[Blake745]

Anyone ventured into upgrading their infotainment to id6? I don’t speak German but this company seems to provide the upgrade as well as CarPlay functionality. Thoughts on this guys?

https://bimmer-manufaktur.de/Nachrue...emProfessional

[eswimm]

Not sure about that one, but I inquired about a head unit upgrade to get carplay from another vendor and was told that you lose BMW connected functions when you upgrade, although all the other integrations work fine.

I actually like the connected features and didn't want to lose them, so I opted to install a carplay MMI instead. It works well and integrates with the steering wheel and idrive controls, but not the HUD, so I lose media and navigation HUD features.

I'm not sure if losing BMW connected is an issue with all head unit upgrades or not.

[Strikerxt]

Not worth doing. As eswimm said better off getting a MMI instead.
The problem with the i8 is BMW used there old system with the Telecommunications box. To get everything working you would need to swap out this box from a donor car and used the vin from the donor to get some connected drive features working but the app will show the donor car and not the i8 unless the donor car is a i8, very unlikely.
I settled on a MMI prime that give me the option of apple car play and Android auto all on the main 8.1inch screen which is all I needed.

Apple car play is wireless connection to an apple phone
Android auto works over a usb cable connected.

[Blake745]

Originally Posted by Strikerxt

Not worth doing. As eswimm said better off getting a MMI instead.
The problem with the i8 is BMW used there old system with the Telecommunications box. To get everything working you would need to swap out this box from a donor car and used the vin from the donor to get some connected drive features working but the app will show the donor car and not the i8 unless the donor car is a i8, very unlikely.
I settled on a MMI prime that give me the option of apple car play and Android auto all on the main 8.1inch screen which is all I needed.

Apple car play is wireless connection to an apple phone
Android auto works over a usb cable connected.

What MMI did you guys use?

[Blake745]

Originally Posted by Strikerxt

Not worth doing. As eswimm said better off getting a MMI instead.
The problem with the i8 is BMW used there old system with the Telecommunications box. To get everything working you would need to swap out this box from a donor car and used the vin from the donor to get some connected drive features working but the app will show the donor car and not the i8 unless the donor car is a i8, very unlikely.
I settled on a MMI prime that give me the option of apple car play and Android auto all on the main 8.1inch screen which is all I needed.

Apple car play is wireless connection to an apple phone
Android auto works over a usb cable connected.

Also love the idea of wireless CarPlay.

[Strikerxt]

Just Google BMW mini prime.

You can buy to a tad over £200 the i8 is not listed but it will work just fine. Fitting in the other hand is not for the faint hearted.

Don't pay extra from some online retailers they are all made in china and all the same units.
No complaints from me work very well. I have had the the box lock up once but a reboot sorted the problem.
The system can be rebooted or restarted by holding the back button down on the idrive control.

[Blake745]

Originally Posted by Strikerxt

Just Google BMW mini prime.

You can buy to a tad over £200 the i8 is not listed but it will work just fine. Fitting in the other hand is not for the faint hearted.

Don't pay extra from some online retailers they are all made in china and all the same units.
No complaints from me work very well. I have had the the box lock up once but a reboot sorted the problem.
The system can be rebooted or restarted by holding the back button down on the idrive control.

Got it. I had a Z4 which I retrofitted with an aftermarket screen for CarPlay. Is there any instructional on installing the mmi on the i8 ?

[Strikerxt]

No instructions could be found online but it the usual when fitting these units.
Center console out.
Front air vents out.
Idrive head unit out.
Screen out.
The hard part is finding a place for the MMI box and cables.
There is room just under the idrive head unit but cabling is tight.

Take plenty of pictures as you go there are a lot of wires and be careful when removing the fibre optic cable from the wiring harness. This will installing into the new harness and not much slack.

Take your time it's a good 4 hours job for the first time.

[eswimm]

Originally Posted by Blake745

Got it. I had a Z4 which I retrofitted with an aftermarket screen for CarPlay. Is there any instructional on installing the mmi on the i8 ?

If you google 'bmw i8 carplay mmi' it'll lead to a post on this forum with another vendor's install PDF. I don't want to link it, because I'm sure it was intended for their customers. Not exactly detailed, but those are the instructions I used.

The high voltage disconnect in the i8 is so much less user friendly than in my Tesla.

[Strikerxt]

I installed without disconnecting any batteries. Some may not feel happy installing with the batteries connect but for me it was not a problem.
The interior light on the i8 being was a grate help in my garage.
I was expecting to have to remove some diagnostic code offer but not needed. I had a Carly adaptor on hand.
The only issue I had was a handbrake warning on the dash display when I disconnected the cable.
Once everything was back together everything worked fine.

There are instructions for other model BMWs but not the i8. The main issue with the install is removing all the parts to do the install plus trying to hide MMI box and get the original head unit back in place with all the extra cabling.