DIY: Pre-2017 Add Second USB Port

[Maverik259]

Ok so as the title says this is specific to at least a 2014 X5 with Enhanced Bluetooth and telephone cradle.

Things you'll need:

-T-20
-8mm and 10mm
-Usb socket: 84-10-9-390-501
-Lower trim with slot: 51-45-9-389-629
-HSD cable (didn't fit properly but with some dremeling I made it work) are all over eBay:
61-12-9-255-716
-iPhone/micro usb cable

[Maverik259]

1) disconnect battery under rear Mat using 8mm to remove bolts holding down plastic cover and then use the 10mm to disconnect both batteries (I think you can just remove the bigger one but I did both just to be safe)

[Maverik259]

2) start removing the trim pieces.

First start with the lower trim piece. This just pops out. There are two clips. One on each side. I just reached underneath and gently but firmly pulled outward. Put it aside.

3) remove the upper trim that houses the air vents and start button. Open glove box and start on far right and start pulling outward. There are clips all down the thing. Be careful once you get to the vents. There are 2 wires that need to be disconnected. And again when you get to the start button as it has a cable as well. Remove and put aside.

4) this will expose 2 T-20 screws with red backings. Remove these and save screws. The Climate control panel also has 4 clips (2 on each side). Pry this out and there will be 2 more cables. 1 on each side (blue and black). Disconnect and put aside.

[Maverik259]

5) remove NBT EVO unit (silver box). There are 4 T-20 screws holding this in. I disconnected all the cables just cuz I couldn't see jack squat and this was before I knew what needed to be disconnected. Knowing now all you need to do is disconnect the pale orange HSD connected on the right side of the unit.

6) this is where I needed to dremel the two ends of the cable to fit the NBT and the USB adapter. Plug in the new HSD cable to the NBT and tuck in behind and wrap under the bottom of the NBT. Connect the other end to your USB adapter. And connect to your desired charge cable. For me lightning.

[Maverik259]

7) Now the HSD cable I had was very thick especially with the fabric wrap on it. So I had to push it all the way back behind the NBT. I wrapped the USB adapater and my usb in electrical tape just in case and to prevent from disconnecting down the road and pushed the NBT back into place with the thin Lightning cable laying under neath it. I scented the lighting cable as far out as possible because I wanted to tuck any extra in behind the new lower trim piece. At this point I also plugged back in the outer control panel To prevent any errors and reattached batteries to check if it worked and it fid. My phone was now charging from both the new USB port and the existing USB in the center console.

8) disconnect battery and replace all the pieces you disconnected.

[Maverik259]

8) Once everything is reinstalled now you have to dremel or cut off the bracket on the back of the lower trim piece so that it is flush on the back side so it will fit once installed.

9) take new trim piece and run charge cable through the backside of it and again pull as much cable out as possible.

10) Install trim piece by pushing in both sides and once installed begin to push the charge cable back in through the hole and allow it to collect inside the empty space that sits behind the lower trim piece between it and the NBT unit.

11) voila. This actually works out quite nice as I have a magnetic CD player mount for my phone.

12) hook up battery and turn car on and plug in your phone. Go to media and you will see your phone now show up under the "snap in" telephone cradle and so far it seems I have full functionality.

[Maverik259]

Sorry the pics didn't load in order so let me know if anyone's got any questions. Whole thing will take less than an hour. Super straight forward with my guide albeit a lack of info I had going into this. Not to toot my own horn but I do this because this is how DIY should be done. It drives me nuts when people drop ideas out there and post one or two pictures that are all but useless and with little to no ending. So I want this to help everyone out there as much as possible. So please let me know if anything confusing or you need more info.

[vastano]

A couple questions:

1.) If I dont have the telephone cradle, could I do this mod and code it to think it has a cradle?

2.) Do you have the part number for the usb that attaches to the trim piece? (rather than feeding the cable through the hole)

All in all a very thorough DIY, thanks!!

[Maverik259]

Originally Posted by vastano

A couple questions:

1.) If I dont have the telephone cradle, could I do this mod and code it to think it has a cradle?

2.) Do you have the part number for the usb that attaches to the trim piece? (rather than feeding the cable through the hole)

All in all a very thorough DIY, thanks!!

Yes it will probably work to just charge your phone but if you want full functionality of the usb then you need to code Enhanced BT.

And yes see the first post. All PN are included.

[Silververtu]

Thanks for the DIY write up! Another great work for this community!

[corduroy]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I found it very helpful and thought I'd contribute (hopefully someone finds this helpful!).

I too have the HK audio system and recently installed an MMI/Carplay/AA adapter. I was going to add the extra oem USB but decided to make it for the Carplay/AA unit instead. I improperly thought I could get it to fit with the 2017+ USB center console, despite the warnings here, haha. Short story, it's not going to happen with the 2017+ center console oem stuff. Below, you can see a few photos where it's basically the USB metal housing, I even folded down the pins (it's the white plastic part of the second photo, still worked!) and it still wasn't enough room. Basically, just having the USB-A housing there was enough to interfere.


I then thought... Is there any room for USB? There is, on the sides! So I picked up a flush mount USB adapter (a double USB might work, it's really tight already).


Next, I marked it (~.5" x 0.75") and cut out the section with a dremel. It's better to make it a little smaller and then dremel to size. You can do either side. I ended up doing this on the driver's side because I did my initial cuts on the wrong side, lol. But if you pick this area, this is just to the side of the HK unit. The 3 feet of the USB mount is tucked between the face plate and HK unit.



Here's the cable that I had from the carplay/aa unit.


And with the USB port in place, and then with a USB cable attached.


I might do this again if I find a flush mount that's flatter with a shorter and thinner cable. If I do I'll also probably hook up the second oem USB to the other side (so one on the driver side, the other on the passenger side).