Updated: Just Fitted My 4th Gen Hualingan Headunit!

[n1k85]

Thanks Squeaky,

But I just (12:00 last night) ordered one from car-vision myself (Ex-Display)

I didn't bother with the digital TV part though, I had it in my last 2 cars (analogue tuner though) and used it about 3 times while I sat in KFC carpark!

Did you also buy an external MIC to use with the Bluetooth on yours? I don't think mine comes with one, but I imagine the built-in MIC isn't very good. What did you think of it?

Thanks

[squeaky2]

The external mic on mine could be described as adequate........the unit that i have doesnt accept an external mic.

I occasionally used the tv part in the old one but not that often really.......havent got it in the e70 and cant say i miss it. Think the DVD part would actually be of more use.

Are you using the original speakers?

[n1k85]

Ahh I see, fingers crossed it'll be ok then.

I was planning on using the orginal speakers yeah, I'm not massively into 'ICE' and Bass and all that, most of the time I'm just happy listening to the Ricky Gervais show through my iPod or something

Also I noticed that on the Car-Vision website, the 'EX-Demo' Hualingan Units for the E46 3 series come with full 12 month warranty:



But the other 2 'Ex-Demo' ones (and indeed most of the new units) have no mention of warranty at all.

I called car-vision this morning and mentioned that one of the Ex-Demo units mentions 12 month warranty but the others don't, and she confirmed that they all carry a full 12 month warranty (unless they have been damaged by being incorrectly fitted as you would expect)

[kellyleekyle]

hi

I was also looking at these units, As ive not got bluetooth in my car, would i need to purchase an extra module with this head unit or is it built in. also as my tv is not digital would i need a module for that also? Just trying to way up the overall cost on top of the head set.

[n1k85]

Update:

Today I made the 40 minute trip over to Car-Vision to pick up my Hualingan headunit.

I was originally going to just collect my Ex-Demo 3rd Gen Hualingan, but I ended up buying a Brand New 4th Gen Hualingan instead

John from Car-Vision also fitted the whole thing for me for free (took about 2 hours) and removed all my old Nokia bluetooth stuff . Before I go any further I want to say that I highly recommend Car-Vision. I was there for a good few hours and the entire way through the fit, John talked me through every step. He's a really genuine bloke and after considering buying one of these from eBay and planning on a a DIY fit, I'm now really happy I bought from these guys!

Pre-Install John talked me through a few of the changes on the new 4th Gen Hualingan unit and I was sold. I also noticed that although externally it looks almost identical to the 3rd Gen unit (that I originally went to buy) The buttons and icons look much much better and the whole unit and it's backlights etc just look far more OEM!

3rd gen:


4th Gen:


Once it was done, I programmed the Sat Nav and left for home. I was immediately impressed by the Nav, it's a great platform but is also really quick when inputting your postcode/location/navigating menus etc. There's no delay whatsoever from one screen to the next! It was miles faster than the TomTom I used on the way there!

I had read on DIY guides to run the GPS antenna cable behind the dash plates and up the side of the dash to be placed on top of the dash in the middle next to the windscreen. But john took out the airvents and (very tidily) ran it underneath the dash out of sight! It's much better than what I was going to do

Next I set up my iPhone 4 via the Bluetooth and made a few calls. The Mic is apparently improved over the 3rd gen unit. It's built into the front and actually works far better than I had imagined. I used it twice and both time I asked "can you hear me ok?" to which they replied "yeah, it's perfect". I'm over the moon with how well this works. I had read a few reviews of the old models being a bit ropey and hard to hear, but it works great on the 4th Gen. This alone is a good enough reason to pay the extra to upgrade! The Phonebook also displayed all my phone contacts on screen as it should. It works like a dream, seriously impressed with this compared to the Factory BMW BT In my Z4 and the Nokia BT I had in my e46 (and that also came fitted in the X).

I tried the 'iPod' mode (which I had plugged into my iPod in the glove box via cable) and it seemed to work well, but It was a bit difficult trying to navigate through the albums/artists etc, I couldn't really see where the buttons to do this were. I haven't really had a proper go with this yet, only for a few minutes while driving so hopefully I'll have some better things to report tomorrow.

I did however use the 'Music Streaming' feature to stream Music from my iPhone 4 to the stereo via Bluetooth. This worked really well, and the whole way back I listened to a 'Karl Pilkington' Show/Audiobook that I bought on iTunes last night. I didn't even know this was a feature of the Hualingan at all, so I was really pleased with this. Although in general I'll probably mainly be using the 'iPod' mode rather than music streaming, as I have an iPod full of music that I just leave in the car, but only have 5 or 6 tracks on my iPhone.

