PDC Retrofit (In Progress)

[terraphantm]

So I haven't actually finished this retrofit, but I got the hard part down. Don't know how many people are actually interested in this, but it doesn't hurt.

BMW has an official retrofit procedure, which is what this DIY is based on. Because there are official instructions, I wasn't very detailed about showing where the pins and such go.

Coupe/Convertible Instructions (http://etk.bmwsar.ru/eba_docs/3381en.pdf)
Sedan/Touring Instructions (http://www.kneb.net/bmw/E46/Park%20distance%20control%20retrofit.pdf)

So as you'll see in the instructions, there are two harnesses required to do this retrofit. One is the sensor harness; this is available from BMW pretty cheap - around $30. The other is the "supply" harness that goes to the front of the car. BMW doesn't supply this harness separately anymore (I was told it was NLA). So we have to make that harness. Note: There is a full retrofit kit (http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-330i-M54_3.0L/ES183884/) (sensors, harnesses, module, etc) for sedans that should include the NLA harness. I'm not sure if the retrofit kit is still available; can't know until the order is actually placed.

So these are the parts you'll need to get started:

PDC Rear Bumper / Sill Strip + sensors -- part numbers vary
PDC Sensor Harness -- 61 11 6 930 771
PDC Supply Harness -- NLA; have to fabricate (Details below)
7 20 Gauge Wire Spools; I recommend having about 20 ft to work with



Recommended:

Lots of zip ties
Assorted door panel/side sill clips
Fabric tape



So let's talk about the NLA harness. You would need this harness to power the PDC module, connect to the K-bus, and connect to the gong. You can't just grab it from a junkyard car since cars with PDC from the factory will have it integrated into the body harness. So our only real choice is to build it. It's only 7 wires. 5 wires originate from the PDC module. Of those, 3 terminate in the glove box area and 2 terminate in the driver side footwell. The last 2 wires originate in the glovebox area and terminate in the driver side footwell (to power the gong). I found that it takes ~13 ft of wire to go cleanly from the PDC module to the glove box. And another 3 ft or so to go from the glove box to the driver footwell.

I made a table that details the connections, contact/connector part numbers, wire sizes, wire colors, wire function, and termination location. The labels correspond to the ones in the official retrofit instructions

http://i.imgur.com/D9hL2Wf.png


Basically start by crimping MQS contacts onto some wire, insert them into the right pins, and start wrapping in tape to keep it neat. I would leave the last couple feet unwrapped since the wires terminate to different places and you need some slack to allow the fuse box to drop and such. This is what mine looked like while I was working on it:

http://i.imgur.com/NstP05qh.jpg

I didn't crimp the terminal contacts until after I had routed the wiring to the general area, just in case I needed to alter length.

Routing will look something like this:



PDC Module attached to its bracket:
http://i.imgur.com/95fcj8Z.jpg


String the PDC harness along the main harness:
http://i.imgur.com/YWde0Oc.jpg


Push it through the cutout
http://i.imgur.com/aZAU4O7.jpg


Keep it going along the main harness under the carpet
http://i.imgur.com/CkokTrO.jpg


Pull it out of the carpet by the main harness. Disconnect the battery at this point if you haven't already. Refer to the retrofit PDF for making the actual connections (and after making you connections, tie off any slack)
http://i.imgur.com/CHWZqoa.jpg


Run the other wires behind the duct to the driver side and zip tie any excess you have to the main harness (you'll notice I accidentally zip tied the connector for the footwell light; I've fixed that since).
http://i.imgur.com/6UQO4aG.jpg


Make your connections to the gong. You'll also note that I have an extra wire going to the gong; I wired my cluster to the gong and coded it to use the gong instead of the piezo speaker for warnings.
http://i.imgur.com/w2VHFwA.jpg

Cut this section out to fit the gong. BMW doesn't sell a precut panel
http://i.imgur.com/5gUPakD.jpg

Forgive my dirty interior. I also cleaned up the wiring a tad, particularly on the driver side, since taking these photos. But don't go too crazy - the wiring will be hidden under the paneling and it's impossible to get it perfect. Just make it so that you won't be sorting through spaghetti every time you need to work.

