Wireless Carplay For BMWs with CIC & NBT On the Cheap: Install & Review 

It a tough one. However the only reason to get the full android in reality is if you want to watch videos. Other than the these cheaper units that just to carplay are mint.

I just say “hey Siri” and the phone picks up and makes the button redundant anyway

Nice. Yes I was pretty impressed with how well they integrate.

Its a tough one as the CIC upgrade is a really nice upgrade to how you use all the cars standard functions like the service menus and trip computer. However from a in car entertainment stand point only, i would personally go to the android. It will be cheaper have more features and sound the same anyway. The CIC doesn't sound any better than the CCC and both this carplay box and android full units, use the Aux in cord anyway.

Unfortunatley no, if you are in car play mode, the original CIC unit must be switched to aux. The only way around the radio problem is to use internet radio, which pretty much all stations have these days anyway. It will switch to reverse cam with no problems.

Also very curious on this

I imagine you could do this with NCS Expert by disabling voice control

No problem!

This issue was caused by the aux connection to the CIC being coded incorrectly. As this vehicle has a CIC retrofit, the installer never worried about a 3.5aux input since he was using bluetooth audio. The CIC has an option for 2 different aux inputs this just happened to be set for the wrong one.

Having the same problem. I have an 09 e92 which came with cic but still couldn’t get any sound from the aux

The unit does it through canbus. The idrive controller sends signals over the bus and the unit recognises those commmands on the bus

Coming soon!

When you install the unit, you can plug the can bus integration either in to the back of the cic or in to the idrive controller. They are supplied with a wiring harness to do either. If you tap directly in to the cic (which is easier to install) when sending coding commands to the CIC they are intercepted by the apple tv unit and never make it to the cic unit.

Short story: it was indeed NBT. Months later bought a 535i GT F07 2011 and it was CIC, so i bought a NBT for F30 and sold CIC and with F07 had to undo everything 😂😂😂

Did you figure it out?

ZZ2 officially suggests using the car's phone system for bluetooth. So connect your phone to your car (as ONLY a phone) and then connect it to the carplay box as well (as anything EXCEPT a phone) .

i’m having this same issue. it seems to be connected to the car and still not playing audio. any other options? my unit came with an “audio ground” cable. which i connected to a ground but seems to not be grounded well and the wire itself is tiny so I don’t know if that’s an issue. if so where should i ground it?

This particular car didnt have any adapters currently in there. However these fit nicely in the cavity between the glove box and the CIC unit.

Zero To 60 - mine already has a similar adapter from the old CCC connector to the CIC unit, so I’m not sure how it would work with and adapter to another adapter... will do some googling

@@markhutchens4944 the CIC actually plugs straight in to a car with CCC. However coding is required. The only adapaters i am aware of on a CIC retrofit, is when people used to use a FSC code emulator for maps etc. Do you know what "adapter" you have? Becuase all teh wiring plugs is the same on a CIC vs CCC unit.

You do need the full cic, mainly for the screen. The CCC screen will not display a high enough resolution for carplay.

@@ZeroTo60Tube so to verify if you grabbed a CIC screen and controller, you couldn’t use this box, the CCC computer bits and the CIC screen and controller and make it work?

You simply need to use the wire that runs to the controller. You can tap in to idrive controller signal at the back of the cic, it’s that method which stops coding working, if you use the harness that runs to the controller directly coding will still work.

@@ZeroTo60Tube Thanks for the fast reply! Another question, are these units the same as the Andream units? I started doing a little more research after watching this video and the Andream units look identical.

@@urfaceisamonkey i can't say for sure, but there is a good chance they are the same. There seems to be a base hardware made by a company that then other resellers, put there firmware on.

It may be a wiring issue. Like one of the pins isn’t properly seated.

I have one of these in my CIC F10 M5 as well and I can’t change the track with steering controls

Its something to do with the later versions of this box. The early one, which you can still buy now for less money dont intercept all of the can bus signals. (this is what i have read anyway). However on the freak chance you have the same hardware. There is an option in the setting to turn wheels buttons on and off. Have you got that option in your settings menu?

It was intermittent. It was all caused by a loose pin in the connector. Did you tap in to the idrive controller directly or thought the canbus at the back of the cic unit?

Good to hear, back in 2020 when this video was filmed all the manufacturers had taken the CCC versions of the market, which i was told due to the poor screen resolution on a CCC screen. It doesn't actually support the text size of apple car play.

