NEWBIE!!! actually I just paid for it yesterday and waiting on it to ship from LA—- 2016 clubman s with the XL nav - 7500 miles-
my first mini.. just switched over from VW....
already ordered tuxmat floormats and a trailer hitch- kind of stupid excited...

anyway my wife’s got a Jeep that I’ve been driving with CarPlay and I’m kinda hooked-

i imagine the spacing and connectors are the same (possibly) as the 2017 with the touchscreen correct?

so in a perfect world I should be able to just swap out the unit?? Question is how possible is
it to purchase an OEM VERSION of the new headunit???

Or or is it just a long shot?

Cant find any info via the web about anything like it...

maybe someone out there has tried it or opened up there center console and found the
connectors to be the same and the only difference is the software loaded??

thabks n advance

 

headunit is seperate from the screen, so i wouldn't be surprised if it is swappable. headunit is pretty generic for bmw and the HSD (high speed digital) wire connects the headunit to the screen. as for buying it, i'd imagine only from dealer is available and also a european order as it's too new....so expect an arm and a leg.

i'm doing a retrofit from the stock non-visual radio to the 8.8" Navi so i've been doing my research for a few weeks now. i'm missing one wire (waiting for it to arrive) and i'll be ready to do it.

 

You would need new screen and new headunit, and though the controller is also different, you may be able to get away with not replacing that too. Headunit definitely needs to come from the factory as it must be coded to your VIN. You cannot recode a headunit to another car. I think you'd be in for a few thousand if you find a way to do the installation yourself.

BMW world has done similar headunit retrofits, so it is possible, but it is definitely not for the faint hearted.

 

You can recode a headunit to another car. That's actually the easy part. I'm doing that right now.

 

Marco- really—- I’ve been searching for hours (In the wrong place obviously)

where did you find the 8.8inch to buy??

Not too concerned with touchscreen part - but the CarPlay w

 

A dealer can obtain any part for you to purchase. All you need is the part number (or they can look it up for you).

The 8.8" touchscreen is part# 65506820386
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=65_2601
If you Google the part#, you'll find that the MSRP is $2841.79!

The headunit has different part numbers depending on other options on the car:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=65_2603

 

Wow.... sooooo- damn- that’s gonna be awesome- but yea - that’s about 4 of the alpine ilx-107’s Wireless


so in theory I would possibly just need the headunit
since I already have the xl screen and remote -
non touchscreen.... and I could order the new head unit with CarPlay?? Hmmmm

thanks for the info- time to google - ps what site are u buying from?
an actual mini dealer over seas?

 

As a point of reference, here's a retrofit kit for BMW: https://www.bimmer-tech.net/shop/bmw...ation-retrofit. It upgrades the car to iDrive 5 (including new screen, headunit, and touch controller) along with coding updates. Would it work without the new screen and controller? I don't know, but the firmware in the headunit would expect to be able to communicate with them.

 

Hey marcopolo? How’d the install go? The new head unit?

 

all materials arrived the other day. busy until next week so wont' start until next weekend. note the 8.8" Headunit is from a 2016 MINI. from what i understand, i'll be activating BMW apps, navi, voice control, sirius-XM, and a few other things.

 

MarcoPolo, I have been looking into doing this but I don't even know where to begin, keep us posted on how this goes!

 

few short notes:
1)if you have the base radio (non-visual 2-line display) then you CANNOT do the 6.5" or 8.8" retrofit. you will need to do 2 things to make it work
- unfortunately, the dash has 2 part numbers. one for the 2-line display radio and one for the 6.5 or 8.8" radio. the difference is that the bracket behind the display is smaller and will not allow the 6.5 or 8.8" headunit to fit w/out cutting. now if you don't care about cutting into the plastic behind the dash, have at it.
- the audio controls panel (power button, menu settings, favorites, etc...) is powered via a plug on both the 6.5" and 8.8". on the base radio, there is no plug as the screen and headunit are one unit. if retrofitting, someone will have to find a donor car and trace each of the 8 wires and figure out what their purpose is and then create that harness on your own.

2) if you want to upgrade from 6.5" to 8.8" it's 100% doable. couple parts that need to be purchased and some coding that would need to be done but it's completely doable.

