Radio Wiring and Amp Bypass

[actletpone]

I believe they're inputs for the right and left side.

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Thanks, that is what I thought. My setup is a little different as I have a New Zealand only factory radio which only has line level outputs and amp under the ecu. I have the booster amp in the boot as well which has been bypassed.

The blue wire going to my fader is eventually connected to and ignition switched 12v violet/white wire. The left and right channels outputs of the fader are also joined, basically joining the blue wire to the yellow. The yellow wire is connected to an unlisted pin on my radio. A strange method of obtaining a switched 12v.

How many watts does the booster amp in the boot put out?

[WiE30]

91 325iX Premium Sound Noise..want to upgrade

Luke, you are a stereo GOD. Thanks for your wisdom.

I have a problem hopefully you can help with. My 91 325iX with Premium Sound (stock head unit, 6 speaker with CD changer in trunk - currently disconnected) is noisey, pops/squeals when braking or turn signaling, and sound only comes out of DS rear speaker. What is going on?

I bought a new Kenwood deck and glad I found this thread. Will that solve my issues and get me back to rocking the Stones? Thanks in advance!

[Corsair89]

Need some help. I'll start by saying that I'm electricity dumb. I wired my alpine per the first post as all the wires matched but I didn't and haven't bypassed my old BMW Blaupunkt amp. The headunit works however there is more feed back and static then people living in China. It also gets worse when the car is running. The PO put in JBL speakers up front and I am unsure about the back deck. I know asking what I did wrong prob won't get an answer but any help and guidance would be awesome.

[StereoInstaller1]

Luke, you are a stereo GOD. Thanks for your wisdom.

I have a problem hopefully you can help with. My 91 325iX with Premium Sound (stock head unit, 6 speaker with CD changer in trunk - currently disconnected) is noisey, pops/squeals when braking or turn signaling, and sound only comes out of DS rear speaker. What is going on?

I bought a new Kenwood deck and glad I found this thread. Will that solve my issues and get me back to rocking the Stones? Thanks in advance!

Your 91 should have 8 wires from the deck to the amp, then another 8 going from the amp to the 4 speakers, so I would recommend you do the bypass, it will sound much better than the lame old OE amp.

[StereoInstaller1]

Need some help. I'll start by saying that I'm electricity dumb. I wired my alpine per the first post as all the wires matched but I didn't and haven't bypassed my old BMW Blaupunkt amp. The headunit works however there is more feed back and static then people living in China. It also gets worse when the car is running. The PO put in JBL speakers up front and I am unsure about the back deck. I know asking what I did wrong prob won't get an answer but any help and guidance would be awesome.

If you have that kind of racket, it's not wired right.

Your car is an 89, correct? The wiring on an 89 only has 6 wires going to the amp, to do this it is required that you have 8 wires...

Lets point out that the goal of this thread is to bypass the old, noisy, weak OE amp...but, in the interest of making the job much easier, I will tell you how to wire your aftermarket deck to the OE amp.

Here is the speaker wiring:

Deck side > car side

White > yellow/red
Gray > blue/red
Green > yellow/black
Purple > blue black

Black> brown/black + all brown/orange

First, those color wires are on the back of the fader (89's came with a fader) and second, the deck will have 4 speaker wires that arent shown here, that being the "black stripe" wires, those will not be used, so insulate the ends somehow (electrical tape is fine, use Scotch Super 33 or regret it later) and do not allow any of them to touch each other or anything else.

Other than that, there is another way to bypass the amp, but you will need to run new wires to the front speakers, which can be a little confusing...so maybe give it a shot with the OE amp, and if you want better sound, stop messing around and buy a decent amp to run the speakers.

oh, and get those JBLs out of there, put them in a Chevy or Ford, they sound like crap in an E30. You will get a full octave or even two lower, with more output and a smoother midrange out of a set of Premiums.

Luke

[Corsair89]

Yeah I figured as much. I'm gonna bypass the amp when it stops raining, if it ever does, but I've an '88 with the fader in the dash. This is the mess that I did.
I will also take the alpine Stype speakers from my '84 then. I've got a nice kenwood amp but I'm waiting till I can afford your box and a sub. I'm also in the middle of a 2.7i swap so yeah. Lol. I really appreciate your help and knowledge.

[StereoInstaller1]

You must have a very late 89, thats usually non-premium wiring with all 8 wires

[thmpr464]

I want to thank Stereoinstaller1 and other members who posted their setup. Followed the instructions (90 M3 w/ premium sound system) as noted. Removed the stock alpine CM5908 and installed a CD43 (M logo) using the OEM amp and speaker system. Followed the instructions to the T and it woked out great. Used the CD43 BMW factory 4 channel harness from ECS tuning and did not connect the 4 negative speaker wires to the CD43. Connected all negative speakers to ground chasis and it worked out great. So happy that no wire hacking was needed. all stock wires used. Again, THANK YOU!!!!

[StereoInstaller1]

I want to thank Stereoinstaller1 and other members who posted their setup. Followed the instructions (90 M3 w/ premium sound system) as noted. Removed the stock alpine CM5908 and installed a CD43 (M logo) using the OEM amp and speaker system. Followed the instructions to the T and it woked out great. Used the CD43 BMW factory 4 channel harness from ECS tuning and did not connect the 4 negative speaker wires to the CD43. Connected all negative speakers to ground chasis and it worked out great. So happy that no wire hacking was needed. all stock wires used. Again, THANK YOU!!!!