Navigating through the menus was much better and quicker than I had previously thought. Compared to the Youtube videos I had seen of the Hualingan in action, it was totally different and I was pleasantly surprised. It works a lot smoother than I expected.

I will Upload a Youtube video of the 4th Gen Hualingan in action tomorrow hopefully to show you this in more detail.

When I arrived home I threw a few videos onto a 2GB Micro SD card that I had lying around and tried it out in the car with an episode of 'The US Office'. This worked pretty much as I expected, It loaded quickly and all the features FFWD/RWND etc worked quickly and smoothly. I will be ordering a much bigger SD card tonight off eBay to ram full of movies

I also quickly tried the DVD player, this again worked great as I expected. The picture was great, the touchscreen works really well on the DVD menus, not much else to say about it. It is a DVD player and works like one...

The steering wheel controls (including the Phone buttons) all work perfectly with the Hualingan too, better than I expected. It also comes with a remote, but at a first glance it was a little hard to find the buttons I wanted since its a rectangle thin remote with about 100 various circle buttons on it. I'm sure it's good when you roughly know where all the main buttons are... But it will mainly be my passengers who use this

I briefly tried the Digital TV, but at first the Ariel, which was in my glovebox got no signal. I took it out and put it on the dash to test it. I did a channel search and it found all the channels. the quality seemed pretty good, but I just put the ariel back into the glovebox until I think of a better place to run it. John at CarVision was going to do this for me, but it was already past closing time so I let him off that one I'm sure I can handle the task of running the ariel somewhere.

To sum up, I'm really glad I went for the 4th gen over the 3rd gen! I had read some really awful reviews about the 1st and 2nd Gen units, and John mentioned that many eBay sellers don't actually say what Gen the Hualingan unit it that you're buying, so you could easily end up with a load of crap that doesn't work (as many of the buyers I read on reviews have done).

He said the 3rd Gen is the first really stable and reliable unit (which is why they sold them and are happy to offer a year warranty with them), but the 4th Gen is even better. Apparently it has 2 processors instead of 1 (like the 3rd Gen) and is built using better components with much better build quality. If you get the choice, pay a little more and get the 4th Gen!

I can't really speak for the older units (1st/2nd Gen), since I have never used one. But I was expecting it to feel cheap and nasty with a semi-ropey operating system. In actual fact it feels like a really solid product that could have been an optional extra from BMW. In fact the Ex-demo 3rd Gen unit I 'almost' bought was fitted in a Demo car at a BMW dealership. They are only removing it to fit the newer 4th Gen Hualingan. IMO anyone even considering retrofitting OEM Sat Nav/BT/TV etc in their X5 (easily £1000+) is crazy! I've had BMW Nav systems in my last 2 cars, and this unit is head and shoulders above it. It makes OEM Nav look like an 80s gadget from Short Circuit 1...Seriously.

Here are a few pics, unfortunately by the time I got home it was dark, so they aren't great.

more tomorrow

Before:













SD Card:


DVD:

[Ubatoid]

Nice work N1k, I have spent way too long looking at these and other units from the far east. I was just about to order one from an Irish seller when I found this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250966449372? ... 1438.l2649 Free backup camera, included leagal nav maps and a two year warranty - uk based aswell and the Free view add on is only £40 if bought at the same time. Will be ordering next week sometime after Ive hauled my LPG tank out to get to the radio mudule so I can identify what extension lead I need as I have a factory Sat Nav - Grrrrrr.

[n1k85]

Great stuff mate,

I just checked your eBay link, it is definitely a 4th Gen there This is the one to go for, you won't be disappointed!

If you already have the Nav at least the DIY install would be a pretty simple job for you! I didn't have Nav and watching John cut my dash to pieces with a Dremmel and a File made me very glad I was not doing the install myself!

Rather than identify which extension lead you need before hand, why not just buy both leads and agree to send back the incorrect one? That's what I usually do when i'm, doing similar stuff. They always say 'no problem!'

When I did the swirl flaps on my e46 there is no way to tell exactly which ones you need without ripping the engine bay to bits, so to save doing all the work twice, you just order both, and send the unused ones back for a refund!