3) i cannot confirm the touchscreen system, but i'm assuming that it is also doable. the challenge will be cost because obtaining the touchscreen is probably going to be costly unless we find a crashed mini.

for anyone that is interested in doing #2, feel free to reach out. i have access to affordable screens/headunits and can work with you on completing the install.

personally though, i will not be continuing with this install due to the fact that i will NOT be cutting my dash. i sold my kit to a friend and we're in the process of replacing his 6.5" system with the 8.8" system. we'll also be upgrading him to apple carplay with the updated firmware on the headunit.

i'm looking at an android headunit solution but nothing asap as the holidays are getting near and time is limited.

 

If someone wishes to simply upgrade the screen size from 6.5 to 8.8, you just unplug the old 6.5 screen and plug in the new 8.8 screen.

The coding required to change is:

Display_variante = breites_display

but you also need a new central instrument, blind ring, and trim that goes behind the central instrument because the diameter is larger.

i did this using mostly parts from eBay that I got for pretty cheap, relatively speaking.

 

but you still lose out on split-screen, 3D maps, and the built-in hard drive, correct?
unless people don't care about that

 

Yes, you get the split-screen and the layered menus.

No maps since there’s no navigation, and no built in hard drive.

 

Is it possible tu use the 8.8 XL touch controller when you upgrade your 6.5 screen to 8.8 ? Or you need the XL unit to make it work ? Thx.

 

you can plug in the touch controller for either the 6.5 and 8.8 and it'll work like the smaller idrive controller just fine, if you just want the appearance or a idrive **** that actually lights up. But in order for the touchpad to work, you would atleast have to wire in the touch controller box, which senses the touch and translates your writing. You also would need to code in the touch pad. After all that, I can't be 100% sure it would work. I've coded in the touchpad on my car, but I don't have the box so the touchpad on the **** doesn't function. The options and settings for it show up in my menus tho.

Also be aware that 2014-15 8.8 screens are different than 2016+ 8.8 non-touchscreen screens.

 

Thx for you reply’ it is really good news. So i can replace by a touchpad controller, it will be plug and play as long as i don.t use touchpad’ right ?

when you speak about controller box, is it the small box below the controller or the nbt unit upgrade ?

 

For me it was plug n play for my 16 clubman with visual boost(no nav). The controller box is a separate thing that is wired to the I drive controller. It’s region(language) specific.

 

I have order the TouchBox, use en Y cable with iDrive controller, and code the 4 ZBE_TOUCH in HU_ENTRYNAV. Does anyone has already make this work on a mini with HU_ENTRYNAV (Visual Boost + GPS 6.5). I now have 8.8 screen + new Touch Controller (without touch function).

Thanks.

 

i have 6.5 visualboost radio (i own jcw 2016) and would like to switch to 8.8 headunit and screen (and touchcontroller ofc).
will i have to cut wires ?
is it plug and play ?

any information about retrofitting 6.5" visualboost to 8.8" navigation will help me.

thinking of buying from this guy:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/MINI-COOPER...AAAOSwbEZa5XmW

I am only interested in apple carplay as apple noticed Waze and Google maps are going to be enabled in iOS 12.

thanks all for the info.

 

@Soundman, so the link you posted is the original NBT nav system that came with the earlier versions of the Minis starting in 2014. What you need is the NBT Evo 2, and I have posted a picture so you can see what that looks like. As for installation, since you already have the visual boost, what you can do is to pay someone to flash the unit you buy to have it registered to your VIN in order for it to be "plug and play" or else you would need to get an emulator, because if you were to plug it in directly without any of those 2 things I mentioned, it would completely brick the unit. You would also need to either splice or buy this https://www.ebay.com/itm/touch-contr...YAAOSwcmZa30lI , which is just an adapter that gives you the dual connector you need for the touch controller and the touch ECU.

 

wow! thanks a lot man!
i'll keep looking after the correct hardware

calalog serials:
65129394552 headunit - 1200$
65829381679 controller - 260$
65509367674 8.8" screen - 250$

only coding expert needed

 

65509367674 is not the 8.8" screen. That is just for the big plastic circle that holds the screen (which you need). See part #8 in the link below.

The 8.8" screen is 65509387452 which is, wait for it....$2,341.64

https://minipartsmass.com/parts/2016...&siteid=215989

 

i have a lot of these parts for sale. reach out if interested. was a project i was working on but realized that unfortunately, BMW has 2 part numbers for the dash, 1 for the regular radio and 1 for both 6.5 and 8.8" screens. since i have the basic radio, it would require me to cut up my dash to fit the 8.8"....so the project, after buying all the parts, is over.

if anyone has any interest, PM me.