Awesome! Good to hear, for sure

[Jdub]

I've been reading through all of your threads for a couple hours now Luke, and I think I have an idea of what to do, but I am absolutely a newb when it comes to electrical. I have an 89 325is (with tweeters, so I think its premium)

When I turn my radio on, there is incredibly loud static. I assume that means a toasted amp. My plan is to bypass the amp, and put in a new head unit like you said.

My question is, if I do proceed with this technique, but want to eventually add a sub in the back (using your technique in the thread about making an awesome setup for $500) is it going to be an easy addition?

It makes me nervous as hell cutting wires, Im going to go tear apart my car in a second and take out the amp and the HU and see if things start to make more sense. Im guessing when I take out the amp the wiring will make more sense, but I think I understand: There are wires that go INTO the amp from the HU, and then there are wires that go OUT of the amp to the speakers. When we "bypass" we are simply using the power from the new HU instead of the amp, and then cutting and connecting the wires the go from the HU to the amp, directly to the speaker wires?

PS. What is a fader and why is there a wire for it? (forgive my ignorance)

[StereoInstaller1]

I've been reading through all of your threads for a couple hours now Luke, and I think I have an idea of what to do, but I am absolutely a newb when it comes to electrical. I have an 89 325is (with tweeters, so I think its premium)

When I turn my radio on, there is incredibly loud static. I assume that means a toasted amp. My plan is to bypass the amp, and put in a new head unit like you said.

My question is, if I do proceed with this technique, but want to eventually add a sub in the back (using your technique in the thread about making an awesome setup for $500) is it going to be an easy addition?

It makes me nervous as hell cutting wires, Im going to go tear apart my car in a second and take out the amp and the HU and see if things start to make more sense. Im guessing when I take out the amp the wiring will make more sense, but I think I understand: There are wires that go INTO the amp from the HU, and then there are wires that go OUT of the amp to the speakers. When we "bypass" we are simply using the power from the new HU instead of the amp, and then cutting and connecting the wires the go from the HU to the amp, directly to the speaker wires?

PS. What is a fader and why is there a wire for it? (forgive my ignorance)

First, as with everything I build, my goal is always to have an upgrade path, so yes, adding an amp later is pretty easy. In fact, since you already will have all 4 pairs of speaker wires and the "remote" (amp turn on) wire already in the trunk, its easier than most cars. You still have to run the RCA cables, still have to run the sub level control too, if the amp you choose has that capability (it should).

Now, lets talk about the deck swap: you have to run wires for that in an 89, even with premium. Its absolutely necessary to have 4 pairs (8 wires) of speaker wires, you only have 6, so the easy thing to do is just run new wires to the fronts.

The only issue there is to amplify it you have to un-do that and go back to the original wires, but since you would be the one putting them in, that should not be too tough.

Furthermore, due to issues beyond my control, we will be closing down in a few weeks. We have already begun the process, the decision is final and I have no plans to continue in the car audio field after we shut this down.

In the meantime, we do have boxes on the shelf ready to upholster and ship, plus we will be building more in the coming weeks.

Thanks, and I hope that helps.

Luke

[Jdub]

Wow thats a bummer to hear, but I appreciate all that youve done for the forum.

If you were me, (I have a 12" kicker sub and an audiopipe 1000 amp in my garage) would you go ahead and set it up for the sub and amp system from the start? I guess all I would have to do is buy one of your boxes and wire it up right?

How does that change what I need to do with wiring? Im most concerned with breaking all the little tabs you talked about when I pop off the door panel to run wires, is it easy to buy new replacements?

This mighr be a super stupid question but I want to make sure i know what you mean when you say sub level control. Does that mean the little nob that controls how loud the sub is? I used to have one of these under my steering wheel in my integra.

[StereoInstaller1]

Wow thats a bummer to hear, but I appreciate all that youve done for the forum.

If you were me, (I have a 12" kicker sub and an audiopipe 1000 amp in my garage) would you go ahead and set it up for the sub and amp system from the start? I guess all I would have to do is buy one of your boxes and wire it up right?

How does that change what I need to do with wiring? Im most concerned with breaking all the little tabs you talked about when I pop off the door panel to run wires, is it easy to buy new replacements?

This mighr be a super stupid question but I want to make sure i know what you mean when you say sub level control. Does that mean the little nob that controls how loud the sub is? I used to have one of these under my steering wheel in my integra.

If you were to amplify all the speakers, you would run 3 sets of RCAs and use the wiring from the stock amp for the speakers, then of course you would need 4 more channels of power.

[Jdub]

So 4 more sources of power = tweeters, front speakers, rear speakers, and sub? And what purpose do RCA wires serve? Sorry these are probably very stupid questions but I'm trying to learn as much as I can from someone as knowledeable as you.

Here's what I did today:





I pulled these two things out of the picture just above it, I'm not sure what these two are.



Here is the main source of wires coming from the dash to the amp? So I need to identify which ones to cut and extend with the roughly 3' of other wire you mentioned right?

After reading the thread again, I think I understand that these colors you mentioned are the ones that need to be cut?

RF+ Grey/White
RF- Grey/Brown

LF+ Grey/Red
LF- Grey/Violet

RR+ Black/White
RR- Black/Brown

LR+ Black/Red
LR- Black/Violet

Thanks for being patient with my ignorance.

[actletpone]

"(+12V ACC) Red-------------Violet/White (Changes to Voilet/Grey at C302)"

Correct me if I am wrong but this wire is rated for a 7.5 Amp fuse. Most aftermarket radios today require more power due to their internal amplifiers.

The one I want to install requires 15 Amp. Can you tap into the unused fuses (25 + 26) in the fuse box or should you run a power wire straight to the battery? Unfortunately I do not have the auxiliary fuse panel.