At this point you can test the module. Without the sensors connected, you should get a 5 second beep from the gong when you first put it in reverse. You should also be able to diagnose the module with INPA. And if you add $508 to your VO, you can (and should) code the module with NCS Expert

This is where I'm at for now. Installing the sensors should be fairly straight forward. I just have to pick up my bumper. I'll update the post then.

[terraphantm]

Reserved

[cakM3]

" I wired my cluster to the gong and coded it to use the gong instead of the piezo speaker for warnings. "

What advantage is there in doing this Mirza? Is the gong louder?

Oh, and thanks for taking the time to post this DIY in this forum!! :thumbsup

[az3579]

" I wired my cluster to the gong and coded it to use the gong instead of the piezo speaker for warnings. "

What advantage is there in doing this Mirza? Is the gong louder?

Oh, and thanks for taking the time to post this DIY in this forum!! :thumbsup

I'm sure this was just a personal preference thing. The two sound different.


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[terraphantm]

" I wired my cluster to the gong and coded it to use the gong instead of the piezo speaker for warnings. "

What advantage is there in doing this Mirza? Is the gong louder?

Oh, and thanks for taking the time to post this DIY in this forum!! :thumbsup

It's actually a bit quieter. But is a nicer tone than the beep -- doesn't sound as cheap IMO

Edit: Here's a video for anyone who's curious


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4TS_hAn-o

[danewilson77]

Nice.

"No flamesuit required"

[SoCalZman]

I have the factory PDC. Wonderful feature. Love it.

I do like the gong sound better than the Piezo, btw. Good job. Wish I could change that. the Piezo is so harsh.

[terraphantm]

I have the factory PDC. Wonderful feature. Love it.

I do like the gong sound better than the Piezo, btw. Good job. Wish I could change that. the Piezo is so harsh.

If you have it from the factory, you might be able to change it (worst case, you might have to run one wire from the cluster to the gong).

Go to test function 13 in the cluster and see if it makes a noise. If it does, go to NCS Expert and change everything that says "piezo" to "gong"

Edit: On a completely unrelated note, I just noticed my cluster lost a mile between the before and after shots. Odd. Something with the battery reset I guess

[cakM3]

I like the gong sound. I'm gonna have to do my instrument cluster test tomorrow on my ZHP and see if the gong goes off :)


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[terraphantm]

I like the gong sound. I'm gonna have to do my instrument cluster test tomorrow on my ZHP and see if the gong goes off :)


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If you don't already have PDC, you probably don't have a gong speaker at all

[cakM3]

If you don't already have PDC, you probably don't have a gong speaker at all

I have PDC on my ZHP. That's where I will check my instrument cluster test on...


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[terraphantm]

I have PDC on my ZHP. That's where I will check my instrument cluster test on...


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Gotcha. Just wanted to clarify

[cakM3]

:thumbsup


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[cakM3]

Mirza, did you ever get this retrofit completed?

[terraphantm]

I did not. Kept getting bait and switched for carbon black rear bumpers w/ PDC, and trying to avoid buying new since it'll be quite expensive after paint and sensors.

[nextelbuddy]

thank you so much for listing out the individual part numbers for the terminal contacts.. When I sourced my PDC system from the salvage yard they were kind enough to give me the PDC box, 4 sensors, the PDC sensor harness, the POWER harness PLUG with about 1 foot of wires cut, the GONG also with both plugs and about .5 foot of wire cut.

I made my own power harness using the PDC retrofit PDF instructions and guessed at 12 feet so with the 1 foot lead on the cut harness plug thats 13 feet.

I labeled each wire to where it goes but needed the terminals. I was prepared to use T taps but when I saw your thread with the PNs, I just ordered the terminal contacts I needed so sweet!


i'm curious about 1 connection, in addition to the GONG in driver foot well, there is also a single connection called "E" joint connector in footwell.. i've never seen anything like that when i that area before. is it a hidden connector taped away somewhere?


and lastly, my PDC sensors came from a silver coupe so they are painted silver. is it possible to use some elbow grease and some lacquer thinner and a rag to clean the paint off leaving them black for my black sedan trim? i have no plans to repaint them unless I have to. I didnt want the lacquer thinner to do any damage to the acoustic sensor if thats even possible.

