PDC RETROFIT INSTALLATION By Kevin

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1 1 PDC RETROFIT INSTALLATION By Kevin 1 These instructions are intended to help those who chose to do this retrofit by showing you what you are in store for and to give you some instructions on how to do things. I have included many pictures to give you a good head start before you start dismantling your beloved X5. I apologize if some of the things I include are elementary but you never know. These are not perfect instructions and there is probably a better way to do each and every step but it is the best I could do. I am neither a mechanic nor a particularly mechanically inclined person so if I could do this, you can too. There are BMW instructions for this retrofit as well but they are virtually useless. I only referred to them a few times during the whole process. If you would like, I can you those instructions. My instructions are set up in 3 major parts: front, rear (cargo area), and rear bumper. Disclaimer: I accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies or mistakes in these instructions. Use them at your own peril. If you f*ck up your X5 while doing this retrofit, don t blame me. Good luck! Before you start: Check the contents of the PDC kit. Lay out each part and check them off of the inventory list that is included in the kit. Each part is in its own bag labeled with the part number. The list does not have very helpful part names. Instead, match up part numbers. (See Appendix A.) Get your tools together. The tools you need include but are not limited to: Socket set with extenders and deep sockets. Screw drivers; various sizes Torx T55 socket bit on a long ratchet or breaker bar Drill with bits Dremel tool with cutting tips Masking tape Electrical tape Work light A friend to help you with the bumpers FRONT: Removing the front bumper There are numerous screws that need to be removed before the front bumper will come off. I suggest you use masking tape to cover the corners of the bumpers to prevent scratching when you have it off. Have a blanket or rug to put the bumper on once you have it removed. Two people should do this part. 1 I apologize for some of the illegible annotations in the pictures. They got screwed up when I resized and converted to pdf. Anything important is referenced in the instructions.

2 2 The following pictures show you the screws you need to remove: The next picture show one of the main bolts holding the bumper on and one of the screws located above the lower mesh grille. Use a small flat screwdriver to pry off and remove the cover.

3 3 Remove these bolts. Remove the cover with a small flat screwdriver. This corner piece will be replaced with a new one in the PDC kit. Be careful when removing and replacing these bolts. They are attached to a square nut on the back that is seated in a recess. The square nut can pop out fairly easily. Note: The large hole beside the bolt shown in the photo above is where the corner PDC sensor will come out of. There are two screws in each of the front wheel wheels that need to be removed. They are on the front edge of the inner wheel well where the front bumper meets the wheel well. (Not pictured.) The next picture depicts the screws underneath the bumper cover that need to be removed. They are the black ones, not the larger silver ones which do not need to be removed.

4 Once you have removed all the screws you can remove the bumper. Start the actual removal by separating the inner wheels well from the side of the front bumper where the black trim is. The inner wheel well is tucked under the black trim piece. Use your fingers to pop them apart. The bumper will still feel fairly firmly attached until you pop these. As you can see in the photo below, the front bumper rests on each side on a long horizontal rail. Once you have popped both sides of the bumper off of the wheel wells you can just slide it off. You will also have to unplug the fog light wiring. 4

5 5 Attaching the sensors The first thing you have to do here is to locate the PDC harnesses. (If you have gotten to this point and do not know whether your X5 is pre-wired then you are in deep trouble. Let s hope you have the harnesses or else there will be a PDC kit on ebay very soon.) The leads for the PDC sensors should be taped together and the ends will be capped. The picture below shows one PDC wire still capped and one with the cap removed and a sensor attached. The fog light wire is shown as well. The sensors just plug right in. Note: There is no need to worry about which sensor goes in which wire and which wire is for which sensor location on the bumper. Just plug them in. Be sure to leave enough length for the sensors to be plugged in to the holders.

6 6 Cutting the holes in the front bumper Now the really scary part begins. You will have to cut holes into your X5 s bumper. Be prepared: it will hurt you to do it but you must. Luckily for you there are pre-marked templates on the back of the bumper cover. The front ones are kind of odd shaped. The way I did it was to drill holes inside of the template and then use my Dremel to cut the piece out and finish the edges. The front holes do not have to go right to the edges of the template. Cut less and test fit the holder pieces. The inner holders for the two center sensors have 3 metal clips to hold it in. The two corner holders are part of the new corner piece that came in the kit. The picture below shows the template cut out and a holder fitted. Note that the 3 clips on the holder fit into the odd shape of the cut-out. The outer warts for the center sensors have a scalloped edge and you can tell which way it faces when you test fit. They are also angled to match the slight angle of the bumper face.

