I'm going NUTS with the stereo system...

I'm trying to install a conventional head unit in place of the "BMW Bavaria C Professional RDS" player I had. But there's a slight problem...

http://www.ttsalo.iki.fi/~ttsalo/harness.jpg

The image shows what is available in the car. The big connector in the car is missing all the eight speaker wires! Has anyone seen anything like this before? The audio system did work with the BMW radio.

The thick black cable is the CD changer cable and it has a 10-pin socket on the other side of the connector.

Also there is no antenna cable to be seen, nor is there an antenna socket in the radio. (Reception was quite bad...)

I have understood that both the setups, with or without an OEM amplifier, use the standard speaker outputs in the big 17-pin stereo connector... And I'm not even supposed to have an amplifier since I have the setup with only 6 speakers. What on earth is going on here?

not sure man.. all i can tell you is if you're going to do anything with the stereo.. do everything or don't bother touching it. if you get a new deck you will need a new amp and then you will need new speakers too..

i have set up a few e34s (including mine running about 2000 watts RMS cumulative) .. i can help you with whatever u need if u wanna re-do the whole thing

Im going to re-do the whole thing soon, just dreading it, big time :( lol

i think you will find that you will have a positive rear left, positive rear right, positive front left and positive front right wires and common negative for all plus the usual power wires in that plug. the front splits on the 6 speaker set up are done at the kick panel speakers xover. have a good look for the antenna connecter it should be a seperate plug and is usually only just long enough to poke out of dash

in the pic the power cables are only showing ... the thick one is the antenna. note that u have few wires to connect for the antenna and amp to work ... also u have the ilumination wires for the night backlights. I'm sure that the speakers ( inputs of the OEM amp ) is down in the dash somewere ... take a peek in.

if u want to know the identity of each wire click here

bit different, you're looking at the controller , the receiver and amp are in the back... http://www.bimmer.info/%7Ebill/bavariac.jpg

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Originally Posted by ttsalo

I'm trying to install a conventional head unit in place of the "BMW Bavaria C Professional RDS" player I had. But there's a slight problem...

http://www.ttsalo.iki.fi/%7Ettsalo/harness.jpg

The image shows what is available in the car. The big connector in the car is missing all the eight speaker wires! Has anyone seen anything like this before? The audio system did work with the BMW radio.

The thick black cable is the CD changer cable and it has a 10-pin socket on the other side of the connector.

Also there is no antenna cable to be seen, nor is there an antenna socket in the radio. (Reception was quite bad...)

I have understood that both the setups, with or without an OEM amplifier, use the standard speaker outputs in the big 17-pin stereo connector... And I'm not even supposed to have an amplifier since I have the setup with only 6 speakers. What on earth is going on here?

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When I first purchased my '95 540i, I wanted to save cash and did a complete wiring diagram for the f*cked up stereo system these have in them, so I could just replace a few components. It worked for awhile. To get the best sound, I ended up removing the entire interior and all factory components, and replacing them all with Boston Acoustics speakers, ADS amps, and Alpine receiver and equalizer... along with all new wiring of coarse.

The factory systems in these are wired with all positive and negative speaker wiring broken out into sub, mid, and tweeter. So you have an average of four wires running to each speaker (not including the phone wiring)! I would suggest putting a passive head unit in, or you may damage the factory amp.

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bit different, you're looking at the controller , the receiver and amp are in the back...

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Thanks, the picture makes things quite a bit clearer!

My new head unit has line out connections so I hope I can keep the factory amp (receiver) and drive it with my non-BMW head unit using line-level signals - if I only could figure out how to connect it.

I made an adapter using the pinout on this page (connected the pins D, E, I and J to the line out connectors in the head unit) but no luck. Probably the receiver in the back (which I haven't seen yet) needs something more. Maybe it's just the "enable" pin? Or perhaps something more complicated...

well u missed the enable pin B, this enables the preamp of the CD connector to work, also the digital inputs you didnt use will not show the CD counter clock ( data, reset ... ), thats if I understood that u used the connector only can you describe more what you've done?

Hey Bro,
in the trunk , left rear ,closest to the rear left tail lights, You will find the factory amp and antenna leads ( AM/Fm Diversity ) and all your speaker wires 6 sets. 2 sets for the front and 1set for the rear ( tie the 2 front sets together , front left tweeter and mid bass ) same with the rights and the rears are normal. you need a 12 foot antenna adaptor to run it to the new head unit. Ultimatly your by-passing the factory amp , and it will sound fine if you bought a good quality radio ( 45x4 or better ) and you will be fine. And remember when you doing the wireing the positives are all on the same side of the plug in the trunk ( positives on left of plug negatives on right or opposit ) brown stripes are negs. and remember to unplug the other harness on the factory amp so it doesnt turn on for nothing..
Good Luck

EDIT: Dont use the line levels with the factory amp unless you plan on scaring dogs with the very annoying high pitched whine your amp will give off when the volume is very low. you wont here it when you volume is up high but you will if its turned down.