How To Change Your BMW E46 M3's Stock Head Unit To Apple CarPlay

Having spent the best part of a year with a dated, factory-fitted head unit (with broken right-hand side speakers), I decided to get in touch with Alpine UK to see if they could help me add a splash of Apple to my M3...

Adnan Ebrahim

26 Feb 2016

If you’ve been a CT lurker for the past year, you’ll know that I’m the extremely fortunate owner of a 2004 BMW E46 M3. And while I’ve now added to my garage with a tuned R35 Nissan GT-R (more on that very soon), I decided it was time to scrap the old head unit in the M3 and replace it with something a little more this decade.

I got on the phone to in-car media specialists Alpine UK, who had an ILX-700 Apple CarPlay unit in stock and offered to fit it for me. The resulting vlog shows Mitch (Alpine’s technician and audio guru) taking out the old nav unit and hard drives located in the boot, fixing my busted right-hand speakers and saving me some weight by installing the ILX unit and iPhone dock.

How To Change Your BMW E46 M3's Stock Head Unit To Apple CarPlay

The best part? Not only can I now listen to music on Spotify in my 12-year-old car, but there’s an ultra-cool Car Throttle logo that appears when I fire up that straight-six. So I can safely say that this E46 M3 is now truly one-of-a-kind…

Comments

Just did the same thing on my 330

Shouldn’t it be on YouTube?

My original plan for my MX5 was to replace the radio with a single AUX cable,because aftermarket radios look really bad unless they’re just a big touchscreen like this one,and in that case they turn too expensive.I looked for,and found,a pretty cheap ISO to AUX cable. Then I realized,using one of those Bluetooth receivers that connect to an AUX cable,I could make my phone automatically connect to the car’s speakers without moving a finger,and all of this only spending less than 40 bucks,even leaving free space to put chewing gums,coins,or other small objects in,thanks to those filler pockets they sell.Problem is,I do not have an MX5.Or a car in general.And being 14,I don’t see the situation change any time soon.