7 The picture below shows the outside of the bumper with one hole cut and the other hole with the holder installed. Luckily for you, the front is very easy because the holders fit like a glove and the corners holders are pre-made and part of a new trim piece that just pops into place. 7

8 8 When you have drilled the two center holes and have fitted the holders, you are ready to get the bumper back on. Get your buddy to hold the bumper up to the front on the X but do not put it on yet. While he/she is doing this, slide the two center sensors into their respective holders. They should snap in place and there is an up marked by a plastic nub. Plug the fog light wires back in. The two corner sensors should be threaded through the pre-existing holes and allowed to hang. You can mount the bumper with the corner sensors hanging out. The two center sensors are in place though. Reverse your steps to secure the bumper. Make sure the bumper is properly seated on the side rails and the black trim and the inner wheel well are properly popped back together. The corner sensors can now be mounted into the new corner pieces in your kit. Just pop the new pieces in place with the sensor inserted. The front is now done.

9 9 CONTROL PANEL This is by far the easiest part of the retrofit. Remove the original control panel by inserting a small flat screwdriver into the edge of the panel and gently prying it up. Once you have the panel out there is just one big plug to undo. Plug in the new panel and pop it back into place. Done! You will have some cool new buttons that will do nothing more than light up orange. There are black caps in the kit that you can use to cover those useless buttons if you want.

10 10 REAR: CARGO AREA Now you have got to get to the real brains of the PDC system. This part of the process consists of mounting the control box and the speaker. First remove the cargo floor and the spare tire. You will then have to remove the spare tire mount. There are 4 points securing the spare tire holder. Note: I do not have the air pump to deal with. Under the spare tire holder is the battery and a large plastic cover that you will be removing. There are 3 screws holding the cover.

11 11 Under the cover is the panel where you will be mounting the PDC control unit. It is mounted vertically and is held in by 4 screws. You will also see the harness for the PDC unit. The harness consists of 3 plugs. They are right next to where the PDC unit goes. The plugs are color coded. Simply match up the colors. Note: The plugs have lever locks with cams that need to be opened before the plugs will fit together. Swing them closed to lock them in.

12 You then have to mount the rear speaker. There is one speaker in the rear and one in the front which is already installed and being used as the speaker for the door chime and other happy noises. You will find the plug for the speaker located in the passenger side compartment by the 12V plug-ins. It is taped to a wiring harness and is on its own, uncapped. 12

13 13 The speaker that comes in the PDC kit mounts to the white plastic tray where the fuse blocks are. There is a hole and a notch where the speaker will fit into. The speaker is secured with a nut that comes in the kit. You do not really need to remove the other panel if you can squeeze the speaker behind. You are now done with the rear cargo area. Now on to the rear bumper. REAR: BUMPER PORTION This part is by far the toughest part of the retrofit. Cutting the holes and mounting the sensor holders was very difficult, at least for me. I will describe it more later on. One other major problem for me was accessing the 2 main bolts that hold on the bumper. Access is supposed to be gained by going up under the opening where the exhaust tips come out. There is a notch in this area to guide you. I had to remove my Remus exhaust in order to get at the bolts. I simply could not get at the bolts even though I had tried dropping the exhausts off their hangers. I also wanted to be safe rather than sorry just in case I banged the tips with a breaker bar. You should not have this problem if you have a stock 3.0. There is enough clearance to get a long extension with your Torx T55 socket into the opening. A pivoting elbow type socket is recommended as is a long ratchet or breaker bar for better leverage. If you have a 4.4 you might have to drop your exhaust and pull it aside to get more room. That just requires the hangers to be unbolted. There are 2 on each side. Rear bumper removal This picture shows you where the T55 bolts are located.

14 There are 2 screws inside either wheel well like with the front bumper. There is also a plastic tray under the bumper that connects with clips to the bottom of the X5. Just unclip that and pull it out. You are now ready to remove the rear bumper. Like the front bumper, the rear is also held in where the inner wheel well meets the black plastic trim. Separate those as with the front bumper. The rear bumper is also resting on horizontal rails. The bumper slides out. Be sure to have help because the bumper is fairly heavy due to the large piece of steel inside. (Would that be the bumper???) 14

15 15 Cutting the holes The rear bumper has pre-marked templates on it. You might find that your templates are a bit faint as I did. One of them was only half there. They are also obscured somewhat by the bumper itself. The 2 in the middle are shaped differently than the 2 corner ones. This shows a middle template.

16 16 I used the same method for cutting the rear sensor holes and I did for the front. These are more challenging since they are on an angle and a curve. The corner ones are particularly difficult. I did a rough cut out and then did the finer shaping from the outside in. In fact, for the corners, you can t even get at them very well from inside the bumper. Be careful not to scratch the outside of the bumper. Also, tape up the corners and top edges of the bumper cover to protect it while you are working on the floor. This picture shows one of the middle holes roughed out. You can see the actual bumper and how it gets in your way. Here is a picture of one of the corner holes. Note the odd shape and the obstruction on the inside of the hole. Mounting the sensor on the corners is particularly tricky. Make sure you have the right pair of holders for each corner.

