E30 Stereo Wiring for Dummies

[6670charger]

I have a problem with my wiring project. I've copied and printed all of what I thought I needed to know from this thread. I've pulled the stock stereo, unplugged the factory fader, and followed that back to a "Y" in the harness where the wiring goes back into the car and some of the other bends around and goes from the fader to the stereo.

I have a 88 325i with what I was told is premium sound. So far, in the harness, I've identified the RED/GRN wire as constant power, the VIOLET/GRY as switched power to ignition, the thickest BRN/BLK wire as ground, the thinner white wire as power antenna, and the thicker white wire coming out of the radio opening separate from everything else as the amp. I've also identified the YEL/RED wire as LF speaker POS, the BLU/RED wire as RF speaker POS, the YEL/BLK wire as LR speaker POS, and the BLU/BLK wire as RR speaker POS.

I've followed the wiring harness beyond this junction by hand all the way up and behind the gauge cluster and have not found or felt any other point where the wiring might split off or other wires might come into play. I only seem to have the four speaker wires I mentioned above. There is only one other wire left, which is a BRN/BLK that goes from the stock head unit to the fader. The speaker wires are not in twisted pairs, so how do the speakers ground?

Thanks.

[MrDomino]

Hey at the bottom of the picture right next to the white connector with the red/green wire going to the yellow wire there's a connector that's encased in yellowish plastic with white wires going into it. Do you know what that does?

[6670charger]

That is the wire for the remote power antenna.

[AdolfsE30]

Hello, I've recently installed a alpine cda-105 on my 89 325is, the only issue is my antenna won't retract down. The antenna worked great with me previous radio, I doubt the motor broke during the same time. It's not a huge issue just hate how it looks up when parked hard... Any help would be appreciated! I understand the white wire connects to the blue aftermarket if I'm not mistaken?

[Todd Black 88]

You must have hooked it up to a constant power, instead of the proper antenna wire...or, it failed up.

[AdolfsE30]

You must have hooked it up to a constant power, instead of the proper antenna wire...or, it failed up.

Hmm I'll check it out tomorrow morning, I'm scared some jerk will bend my antenna ha. Thanks

[Wags]

Sorry, still probs with install!

Hi, my son has a 1985 323i and we are STILL trying to work out this install!

There has been some great info on here, but I'm still confused?

I don't know what this "common ground' wiring is all about and how it seems there's not enough speaker wires?

I'll attach some pix in the hope someone can let me know what to connect to where.

Its the standard radio/tape player that came out of the car.

Pic 1- From dash
Pic2- Old stereo
Pic 3- New stereo







Cheers
Wags

[StereoInstaller1]

Hi, my son has a 1985 323i and we are STILL trying to work out this install!

There has been some great info on here, but I'm still confused?

I don't know what this "common ground' wiring is all about and how it seems there's not enough speaker wires?

I'll attach some pix in the hope someone can let me know what to connect to where.

Its the standard radio/tape player that came out of the car.

Pic 1- From dash
Pic2- Old stereo
Pic 3- New stereo

[ATTACH]92837[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]92838[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]92839[/ATTACH]

Cheers
Wags

Mate, you have plugs there that never came to the US.

Pull them out further, see if they connect to anything else or if they go straight into the harness.

I will help you figure it out, no worries.

Luke

[gmartin06m]

Just took out my stock BMW head unit. All four stock speakers worked correctly before. Car is a 90 325i. Don't think it ever had premium sound, no amp or fader switch in dash. I'm installing a Kenwood KDC-X399.

I do have 8 speaker wires as follows... wired to the Kenwood as follows

Dash Wires Kenwood wires

LF: Yellow/Red + Yellow/Brown - White + White/Black -
LR: Yellow/Black + Yellow/Brown - Green + Green/Black -
RF: Blue/Red + Blue/Brown - Grey + Gray/Black -
RR: Blue/Black + Blue/Brown - Violet + Violet/Black -

Turned it on, no sound, Radio errors and displays "Miss-Wired".

I checked with my Ohm meter. All the negative dash wires are common. Do the negatives need to be separate ?

[StereoInstaller1]

Absolutely necessary, yes. You may have a shorted speaker, your wiring is correct unless they are somehow connected elsewhere

[benpink]

I have the *exact* same thing as poster below. Any tips on where to find those twisted pairs? I've gone back from the fader as far as I can in the dash but no joy.

