How does a BMW car radio tune to GPS FM transmitter frequency? (2025 Update)

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

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

You have a Bimmer.

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.

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

Tom K.

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

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

I wish I still had them...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

snipped-for-privacy@h-gee.co.uk () wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

US FM broadcast channels are 200kHz apart.

US AM broadcast channels are 10kHz apart.

After a lot of use, some push buttons on radios (and some other electronic thingys too, such as tv remotes) will stop working because the electronic contacts under the buttons wear out/lose good contact.Might be your radio has a reset button, only guessing at that.I once bought a Sangean AM/FM/Shortwave radio from

Many years ago, radios were optional equipment for cars/trucks in America.So were heaters and wind shield wipers too.When I was in the Army at Scott Air Force Base,Illinois in 1963, I bought a 1958 BMW Isetta car ($350.00) from an Air Force Officer.One door, (the front end of the car was the door) one cylinder air cooled 9 horsepower engine, chain drive to the rear wheels.I kind of wish I had kept that little car.I still have the owners/operators manual to that car.A woman in Germany was the first owner of that car. cuhulin

European MW (AM) uses 9 kHz spacing and most European FM tuners use

One car stereo I had could be user configured for either US or European channel assignment.

By pressing M that should disable the scan feature. Pressing the arrow button one should move the frequency display one increment only, i.e. 970 to 980 but that is all. You have to push it each time to move the display ahead one increment. It won't automatically tune to an empty frequency or channel.

I was thinking along the same lines, but a lot of cheaper decks I've seen (as well as the stock one in my '03 MPV) will seek by default, or go manual if you hold down the tuning button for more than a second - ie. press it briefly, it will go to the next available station; hold it down, and it will stop as soon as you release it and operate in "manual" tuning until you leave it alone for 10-15 seconds.

Marian, someone had your solution about 20 posts back:

1. Put the transmitter on the desired channel, and place it near the antenna so the radio will find the new channel.

1. Use the scan feature that your radio seems to be stuck on, and let the radio find the transmitter.

2. Once you find a frequency that is clear and usable, lock it in as a preset on the radio.

I'm a Boomer that doesn't have a Bimmer or a Beemer. It's a Bummer.

Dan

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft.I think Bayerische is a Province. (County, or whatever) Whatever Aktiengesellshaft means? cuhulin