Hey guys!

New to the forum and minis in general. Had a few questions.

Is there any way to integrate my iPhone 5 to the stock head unit? I want to play music and charge phone at the same time. Ay USB connection? I've noticed that it has the OEM iPod integration but it doesn't work with the iPhone 5.

Also when I look at the stance of my mini, looking at it from the side, it seems like the rear sits higher then the front. The front sort of dips into the ground. Looks like the front was lowered and they forgot to do the rear. Is this normal? (Ill take a pic of it when I get a chance)

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

Jchen

 

Welcome to NAM!
the short of it ..Nope....the car pre dates the i-phone. Your best bet is to go with an aftermarket head.....some have the USB plug or Bluetooth integration....

There was a kit to plug a I-POD into the car, and several aftermarket ones....some did have issues charging newer units...others have had issues with software updates on the phones......but now the new phones have the Lightning connector, not the multi-pinned, flat one...., so no luck there....so a line in jack kit will let you use music in...

You MIGHT be able to get an aftermarket bluetooth kit...depending on the production date (all post jan 2005 model year cars) got a button on the steering wheel...but no installed Bluetooth...the kit was rare and kinda $$$....generally kits from companies like Blue-parrot did better...the oem mic location was less than ideal for US drivers.....then use a car charger...so you look back around to a replacement head...not too bad to do if you do not have the top end/amplified one...then it gets more complex..
You can still get an adapter that will let you use the steering wheel controls to change the volume/stations with most aftermarket radio's.

 

Thanks zippy!!

 

I have a 2005 MCS, with the H/K system.

It came to me with this "Peripheral" iPhone thing. It has the 15 Pin iPhone cord. Sounds pretty good, and I like getting the low-power-stereo output from the phone. On paper sound quality should be better than going through the headphone amp,.... Really the difference to my ear isn't much. The one pet peeve is that my iPhone 4 will not put telephone audio out through the 15 pin connector. If I had a stereo headphone style cord, then I would be able to do hands free calls by simply mounting the phone to a place that's near my voice,... Like a belt-clip to the sun visor. This would use the mic on the phone, and I would hear the caller through the car's stereo speakers.

My mom has an iPhone 5. She bought the 15pin to FireWire converter from apple. I plugged her phone in and it plays music.

I can use the steering wheel buttons to FFWD or RRWD (hold it down), Or Skip track to track forward or back (press once). This works with both iPhone 4 and 5.

Neither of the phones will charge when plugged into the stereo.

My plan is that IF I upgrade to an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, then I'll dump everything on the old iPhone 4 so that I can fit ALL my music on it.

I'll move my existing stereo 15pin to the glovebox, and put next to it a 15pin cord that is wired through a 12v converter to be hot even when the car is off. Guess I'll have to try it and see, but I'm betting that charging the phone while the car is parked for the day or overnight will not totally drain the car battery... I think it will get the phone to 100% charge, then stop pulling current from the car battery.

Here's a photo of the box that plugs into the H/K amp in the trunk, and the long 15pin cord plugs into it.

 

I've my 2005 MCS for two months now, bought just to get around with a view to selling it but love it so going to keep it.

hence I needed to sort the music and bluetooth

The factory tape deck unit has a lovely factory quality to it and it's hard to find something that fits, was going to go for SOny SBX 310b but stumbled across a parrot asteroid classic in my local halfords

It was reduced to €150 which was great value, comes with dual mic(bluetooth is the clearest I've ever used), usb input cable, iphone 4s cable, 3.5mini jack, gps antenna and one spare uSB port still free.

The artwork and track names appear from ipod classic, full contact lists from iphone 5 appears and recent/ missed calls etc

So given that ipod integration and bluetooth were the most important things for me I couldn't be happier!

I'll try to post some photos

 

http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7d2e3f32.jpg

 

http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...ps438a029c.jpg

http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7aae9a5.jpg

 

I have something like this - bluetooth streaming from iphone for music and phone, additional ipod connector in the glove box

http://www.autotoys.com/x/product.ph...141#tabsanchor

I can't find the place I got mine from, it's just a little different but basically what's shown above