@@ZeroTo60Tube Good to know and interesting perspective. I wonder if this is still the case or the gremlins have been worked out. Otherwise may go the replacement route and put a whole android unit in. Just would rather keep the OEM screen if possible to keep things as stock as possible. Cheers

Ohhhh it should be fine, as long as yours is the cic unit. Which i think all 1m models are.

@@ZeroTo60Tube Yep it is CIC so that's a relief. I'm in Brisbane and have a couple of interesting cars if you guys want to get in touch. Thanks and warm regards.

@@adrianhayfield2252 Nice, we need to organise a meet up for the south east queensland followers. We do. IN the mean time. What other cars do you have in the stable?

@@ZeroTo60Tube Nice, 1994 911 (993) Manual Coupe, 2011 1M 34,000kn (stock at the moment), & 2010 Golf R DCT Stage 1+ (60,000km).

This one is mint. Sound is spot on. But it's one of the newer more expensive units. That said, one thing we did do, it is connected to the aux in the back of the CIC unit. This reduces the length of that audio cable which in turn reduces the chance of interference. Were you connecting to the aux in in the centre console by any chance?

@@ZeroTo60Tube How did you connect the AUX to the back of the CIC? Is there a 3.5mm plug back there, or is this via Combox or some other way? Thanks in advance!

@@ZeroTo60Tube awesome to hear. Yeah mine went to the centre console, I didn’t realise there was a standard AUX connection behind the CIC unit, mustn’t have noticed it while the car was apart! I paid $750 for my unit as a wireless CarPlay solution and even asked the question of audio quality, I was told the sound is good so I went for it. Not at all happy with the results, I think I’m gonna give this one a try! Even the way this one Adapted to the CIC and I drive was completely different to the way it seems your one adapts. Same functions, but plugs seemed to be different.. for example I didn’t need to move the infrared cable

@@ZeroTo60Tube could you post info on this or what options the car had? Aux comes from the MULF/Combox normally, so it seems this isn’t an option for most unless you coded a specific option?

@@arisherwood4635 did you figure out how to connect to the CIC unit directly? I just received my box today and I‘m curious how to install it best. Haven‘t figured out where to connect the AUX directly to the CIC yet :-(

Unfortunately not. If you are concerned about the level of noise you get with aux, wouldn't the low bitrate audio of carplay be an issue? Or is there something wrong with your aux input? Reason i ask the MULF aux input i have found on my own e92 to not be as good as direct aux in to the CIC/CCC unit. Anyone using low bitrate streamed music, like we do with carplay, should be able to correct any issues with the aux connection with eq tuning. If you can't there may be something wrong with your aux input, just a thought.

@@ZeroTo60Tube oh fair enough! Appreciate the time you took to clarify this for me!

Not with an Apple phone. You may be able to with the android auto version. But I am unsure.

Only once, the CCC stays on aux after that.

Hope you solved it already ;-) If not: just read on some forum that this happens if you mix up the LVDS Out/ In connestions. So simply switching the connections should help. Was that the reason?

HI Mark, i dont think so. You may be able to flash firmware, but i have been told they are not cross compatible.

It’s very hard to say it’s a good car without seeing it. But if it checkout man, go for ir

yes absolutely

Hi Dude, I have found this one on the UK site. Its the same unit, it looks like there are few people selling the same unite and this was the cheapest, so i would go for this one. ebay.us/r9EvbX

@@ZeroTo60Tube cheers mate thank you

It's a bit of a trial and error situation with the idrive controller. Because the unit can get the idrive signal through the canbus or directly from the controller, you need to have the jumper set properly and all the correct connections done. I wish you luck. Please if you do work it out let me know what it was.

Tried again but every time I hook it all up the canbus freaks out (lights flashing, wipers going, etc.) I bought what I believe is the same one from SINOCMP. The instructions never said anything about what dip switches to use, mind sharing your settings? I’ve never seen anything on the screen from the unit other than the screen being solid red.

Well it seems I finally got it working if I use the CAN wires from the CIC unit. Had to reinstall a few times to get that going. Anytime I use the CAN wires from the idrive knob the display says there is a CAN problem and the idrive controller is unresponsive. I used my voltmeter and can see that voltage is still coming to the knob, but I guess the data lines aren’t working. My ohm meter shoes the data lines aren’t broken, pins look good. But who knows?