[BMWCurves]

Good question, and I have no idea. Why not try painting over it with plastidip since it is removable and a matte black finish like the bumper trim? That way you can test out if it messes up the PDC's sensor function and if it does, you can just peel it off.

[msbc721]

@nextelbuddy, I have the wiring diagram if your interested

[terraphantm]

thank you so much for listing out the individual part numbers for the terminal contacts.. When I sourced my PDC system from the salvage yard they were kind enough to give me the PDC box, 4 sensors, the PDC sensor harness, the POWER harness PLUG with about 1 foot of wires cut, the GONG also with both plugs and about .5 foot of wire cut.

I made my own power harness using the PDC retrofit PDF instructions and guessed at 12 feet so with the 1 foot lead on the cut harness plug thats 13 feet.

I labeled each wire to where it goes but needed the terminals. I was prepared to use T taps but when I saw your thread with the PNs, I just ordered the terminal contacts I needed so sweet!

i'm curious about 1 connection, in addition to the GONG in driver foot well, there is also a single connection called "E" joint connector in footwell.. i've never seen anything like that when i that area before. is it a hidden connector taped away somewhere?.

It's a ground. There's probably one taped away somewhere there. I don't remember if I grabbed it from there or if I just took one of the grounds from the glove box.

[nextelbuddy]

Terra, my gong pigtail has the middle Green wire already and I wanted to wire it to the cluster as well and code it like you did.

I looked in the WDS at the cluster pinouts and I dont see any PIN assignments specific for GONG or audible warning/signal.

[terraphantm]

Pin 14 of the white connector

[nextelbuddy]

Pin 14 of the white connector

thank you, its so weird that for MSS54 it shows PIN 14 not used but if i go to MS43/45, it shows pin 14 gong/chime.

im assuming that PDC cars from the factory that had the GONG were wired and coded to use the GONG and thus thats why the GONG plug I have from the junk yard off of a 330ci has the middle pin wired..

wouldnt M3's fall into that category as well? would they really change the gong wire from the cluster just because its an M3?

[terraphantm]

They had it wired, but I don't know if any cars actually used it. The daten files seem to show that gong wasn't the default for anything, though maybe it was something a dealer was able to code after delivery.

M3's also had the gong wired up in the same manner. The WDS isn't 100% accurate, sometimes things go undocumented. That pin works fine on the M3 cluster.

[nextelbuddy]

They had it wired, but I don't know if any cars actually used it. The daten files seem to show that gong wasn't the default for anything, though maybe it was something a dealer was able to code after delivery.

M3's also had the gong wired up in the same manner. The WDS isn't 100% accurate, sometimes things go undocumented. That pin works fine on the M3 cluster.

Very cool.

Im curious, what do you do anyways? you seem to have a plethora of deep in depth technical knowledge covering a wide range of things. I see you all over the place on various forums and you seem to be one of those guys that just happens to know everything lol. Did you work for BMW? perhaps a technical engineer of some sort? advisor on a race team perhaps? just taking wild stabs here.

[ELCID86]

He's in Med school, but we all think he should have been a Double E! I'm betting he operates on cyborgs one day :-)

[Overboost]

i'm curious about 1 connection, in addition to the GONG in driver foot well, there is also a single connection called "E" joint connector in footwell.. i've never seen anything like that when i that area before. is it a hidden connector taped away somewhere?


I know this post is several months old but I just did this PDC retrofit on my E46. This connection is under the drivers side foot panel taped into the harness and against the steering column. I had 1 spade left in the strip and had some of those K Bus type terminals but what a PITA to access this with one hand laying on your back working with very little light.

30649

[nextelbuddy]

yup i ended up finding it and the PITA part as well.'

curious, how did you do your retrofit? did you buy the official retrofit BMW kit? piece one together? I have a full kit ive been trying to sell for a while so was wondering if you saw that or if it was too expensive and you pieced one together cheaper? did you also get the MtechII rear bumper strip?