17 17 One thing you will encounter when doing any of the rear sensor holes is that the shape of them is odd. Compounded by the curve of the bumper you will have a hard time keeping the holes straight. That is, the inside edge of the holes will be angled or jagged. As with the front holes, get the bulk of the space cut out and then test fit each pair of sensor holders and fine tune as needed with your Dremel. Note: Make sure you have the right pairs of holders matched up. The rear middle ones are the same but the pieces are different than for the corners. The corner pieces are labeled LH and RH to designate right and left. Both of the inner and outer corner holders are labeled. Note: Be careful when working with these holders. They are far more delicate than they should be. I managed to break one of the tiny little retention tabs on one holder. If you test fit the pairs on their own you will see how they lock together. They also lock on the back end. (See picture below.) The fitting of the sensor holders was by far the most difficult part. The clips that are supposed to engage are very small and there is not much room for error. The inner and the outer holders are supposed to sandwich the bumper cover and thus hold each other on by tension. The inner holder is supposed to butt up on the inside of the bumper cover but protrude enough for the outer holder to engage and lock on. Throw the curve and angle of the bumper into it and you will have a fun time with your Dremel. I do not think that any of the 4 rear sensor were really that secure. (This is confirmed as I have heard that the rear PDC sensors are easily knocked off.) To make sure that mine were secure and to deal with some minor fitment issues, I got frustrated and used some JB Weld to glue those suckers in. The only really problematic holder was the one that had one retention tab broken off. That definitely needed glue. Here is a picture of how the inside holder is supposed to engage with the front holder. The outer holder has a pair of tangs that go into the bumper. The inner holder has a tab with holes where the tangs go into.

18 18 The two then put opposing tension on each other. The tangs did not simply slide into the holes. I had to shoe horn them together, all the while making sure the small tabs on the opposite side were still holding. You will find that the holders will kind of squirm around as you try to fit them together because you are trying to line up something straight in a hole cut on an angle. Challenging? Absolutely, but doable. I can complain all I want about how stupid the design of these holders is but it would do no good. Just take your time, be patient, and be careful. Once all four holes are cut and the holders securely in place, you are ready for the next step. Plugging in the sensors and the harness The sensors are identical to the ones for the front and like the front, are not specific to any holder. Just slide each one into the holders and make sure they click. The wiring harness that comes in the kit just plugs into each sensor like a string of Christmas lights. Again, make sure they click into place. The wiring is supposed to attach to the metal bumper inside the bumper cover with the white clips on the wiring. I used nylon ties to secure it to make sure it stayed in place. Make sure the wires are well clear of your exhaust tips. Note: I actually plugged in the harness after the bumper was semi-reinstalled but I was able to access the holders because I had the X up on a lift. I also had the harness plugged in to the PDC control unit before I put the bumper on. Here is where the rear sensor wiring will run in through. The picture below shows the PDC wiring running in through the attached grommet. Remove the original grommet, run the plug in through the hole and snap the new grommet in place.

19 The plug should be located in the bottom of the inside compartment. The plug then attaches to the harness that connects to the PDC control box. You should find this plug near where the rear wiring plug enters the cargo area. The picture below shows the plugs connected. 19

20 20 This picture is a close up of the rear PDC sensor plug and the plug connecting it to the PDC control unit. Note the location where the control unit harness comes from. Also note the lever style locking mechanism on the plug. If you have the plugs connected you should also have your rear bumper back on. Here are some things to keep in mind when remounting your rear bumper or else it might turn out crooked: Have someone help you mount the bumper. Make sure the sides are on the mounting rails equally and level. Make sure the inner wheel well is properly snapped together with the bumper cover. Tighten up the T55 bolts carefully while making sure the bumper is level. With the rear bumper back on and everything plugged in, you re all done. All that is left to do is to replace all of the stuff you removed from the cargo area. Of course you need to test the system to make sure it works. Note: I did the front sensors and control panel on one day, the PDC control unit and speaker on another day, and finished with the rear sensors on another day. When I had just the front sensors and control unit installed, the system beeped and the control button on the new panel lit up but the system was not functioning. You cannot test as you go. You must have everything installed before it will work. Here is what the finished product looks like. By the way, the light stand in second picture was easily detected by the PDC system. It is very accurate.

21 21 2 CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU DID IT!!!

22 APPENDIX A : The PDC kit contents. (Photo credit: bnax5.) 22