How to remove the CCC head unit from a BMW E90

If you are here, most likely you have a faulty CCC unit which you need to remove from your BMW E90 to have it replaced or repaired.

If you’re not sure what a CCC iDrive is, have a look at our article ‘What is the CCC iDrive’.

That being said, let’s proceed with our post on How to remove the CCC head unit on BMW E90.

The BMW CCC unit is located behind the dashboard in the middle of the infotainment system. To reach that, you would have to first remove the central trims (below the display), take off some screws, and then pull it out and unplug.

For this, you will need a few tools, a little patience, and some arm strength.

Tools for removing the CCC head unit from a BMW E90:

• Flat Screwdriver
• Long Phillips Screwdriver
• Trim Remover

Step 1: First, you start by removing the upper trim ( the wooden/plastic trim with air vents on it).

Using the trim remover, unlatch the upper trim on both sides. Disconnect the cable on the back, if you need to, then move the trim out of the way.

Step 2: Now remove the lower-trim, the one with the climate control on it. Since the upper trim is out of the way, you can unlatch the lower one even by using your bare hands. It should come out easily, it doesn’t need much force and a slight wiggle could help.

To take it out completely, you will have to disconnect the two connectors attached to its back. The connectors have a small lever that has to be pulled upwards before you can pull the connectors out (Figure 4).

Step 3: Now move on to the trim at the bottom, the one with radio controls and programmable hotkeys. Again, use the trim remover on both sides to unlatch it. The trim should come out easily, as it is just a plastic cover.

Step 4: Once the bottom trim is removed, the CCC unit should be visible (the silver box with a label on it). Now take a Phillips screwdriver and unscrew all four screws (Figure 6).

Step 5: To take the CCC head unit out, you may need to put your car in Neutral so that the shift doesn’t get in the way. Afterwards, slowly pull out your CCC unit.

Step 6: The CCC unit has 5 different electrical connectors attached on the back. Take out all the connectors, one by one.

1 is the Quadlock connector. To remove the Quadlock, apply some pressure in the location and in the direction shown by 1a. While doing this pull as shown by the circular arrow 1b. Through this movement you are rotating a part of the connector which is a bit mobile. By this rotation, the connector becomes free to be pulled out. Now gently pull the connector out, using a small amount of force.
Figure 9 below shows a zoomed in view of the quadlock connector being unlocked and pulled out.

Connectors 2 and 3 also have a small part that is blocking them in position. Slightly push in the location and direction shown by the yellow arrows in Figure 8. While doing this, pull the connector out, gently.

Connectors 4 and 5 come out just by pulling them gently.

And there you have it. Your BMW E90 CCC unit is successfully removed.

Wrapping it up

We hope our article has helped you remove the CCC head unit from your BMW E90. If you’d like to add anything, please use the comments section below. We like to hear from our readers !

If you have questions about the iDrive system and different models that were not answered by this article, have a look our other articles, maybe they help answer your questions:

• Do I have a M-ASK, CCC, CIC or NBT iDrive navigation ?
• Get help with the CCC iDrive Repair – the full guide
• BMW CCC repair : the correct diagnosis
• What causes a dead battery on your BMW ?

• our CCC repair page
• our MULF / MULF 2 bluetooth repair page
• our Logic 7 amplifier repair page
• our CIC iDrive repair page, if you have the CIC version of the iDrive navigation

Would you like to add something on this topic ? Please use the comments form below, we monitor all incoming messages. Our readers will appreciate your help with making this article more informative.