[Overboost]

Wow, I was going to buy yours but you had read that you posted both those items had sold! (Shade and PDC kit) I thought about verifying that your buyer had completed the sale before I ordered mine but oh well... I bought my BMW OEM retrofit kit from ECS Tuning at $430ish and included everything EXCEPT the M Tech II impact strip for PDC sensors just as your for sale post had explained. ECS ended up sending me the wrong strip so I got it from the dealer for about $53 expressed overnight shipped.

30653

[nextelbuddy]

that looks great! awesome job getting it installed too. Forgot i sold it all doh lol sometimes i forget what the heck is in my garage.

[thegenius46m]

Hey all. Looking to finally do this retrofit on my sedan and building the cart now. Luckily I already have the pdc module, sensors, and as well as the official instructions as I noticed that pdf went down recently. Have a few questions regarding the wiring...

For anyone who has built the power supply harness, did you need a few special crimp tools to connect the terminal contacts to the wire?

[thegenius46m]

Hey all. Circling back on this as I was able to source one of the last brand new complete genuine retrofit kits for the sedan left on the globe. Was looking to finish the install up this week but am running into a few issues:

1) For anyone who has done this retrofit on a sedan, can you confirm whether you had to drill out the pdc hole provisions on your zhp bumper or are they already cut out?

2) It appears there are two part numbers for the pdc center strip on realoem with the sensor cutouts.

-51127893306(this one has the cutouts and mounting brackets to hold the sensors)
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw-parts/rubber-strip/51127893306/

-51127030606 (this has just the cutouts and no brackets so the sensor does not secure solidly)
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw-parts/rear-lower-bumper-trim-center/51127030606/

I initially ordered 606 and I don't see how that is going to mount the sensors securely but its listed on realoem as the "install kit." Anyone else run into this problem?

I think 606 is the one if you are planning to drill holes in the bumper while 306 will mount through the 4 squares behind the trim if you want a more plug and play option. Can anyone confirm?

3) Lastly, the instructions state to use fuse slot 24 to insert the green/white wire terminal into the back of the fuse box for pdc but on my car both the upper and lower slots are already in use with an existing fuse. Should I just tap into one of the existing wires on fuse slot 24 or should I use a different slot like 25?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220503/d2a79dc66434f7b0d7fb17abd407eb70.jpg

[thegenius46m]

Looks like I may have answered a question someone in the future may run into so I'll confirm it here...

the 306 part number appears to be correct for the sedan ZHP bumpers as they have the square cut outs. I believe the non zhp bumpers have cutouts for the sensors because I did see a thread where a guy had a post 9/01 sedan bumper that did not have the squares and indeed had the provisions for the circular pdc cutouts. Odd because both 306 and 606 are listed as post 9/01 compatible but it appears the 306 part number is the one we need.

ZHP sedan bumpers have these cutouts

39035

[Galapolis]

This probably won't help but just for extra lore, my base model came with PDC. The sensors clipped into the bumper and the strip was just a cover. I then installed a MTech II rear bumper and had to delete PDC because there is no place for the sensors to clip into the bumper. I think they are supposed to clip into the strip on MTech II but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to figure it out one day.

[thegenius46m]

Yeah if you look at my post above I believe the cutouts changed which is why they have two pdc strips. Only figured this out this morning.

[Galapolis]

Yeah if you look at my post above I believe the cutouts changed which is why they have two pdc strips. Only figured this out this morning.

Yeah the cutouts in the picture you posted above is what I have now, the sensors don't clip into those.

[thegenius46m]

Yeah the cutouts in the picture you posted above is what I have now, the sensors don't clip into those.

I think the old bumper style the sensors must have clipped into the bumper and the trim piece was just a covering. With the ZHP bumper it appears the trim piece is the sensor support and those mounts fit into the bumper cutouts.

[Galapolis]

I think the old bumper style the sensors must have clipped into the bumper and the trim piece was just a covering. With the ZHP bumper it appears the trim piece is the sensor support and those mounts fit into the bumper cutouts.

The bumper that came on my car was designed and shipped after MTech II bumpers though. If the sensors clip into the strip then that would solve the problem.