I have a problem with my wiring project. I've copied and printed all of what I thought I needed to know from this thread. I've pulled the stock stereo, unplugged the factory fader, and followed that back to a "Y" in the harness where the wiring goes back into the car and some of the other bends around and goes from the fader to the stereo.

I have a 88 325i with what I was told is premium sound. So far, in the harness, I've identified the RED/GRN wire as constant power, the VIOLET/GRY as switched power to ignition, the thickest BRN/BLK wire as ground, the thinner white wire as power antenna, and the thicker white wire coming out of the radio opening separate from everything else as the amp. I've also identified the YEL/RED wire as LF speaker POS, the BLU/RED wire as RF speaker POS, the YEL/BLK wire as LR speaker POS, and the BLU/BLK wire as RR speaker POS.

I've followed the wiring harness beyond this junction by hand all the way up and behind the gauge cluster and have not found or felt any other point where the wiring might split off or other wires might come into play. I only seem to have the four speaker wires I mentioned above. There is only one other wire left, which is a BRN/BLK that goes from the stock head unit to the fader. The speaker wires are not in twisted pairs, so how do the speakers ground?

Thanks.

[StereoInstaller1]

I have the *exact* same thing as poster below. Any tips on where to find those twisted pairs? I've gone back from the fader as far as I can in the dash but no joy.

Howdy! Maybe I can help.

How about posting a pic of what you have so far, and details on the car?

Luke

[benpink]

That'd be awesome. Attached a photo of the wires after I pulled them from the stock head unit and the fader switch.

I've got an '89 325i convertible. I didn't think I had premium sound since there isn't an amp in the trunk by the aerial but I've just now read that it could be on the back wall of the trunk instead... I'll go check tomorrow.

I followed the wiring to the driver-side speaker port but couldn't see any splice for the grounds.

And lastly, I hooked everything up except the x4 negatives and gave it a test. I get sound from all 4 speakers and it sounds pretty great. I'm a complete novice at this but should that be possible? If so, would I be looking at damage to the head unit if I used it for any length of time?

[StereoInstaller1]

That'd be awesome. Attached a photo of the wires after I pulled them from the stock head unit and the fader switch.

I've got an '89 325i convertible. I didn't think I had premium sound since there isn't an amp in the trunk by the aerial but I've just now read that it could be on the back wall of the trunk instead... I'll go check tomorrow.

I followed the wiring to the driver-side speaker port but couldn't see any splice for the grounds.

And lastly, I hooked everything up except the x4 negatives and gave it a test. I get sound from all 4 speakers and it sounds pretty great. I'm a complete novice at this but should that be possible? If so, would I be looking at damage to the head unit if I used it for any length of time?

[ATTACH]94873[/ATTACH]

Well, most definitely your car is Premium Sound..so, you are correct, the amp is not by the antenna, its behind the seat, bolted to the underside of the roof storage bin, under the trunk liner.

Oh, the rear speaker wires are a different color than the roof'd cars too.

Aside from that, what you did is use the stock amp, and crazy as it sounds, you did it properly...95% of the pro installers in America can't pull that off..but, if you simply find and use the 4 positives (/red, /black wires) that are on the fader, it will work fine.

Just like you said, tape off the "black striped" wires on the deck, all should be OK.

Now, since your car is an '89 Vert, you probably don't have 8 signal wires (2 pair) and most likely you have either 5 or 6 signal wires to the amp...so, if it sounds OK to you, you may be best by just leaving it as it is...but you will get a tiny improvement if you bypass the amp, but you will need to run wires from the deck to the front speakers, most likely.

If you plan to do a real system at some point, you may as well leave it, no sense running wires when you will need to run a bunch more then.

Luke

[benpink]

As it happens I only had 4 speaker positives in the fader unit. Car has 2 front and 2 rear speakers so that made sense to me at the time.

I've hit an issue though... All was well with the engine off and playing about with it but as soon as I started the car there was some static and popping from the speakers. 1/2 mile down the road later and with low volume the head unit went into protect mode :(

I'm guessing it's a bad ground or somesuch. Or maybe because I twisted the x4 negatives together before wrapping in tape... Or maybe I need to take a look at this amp and see what's actually going on.

Now, since your car is an '89 Vert, you probably don't have 8 signal wires (2 pair) and most likely you have either 5 or 6 signal wires to the amp...so, if it sounds OK to you, you may be best by just leaving it as it is...but you will get a tiny improvement if you bypass the amp, but you will need to run wires from the deck to the front speakers, most likely.