How does a BMW car radio tune to GPS FM transmitter frequency?

There must be some way to tune my 2002 BMW 525 radio to a particular FM frequency but I can't figure out how so my GPS won't work.

My Garmin GPS nuvi transmit on any FM frequency I tell it to. The instructions say find an unused frequency and tune the radio to that frequency. OK. But how do you tune a BMW automobile radio to an unused frequency?

On a friend's car in a parking lot with everything turned off, I can tune his American car radio to any FM frequency I like ...... for example to

100.1 FM. Then I can set the Garmin nuvi to speak on 100.1. There's a whole lot of hissing and other sounds but at least I can hear the music and driving instructions through the American car radio.

However, on my Beemer, there are only two settings. One will only find "working" stations so it skips right past the weak GPS FM transmitter signal. If I press the little BMW "m" on the stock radio, I can then press the arrow buttons to go back and forth a bit, but still, there is no way to get to 100.1 which is the cleanest empty station in my area. The dastardly BMW radio skips to whatever station it wants to when you press the arrow.

I'm frustrated with the BMW radio lack of tuning ability.

How do we tune a BMW automobile radio to an unused FM frequency like 100.1?

Reply to
G?nter Predl
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I would pick one of the empty (skipped) FM broadcast stations. I would then set the GPS to output on a skipped broadcast frequency, eg 100.1 and then let the FM radio "find" your Garmin. If possible, get the Germin as close to the auto antenna as possible.

arthur

Reply to
arthur

You don't have a Beemer. Beemers are motorcycles.

You have a Bimmer.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

According to my E39 radio manual (have one? looked at it?), you select manual (the "m" button in the middle of the radio/cd track seek and then press the left/right buttons to the appropriate freq.

R / John

Reply to
John Carrier

You press the M button to change it from "seek" mode to manual tuning mode, then you use the right/left buttons to set the frequency. This is detailed in your owner's manual.

Sheesh, I never had this problem with my 2002...

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in news:fbotm6$nto$ snipped-for-privacy@panix2.panix.com:

My '77 320i didn't come with a radio.

Reply to
Bert Hyman

"If you can hear the radio, the engine is too small." -- my friend Dave

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Press the M button and then tune manually - works on my Bimmer (E46) and my Beemer (R1200RT.

Tom K.

Reply to
Tom K.

If the engine's large enough to power a good alternator, you can hear the stereo.

Reply to
clifto

It tunes like the radio used in any other modern car. You can use either a signal seeking scan to the nearest strong station or tune manually with fixed increments between channels on LW, MW and FM.

There are no modern automobile receivers with analog tuning that I'm aware of so you are stuck with fixed increments like 9 or 10khz on MW, etc.

Set the tuner to manual then advance one channel at a time to a relatively empty one. The owners manual for the radio should have all this.

Reply to
John S.

Come to think of it, neither did my 1600 or 2002...

I wish I still had them...

Reply to
ZZ

That's my whole point. When I press the "m" button and then press the arrow, the radio STILL moves to the next "used" channel. It will NOT move by a tenth of a point at a time.

Are you telling me that's how it is SUPPOSED to work? I would have thought so too, so please confirm.

Maybe my radio is broken because whether or not I press the "m" button and then press the arrow keys, my BMW radio STILl skips to the next used station!

Drat!

Reply to
MarianWil

OK. I guess my radio's broken then 'cuz when I press the "m", I still can't get to any specific UNUSED station like 100.1 FM. I can get to plenty of used stations, but, not to unused stations. Sigh.

Reply to
MarianWil

Sigh. My "m" doesn't work then. There is no way, no matter WHICH buttons I press, to get to an unused station on my BMW radio. I guess it's broke.

Reply to
MarianWil

Just went out to double check both car and bike - and the m button cycles manual tuning on and off as everyone says. As I'm in the US, it will only tune to "odd" frequencies, 100.1, 100.3, etc., so is it possible your radio was set up for another country?

Hope you can get it resolved.

Tom K.

Reply to
Tom K.

Aha! Now we're getting closer! In your case, it skips every other tenth. In my case it skips to the next USED station (with or without the 'm'). In everyone elses' case, it goes to every tenth.

How wierd!

Reply to
MarianWil

In the US, FM radio frequencies are always on an odd tenth, so many radios will only tune to odd tenths on FM. In my experience, most FM radios behave that way.

Reply to
clifto

I'm betting you're holding down the tuning button to make it go a long way across the dial to get to 100.1. On most radios with tuning buttons, holding down the tuning button for more than a second makes the radio scan. Try pushing and immediately releasing the tuning button several times; see if it will change frequencies by 0.2 every time.

Reply to
clifto

Another possibility is that the "m" button is the problem. If it isn't working, then the scan button will either scan or advance to the next preset.

Tom K.

Reply to
Tom K.

Is this an AMERICAN RADIO or a radio in an American car?

Is thin in America?

If so you will find that the digital or vari-cap tuners or rather stations in the US will be 9Khz apart and the Euro stations are 10Khz. This makes preset and seek tuning difficult so they make the auto-tune radios for different markets similar to cell phones.

If your tuner jumps 9Khz then you are NEVER going to get 100.1. However if you friends old style radio has the twiddly know device fixed to a manually turned variable capacitor to tune the stations then he can dial in whatever the range obtainable from lowest to highest and everything in between.

Just coz its new don't mean it better.

Reply to
hsg

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