[craski]

Officially BMW say that the Alpine is not compatible with E90 cars that have the DAB installed. I've read all 18 pages of the Alpine Hifi upgrade sticky and various other threads that I found through searching this forum and it appears that a few people have suggested that they managed to install the Alpine upgrade on a car with DAB.

It appears that the DAB Tuner is situated where the Alpine amplifier would go and there are no other technical reasons why it wouldnt work but its not 100% clear.

I would be really interested to hear from anybody who has installed the Alpine Amp upgrade into a car that had DAB in order to confirm that the only compatibility problem is the physical location of the amp clashing with where the DAB tuner is installed.

[garysargent]

Me too. I had it all booked in at the dealer and then after leaving the car they called to say it couldn't be done as I had the DAB receiver :-(

[gIzzE]

Just move the dab tuner.
If you have the single bluetooth unit, only one on the bracket, then you could move teh dab tuner under that.

[RagingKileak]

As Gizze said, just move them.

I did this on my E90.

Basically, the DAB tuner is fixed on a cradle thingy, I basically removed that, then removed the DAB tuner from the cradle, and if I remember correctly, fitted the Alpine amp where it should be.

I then found there was a recess next to the Alpine amp, this is where I put the DAB tuner, and to do so I basically 'made' a cradle out of the polystyrene remains of the packaging, which I then velcroed to the chassis.

This worked fine, I just chucked the metal cradle that the DAB tuner begin with in the bin.

Matt

[RagingKileak]

Gizze, on another note - thinking about my current car, and its lack of DAB - I have decided over this forum and the 1 series forum that you are THE MAN for retrofits...

Whats stopping me getting DAB via I-Drive in my 1 series?

Retrofit of the tuner, the ariel, and the coding - is that it?

Whats the coding like to be? Is it the usual '£68 for a dealer that knows what they are on about' etc or is it more likely to be a 'could be £2000 mate' sort of job?

Matt

[badwolf340]

dont think there is a prob,I have DAB and had Alpine upgrade fitted by my dealer ..no prob's

[craski]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have now ordered the Alpine upgrade with a view to either re-positioning the DAB tuner or the Alpine Amp during the install. Looking forward to getting it installed.

[craski]

Originally Posted by badwolf340

dont think there is a prob,I have DAB and had Alpine upgrade fitted by my dealer ..no prob's

Did you take a look under the false floor in the boot to see where the installed the amp?

[craski]

I made a few mods to the existing bracket that holds the DAB tuner today and repositioned to make room for the Alpine Amp, seems to work OK.

Here is the original layout...


Here is the modified layout that makes room for the Alpine Amp...


The DAB Tuner sits a little higher than the bluetooth module but I've packed up the false floor a little and it seems to clear it fine and sits OK. Ran out of time to do the actual amp install today, will have to do that next week.

[craski]

Thats the update done and everything is working sweet, well happy with the improvement in sound and the DAB is still working exactly as it was before moving it and installing the Amp/Speakers. Thanks to all those on here who have posted such useful information in the Alpine Upgrade thread, it really helped.

Aside from the mods to the brackets/retaining bolts for the DAB/Bluetooth stuff already under the boot floor, I thought the most awkward part of the Alpine install on the Saloon was fitting the plastic surrounds around the front doors that house the tweeters ... there is definitely a nack to fitting those but the second one went on much easier than the first

I did have to make a packer for the boot floor to create a bit more space under it for the re-positioned (and now slightly higher) DAB unit but it was simple enough, and the floor still sits fine above it.