@@TheBabbitt dude, well im glad you have some resolution. Did you manage to get any info on the jumpers from your supplier?

Actually, I contacted SINOCMP and they sent me a pdf and an installation video (would have been nice to have received those without having to ask) but the ones they sent used a slightly different cable than what I received. Showed me some information about the dip switches as well. Happy to share the files somewhere if people need.

I dont think so.

The CIC model in the description which is the same as this will work on the 2011 M3.

No would you still be able to listen to CD, instead of the carplay audio.

@@ZeroTo60Tube Thank you, getting it installed next week. I will confirm after.

I havent looked in the US. There are Australian companies, but they charge over $1000 for them. Which is why i went with this one. Its supposed to be the latest version of them. But there is quite a lot of info out there.

I use the voice to text. Works really well.

bypassed the mulf unit

@@ZeroTo60Tube how does one do that lol I would appreciate the help

@@alexhaugen7530 you need a most loop. You can get them on ebay. ebay.us/jdW1WP

Hi Asim, Yes, its really quite well done for such a cheap item. Regarding PDC, you can set it to show the units camera input (so you can connect a reverse or even birdeye camera to this) or display the standard PDC screen showing parking sensors. There is also an option to show a small PDC display and camera. Now pairing two phones to the carplay box is possible. However you may get caught out with which phone auto connects to the unit. You can also pair your phone to the car and this, however again the phone calls will get messy. My advice is only use the carplay unit for calls. I can't think of a reason to use the cars factory bluetooth. The call receive button on the steering wheel will answer calls on the car play unit. Or you can use the idrive controller ofcourse.

Thank you for such a clear reply, much appreciated 👍🙏 Excellent channel BTW, love the content and approach you chaps take. I run 2 Alpinas, a E39 based B10 and a F10 D5. I found your channel due to the in car content you've done to the 540 and E90. Have subbed as the other content is just as good! Stay well chaps and thanks again. Regards from the UK

@@asimhumayun7428 You are more than welcome. Awesome to hear about your little collection. We got a chance to have a go in an Alpina while we were in the UK back in 2017. They are such a nicely put together car. I hope you are enjoying them!!! Anyway drive safe and thanks for checking out our channel.

@@ZeroTo60Tube With Joe Achilies? I remember watching that video back in 2017! Awesome stuff, small world chaps 😀 Take care chaps and look forward to seeing more of your projects 👍

Absolutely, this is perfect for that. If you have any other questions just let us know.

@@ZeroTo60Tube Great news thanks for the quick reply....Greetings to the land down under from Mexico!! 😎Great channel!!

Joel Rolley that would be really funny indeed

Simpsons did it

Unfortunately we dont know anyone down there. But it is pretty simple. Any BMW specialist or auto elect should be ok to do it.

How much would you pay me to install ? I am a bmw technician 👨🏻‍🔧

You can but it doesnt seem to work as well as the supplied one.

There are settings where you can set that up. If you dont have a camera, dont connect the wires.

@@ZeroTo60Tube thanks for the reply! The settings within the CarPlay screen correct?

The full android units are probably going to be the best way to go, but they are like $700 if you want a current spec one. You could buy an older version for less.

thats Australian dollars btw.

I have one i just pulled out of mine for a CIC today.. Got a HIFI amp you can have too if you're in Brisbane

The decider is whether you watch video. If you watch vids, just go android. The CIC is a nice upgrade for all the other functions.

@@ZeroTo60Tube I’m mainly interested in it for apple CarPlay connectivity, for music, podcasts, and navigation - not much interest in videos 😇 What do you recon?

I’m an android unit fan, because of how customisable it is. However, cic is a brilliant upgrade. And if you only want CarPlay, the unit I put in the e90 was mint!

I should also clarify the cic controller is much better. And the cic makes the car feel newer. It’s a factory bonus upgrade type things. Where the android just sits on top of the ccc system.

Lol..... me to haha.

@@ZeroTo60Tube Will be fascinating to see how they go, lots of people on forums convinced they will kill anyone they come in contact with. lol.

Yeah it’s been a really good car for the owner. Same dude has owned it for 11 years now.

Dont let it overwhelm you, i used to feel the same way. Keep reading and watching peoples vids and you will start to under stand it.