Can you believe it? My dealer called me on Monday and said Bluetooth kits were here. We scheduled an appt. for Friday to have it installed in my 04 MCS. Service manager called me on Thursday evening as I was on the way to drop off my car and said there was a service bulletin stating not to install in Harman Kardon stereo equipped cars!

 

stupid question, what does the bluetooth kit do?

 

>>stupid question, what does the bluetooth kit do?

A bluetooth kit will let you use your bluetooth equipped phone hands free with your car, usually over the stereo. Bluetooth is the fancy name for the latest wireless connection for peripherals, like mice, phones, keyboards, etc, think of it as wireless USB.

 

Has anybody else heard about this? Does anybody know why this would be the case? Will there be a fix?

 

Haven't heard a thing, I'll call ASK-MINI tomorow and see what I can find out from the horse's mouth...

 

Scratch that, just spoke to ASK-MINI, they say there are no bulletin's out on the bluetooth kit and HK, and that the kit is fully compatible with HK...

If your dealer is telling you otherwise, ask them to show you the bulletin... Then find out why ASK-MINI is saying otherwise...

 

Anyone have a price on the kit yet? And is it something I can install, or does the dealer have to do it?

 

$450 retail, $360 shipped if you get it from Classic Auto Campus.

No idea on how complicated the install is, I don't think anybody actually has one to play with yet...

 

Actually I have bad news, I just got my kit and the first page of the install instuctions is labelled:

MINI Hands-Free System (w/o HK) Kit - P/N 84 11 0 302 897

and has the following underlined section:

Note: This MINI Hands-Free Phone System with Bluetooth Wireless Technology installation kit is only for vehicles without Harman Kardon Audio Systems

Finally it requires removal of the inside A-Pillar cover which is a one time use part. You will need a Left A-Pillar Cover (51 43 7 029 459) for installation.

Sean

 

Just saw your post on MINI2, so I went looking for an ASK-MINI rep to eat for lunch... :evil: :evil: :evil:

So I gotta know, are they going to use the same excuse over this that they used with the Sirius systems and Nav? That there aren't enough vehicles so equiped to justify the research and development costs?!?!?! :evil: :evil: :evil:

Sounds like it makes more sense to get the Sony HCB-30 kit and the cable from newministuf, than to buy the MINI kit, plus it's cheaper!!!!

And yes I do know that despite what MINI says there are still ways to get satellite radio in a car with nav if I desire...

 

My question is... Do you have to have an '03 or newer non-HK head unit? I've got an '02 with a July build date and I can't use the Aux input, so I'm wondering if I can make this work. Anybody know?

Thanks
Charles

 

This feels like an aftermarket kit in almost every way. No integration with the car or the MFSW whatsoever. Toggling a mute pin and using the phone passthrough doesn't count.

I think the HK issue is that the headunit is supposed to output a fixed signal and send IBus signals for volume control. The HF kit has its own volume control and its audio is probably passed through directly to the amp. So if you have the radio turned down and answer a call no amount of Vol+ on the HF remote will do a thing.

My understanding is that the aux socket is the same connector for the phone-in audio. Therefore the cable harness supplied will not work with a pre 9/02 headunit. However if you can find the pinouts for your headunit it may work.

The pins from the new headunit are:

Main connector X2519
Pin 11 Tel-On
Pin 10 Mute
Pin 15 Batt
Pin 16 IGN
Pin 12 Ground

Aux connector X4
Pin 6 Audio +
Pin 12 Audio -

Good luck.

Sean

 

[quote]My question is... Do you have to have an '03 or newer non-HK head unit? I've got an '02 with a July build date and I can't use the Aux input, so I'm wondering if I can make this work. Anybody know? [quote]

My first suggestion would have been for you to see if AKS-MINI knows anything... However, when it comes to this kit, they're obviously clueless...

 

sorry to bring this back from the dead but is this still accurate? I have an 07 sidewalk with the HK head unit and I see the phone controls on the steering wheel do the later model years have this incorporated and/or is there any solid kits that will work with this HU?

thanks

 

FWIW...I have parrot bluetooth with the HK stereo. Works great...issue to use...clarity is awesome!

 

Parrot what model do you use?