[n1k85]

[quote=""kellyleekyle""]hi

I was also looking at these units, As ive not got bluetooth in my car, would i need to purchase an extra module with this head unit or is it built in. also as my tv is not digital would i need a module for that also? Just trying to way up the overall cost on top of the head set.[/quote]

Sorry I missed your comment first time,

These units have everything built in, it's a total replacement for any existing kit and comes with everything you need.

If you have factory fitted Nav/TV Tuner etc, it will all have to come out to fit this unit (which is a good thing IMO) its a big improvement over the factory fit stuff

[Ubatoid]

Rather than identify which extension lead you need before hand, why not just buy both leads and agree to send back the incorrect one? That's what I usually do when i'm, doing similar stuff. They always say 'no problem!'

Top tip, I spoke to matey and he will send me both leads and an SAE to return the unused one. Most jelpfull fella. Should be ordering this time next week depending on how my eBay sale goes on my OE head unit and computer.

[n1k85]

[quote=""Ubatoid""]
Top tip, I spoke to matey and he will send me both leads and an SAE to return the unused one. Most jelpfull fella. Should be ordering this time next week depending on how my eBay sale goes on my OE head unit and computer.[/quote]

I like your work

Update:

Today I attempted what I thought would be the small job (I assumed 15 minutes Max) of fixing my new headunit in with screws. When I had it fitted at car-vision John didn't have any screws long enough so I said not to worry, and I would sort this when I got home.

So all the Headunit pics I took yesterday were of the unit not properly fitted, It wasn't screwed in and I had left the blanking plates off the screw holes as you probably noticed (see above)

This morning I nipped into the local DIY shop and bought the screws to fit it. After drilling a few small pilot holes with a Dremmel I began to screw them in assuming the job was almost done. The problem was that as the screws were tightening up; the bottom part of the headunit was pushing out towards me, leaving it sticking out about 1cm higher than the dash at the bottom I tried and tried loads of methods and cut little bits of extra frame off here and there, but to no avail. No matter what I did, I just couldn't get the headunit to sit properly.

Long story short, I found 2 metal brackets in the Hualingan box. I had read a few guides where they have said you don't need the brackets and can just use Self Tapping screws straight into the left over bits of plastic cage (as John did at carvison) but IMO fitting the brackets is the only way to get a professional looking fit. In order to fit these brackets, it meant cutting out every last bit of the platic frame from inside the headunit slot. John had already cut out a hole in the middle which allowed the H/U to physically slot in, but in order for the brackets to fit (and for the unit to sit properly) i had to cut out the whole lot, and there was still a lot left in there. Once I had done that (which took an age with a hacksaw), It then took another hour or so to get the metal brackets fitted in place. I ended up having to modify the brackets and drill extra holes in them to get it to sit how I wanted.

This isn't my picture, but this roughly shows what the brackets look like when fitted (not sure if this is an E53 or not though, but you get the idea)



I had previously noticed that 90% of the forum threads I had read regarding Dynavin/Hualingan installs usually say something to the effect of "it's still not sitting flush" or "it is hanging over slightly at the bottom" or "I'm still not 100% happy with the fitment" etc. Now I know why... It's because it's easy to physically fit the headunit. But if you want it to fit 'perfectly' it's a bitch of a job.

After hours of cutting, drilling, cutting some more, fitting brackets etc etc etc, I was finally happy with the fitment. I have even looked at a few other internet pics since, and I think mine is actually sitting better that most other ones:



The hours of work ended up being worth it, and now I'm over the moon with the fit. But in short, if someone offered me £100 to fit one of these 'properly' (using the metal brackets), I would say no. It might be a different story if you already had Nav, but if you don't have Nav as standard, you're in for a treat.

If you can get this fitted for you, just do it.

[n1k85]

Just to compare, here is a pic of a Hualingan fitted without the metal brackets (stolen from xoutpost), compared to mine fitted with brackets:

Without:


With:

[jaynana]

How did the steering column move when u fitted the metal bracket or am I seeing things in my sleep? (I just woke up.m)?

[n1k85]

Speaking of which, I saw a LHD X5 going on eBay a few days ago? It was getting load of bids and was over £8.5k when I last looked, but if you buy a LHD in this country, how are you supposed to use ticket booths in car parks? or go to the drive through?! A girl in Wolverhampton has a LHD Audi TT and has had it for years!...it must a right PITA!

[Goonerdad]

Looks fantastic - what did you pay for the 4th gen?

[n1k85]

Thanks, it was about £490 in the end. Originally I was paying £425 for the 3rd Gen, so it seemed worth the extra.

As promised, I added a youtube video of the Headunit here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1UwvOPc32s