people using iPhones with MINI and BMW OEM Bluetooth that have NO PROBLEM. Yes there are a few people that have problems with iPhones but they have not taken the time to adjust the bluetooh volume or other aspects of the iPhone. Both BMW's and MINI use the same bluetooth systems.

Now as for sounding like you are in a cave - very simple solution move the microphone for the passenger side to the drivers side. that works for 99% of the people. The microphone is installed on the right hand side of the vehicle for both right and left hand drive cars. This is a problem with MINI but everyone that I have dealt with on this issue states major improvement of sound quality once the microphone has been placed on the left side in left hand drive cars.

No as to noise generated by fans and such it does not matter what car it is if the fan is on high then you will get fan noise in the call. That is just the way it works. Turn the fan down and low an behold the call clears up.

 

I use blutooth in my mini and in a heavy truck..no noise,no fan noise...if a mic is noisecancling, it can filter out background noise....placement of the mic may helps, but like the old saying garbage in, garbage out....moving a poor quality mic can only help it...not fix the issue.
Blue parrot has some good kits with adapters that fit gen1 cars, some extra research might yield info if they can be fitted to gen2 cars.

 

Schatzy: Thanks for clearing that up. As you said, general noise in a car would be the same in whatever car you're using.

Thanks for that extra info Zippy, I'll look in to those systems. All I want is for it to work with the MFSW,I don't really care if it's OEM beyond that point.