A Mini’s Infotainment System and the Joys of Aftermarket Car Parts

Although [Arkandas] disclaims any interest in being a ‘car guy’, this is somewhat ironic in light of the sheer amount of modding he has performed on a range of cars …. A Mini’s Infotainment System and the Joys of Aftermarket Car Parts. Although [Arkandas] disclaims any interest in being a ‘car guy’, this is somewhat ironic in light of the sheer amount of modding he has performed on a range of cars over the years, a recent misadventure involving a BMW Mini F56’s infotainment system replacement and some light ECU reprogramming included.

What happened exactly is covered in a detailed breakdown in a blog post. The old iDrive infotainment system in the Mini. The idea was to replace this with a more full-featured modern system.

Since the infotainment system does hook into the car’s CAN buses and other systems it has to be compatible, of course. This took some research before ultimately a fancy €700 aftermarket replacement was ordered from a Chinese seller. Long story short, the device was mostly compatible aside from a connector wired wrongly and creating a short.

This was fixed, but then the loosely fitted display toppled off during a test drive and broke, so a replacement screen was ordered.