[beardub]

I have a 2012 X5 35i and the hands free stopped working. The screen just spins with "please wait". I also tried connecting to bluetooth entertainment and get the same result. As near as I can tell this is all tied into the 'combox for telematics' P/N 84109257163. Has anyone experienced this problem and been able to resolve it?

 

[smassey321]

Combox is on the left side of the hatch just inside the removable cover. The combox bracket can be removed by taking out 3 screws which makes it easier to get to the forward facing wiring and MOST fiber. Make sure the i-drive is awake and check for 12 volts on the combox wiring. Pin 1 or 2. Then check for a red light coming out one of the green and black fiber optics. Check for water in the bottom of the storage area.

 

[beardub]

Thanks for the reply. I checked what you suggested and everything checks out - 12v power, red light from the black fiber cable, no moisture. It appears one of the cables goes to an antenna above the combox. I'm not sure if there's any way to test the antenna and doubt the i-drive would say 'please wait' if the antenna was bad. I'm befuddled.

 

[smassey321]

Did you recently have your passenger air bag replaced? Several have found their Bluetooth antenna got disconnected during the repair.

 

[bill13070]

Just stopped this am

Since I had the front pax airbag fixed Bluetooth has been weak, but that was quite some time ago so I learnt to live with it I suppose, this am is stopped all together, everything looks ok but it does not show up on my phone. By everthing looks ok I mean the car is saying look for BMW 5...... in pairing mode but phone cannot see it. Where is the antenna connection that may be open now ( assuming it was lightly connected after airbag but maybe a pothole finally disturbed it ). I assume the said connection is behind dash so how to get to it ?

 

[Falkon]

I have a 2012 X5 35i and the hands free stopped working. The screen just spins with "please wait". I also tried connecting to bluetooth entertainment and get the same result. As near as I can tell this is all tied into the 'combox for telematics' P/N 84109257163. Has anyone experienced this problem and been able to resolve it?

I once had a similar issue with my Bimmer about 3yrs ago, I took it to the dealer for diagnoses and they confirmed the Telematics unit was bad; they gave me an estimate of ~$900 to fix it.

I bought a working one on EBay (same part part # as mine) for ~$130 and changed it out myself and it's been working well till date.

However, the only issue is that it still shows the last 5 or so digits VIN of the donor car as my car ID; not sure how to change that (I'm guessing it requires coding but I do not have the tools for that). So my vehicle ID for pairing with the phones isn't the original last digits VIN numbers.

 

[smassey321]

Since I had the front pax airbag fixed Bluetooth has been weak, but that was quite some time ago so I learnt to live with it I suppose, this am is stopped all together, everything looks ok but it does not show up on my phone. By everthing looks ok I mean the car is saying look for BMW 5...... in pairing mode but phone cannot see it. Where is the antenna connection that may be open now ( assuming it was lightly connected after airbag but maybe a pothole finally disturbed it ). I assume the said connection is behind dash so how to get to it ?

This shows where the antenna is.
https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9260103&postcount=6

 

[beardub]

I did have the driver's side airbag replaced (along with valvetronic motor at 57k miles- don't get me started) but the bluetooth worked for a few months afterward. I have a hard time thinking the driver's side airbag replacement would get into the console. But, it's still worth the time to check the connection at the bluetooth antenna. I hope that's all it is. That combox is spendy.

 

[smassey321]

Drivers airbag does not cause issues. It is the passenger one that affects the bt antenna. Now that I think about it, a disconnected antenna probably won't cause the spinning circle. If you can scan the car that might give you more info however a completely dead combox won't respond and thus returns no codes. Ebay combox are about $125 and easy to re-sell if that does not fix the issue. Just get one from an E series. F series don't work on our cars. E90 ones are easy to get and work fine in E70. I swapped mine between cars when I was trying to solve an issue.

Getting a used combox will cause your BMW assist to fail but you probably are not using that anyway. You may get an SOS error but that can be removed in 10 minutes by coding.

 

[beardub]

That's good advice. I'll give it a shot and let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the help!