Installing Aftermarket CD Player

[StevieG]

Okay so Ive had enough of listening to the jerks on the radio and the same set of tapes on loop over and over again so I decided to splash out and get a nice little CD Player. Of course me being me I never really looked into how easy/hard it was to slap one of these cute little buggars into the dash in my car, which is a 1990 318is.

Does anyone have any idea, or has anyone done this before and could give me a heads up if its difficult as ive heard the anti theft stuff built into the stock unit could be a problem.

Thanks for your help guys

 

[halfnhalf325]

well i have tried, i have a 1986 325 and i had/have to get all the wires redone its is not set-up like a normal stereo it has left right speaker wire but now front and rear so i had problems there. hope thats not the same case with yours.

 

[bichmgnt]

The alarm is a non-issue. However, the BMW stereo is a proprietary system that uses a right and a left signal wire from the head unit that supplies the signal to an amplifier in the trunk. You can't use any of that stuff with your new stereo. You can use the power, antenna power, dash light, and ground wires to supply the stereo and you'll have to run your own speaker wires. Since that is the case you might as well replace the speakers at the same time. Go to Crutchfield and find some speakers you like that will fit your car and get them from somewhere else. I think you'll find the sound much improved.

Of course you could always get a portable CD player and a cassette adapter.

Steve

 

[equate]

Ok, I JUST did this so I will try to explain what I did.

1. You have your deck out There are the Left and Right wires + and – then Power (I think white and yellow) and remote Unplug all of them.
2. Pop the fader switch out Cut these wires

Yellow/Red - Left Front Channel
Yellow/Black - Left Rear Channel
Blue/Red - Right Front Channel
Blue/Black - Right Rear Channel

And put that to the audio output on your new deck, Then the speaker out on your deck tie all the ground together.
ok This should all work but you still have the stock amp which need to be bypassed.

3. Go to the trunk and pull the mouse [Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored] back, the amp is on the left side by the antenna.
4. Unplug the amp and cut the plastic connector off. Find

Pair: Black/White and Black/Brown - Right Rear Speakers
Pair: Grey/White and Grey/Brown - Right Front Speakers
Pair: Black/Red and Black/Purple - Left Rear Speakers
Pair: Grey/Red and Grey Purple - Left Front Speakers

And hook them up to

Yellow/Red - Left Front Channel
Yellow/Black - Left Rear Channel
Blue/Red - Right Front Channel
Blue/Black - Right Rear Channel

The 4 above are JUST positive, so for the – on the amp tie them all together. Now I don’t know about your car but I had – wires in my fader, so I tied them together and put the remote wire in them and then connected the remote to the – in the back, so essentially all the grounds from the speakers are tied together. If putting the above wires don’t work you might have to take the speakers out and check what wires are running to them. When I hooked those all up my rear left did not work and I had to pop it out and find what wires were being used.

Now to power the deck, I’m not to sure on this. The + on the stock deck I am told is supposed to switch with the ignition. So Hook that up to the switching power on the deck, and What I did was I dropped a wire down to my cigarette lighter for the constant 12 volt power required for the deck. Theoretically this should turn your deck on and off with the car. But I am having trouble with this.

ALL THIS INFORMATION IS FOR MY CAR and it was all taken from http://www3.telus.net/baisley/bmw1.htm

Don't quote me on any of this but thats how I got mine going, hope I didn't confuse you too much, if you have any questions PM me. Again im doing this all from memory so something maybe be off, but im 99.999% sure its not

 

[bignate]

I would get it installed professionally if you are not completely sure you can do it right.

 

[dsobering47]

when i put a cd player in my 1987 325is, i connected the frontright and the backleft speaker wires, so the front, back, left, and right speakers worked.....try it

 

[equate]

um what? i have no idea what you just said

 

[halfnhalf325]

im just gunna take my car to a shop and have them rewire my car.

 

[dhaus]

Originally posted by equate

And put that to the audio output on your new deck, Then the speaker out on your deck tie all the ground together.

Never combine negative outputs on a high power head unit! It is very hazardous to the the output amplifiers.

Don

 

[equate]

then again... we arn't using an amp....

 

[dhaus]

I suspect there are at least two amps built into the stereo. That's how they get it to move the speakers.

 

[dsobering47]

ok everybody, i remember how to make it easy: for my cd player, it came with 2 wires that split into 4, for the speakers. As the speakers coming from the dash are front and back, the 2 wires ,that came with the cd player, split these front and back into frontleft, front right, backleft, and backright. Now if i remember correctly, the lefts are positive(+) and the rights are negetive(-). In order to connect the speakers without shorting the system, connect the frontright to the back left, or the frontleft to the backright. That should do it......connect all the power and antenna, and then you should be done......

hope that helps, or just confuses you more....

 

[rhodes2010]

Okay, I found this older thread on Speaker wiring and found it to be a good guide.

For my very first mod to the 1980'3 735 I needed to install an aftermarket
stereo.

I had no problem at all getting memory wire (yellow),
12v hot , and ground hooked up.

Radio turns on and appears to get radio station (signal strength shows as on).
Cd loads and starts to play.

What I do not have is sound.

WHAT I DID:
I was able to crimp spade connectors onto the stereo for plugging into
factory BMW power connector and ground, I ran the orange illumination wire from the stereo to the key-on red wire. This seems to work fine.
Stereo powers on with key and controls work as expected.

Had to clip the yellow constant-on wire for memory
from the old BMW factory unit. There was also a white wire in the same connector
I did not check it for continuity and am not sure what it is for.

FIRST QUESTION: What is the white wire that is paired with the constant on
yellow wire in the factory BMW radio ?

I used the yellow wire from the dash for the yellow memory wire on the stereo.

I found that the blue wire for the antenna was not needed and also
do not have hooked up the blue/white for the pre-amp (on the new stereo).

SPEAKERS: This should be no trouble.
The factory speaker wires are simple and clearly marked. Left and Right
one wire each. I used a connector designed for these to to connect new stereo
left side positive, front and rear wires to the left side BMW wire.
(took both positives from left side on stereo and connected to left side BMW).
Did the same for right side.

Since BMW grounded the left and right to the back of the unit (chassis ground)
I followed this and connected the speaker ground to the back of the new stereo.

QUESTION TWO:
Where should someone connect remaining ground wires for four speakers
on aftermarket stereos ? I experimented with jumpers to test connecting
them to chassis ground at back of radio and this did not work.

I am getting no sound from the speaker leads.

NOTE 1: I realize that the brand and type of aftermarket radio makes a difference
for this discussion, but this unit from Ecipse is a typical unit with no pre-amp.

NOTE 2: I do want to leave the car as close to original as possible and prefer
not to cut wires and prefer not to eliminate the fader for front and rear speakers.
Trying to just use the factory wiring for basic sound.
Not a true audiophile here, not interested in re-wiring the whole sound system.

NOTE 3: Regarding the references to trunk mounted amplifier.
I do not know if this car has one. If it doesn't then it seems the speakers
should easily work.
If it does have the amplifier, it seems that my stereo should work anyway,
unless there is something that needs to switch the amp on at the head end
and I did not connect it.


And last - Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your help.
I know I am new here but I have been around cars for a few decades.
This car belongs to my son's friend and we are trying to help him out.

 

[Doughnut]

To answer question 2,
There should be a stock earth lead BMW put in, just group your earths for all four speakers there.
Welcome to the forums, and happy new year.