Radio Wiring and Amp Bypass

[red2.4srt]

Followed this to a T last night and it works flawlessly, thanks for providing such a detailed writeup for a newbie! Thanks Luke!

Todd

[tk32]

Hello

For sure an electrical noob here, I read a lot of this thread but not all of it.... My car is a 1988 325ix with premium sound

Anyway I just installed a Pioneer X560BT (for the record it looks pretty damn good, simplicity and color match wise, no pics yet) to an empty hole that the previous owner hacked at some point.

One fun issue I would like to resolve:

The radio only works while the light switch is on (parking or driving). Lights off, radio off. help?

I have aftermarket 12v yellow hooked to red/green (there are 2?) both are hooked in at this point. And aftermarket 12ACC Red is hooked to Violet/Grey, no violet/white in my mess.

Red/Grey is the only wire not hooked to anything at this point, as my radio has an internal dimmer, not related to the car, so I am petty sure this is not affecting anything.

Also I have a blue from the dash that I connected to grey in the aftermarket head. (found that advise elsewhere....)

Followed the first post on this thread for all remaining wires, and am hoping its a simple solution, comments?

Thanks :drink:

[tk32]

Welp, fixed it after I got my hands on a multimeter. Turns out Red/Grey is constant power on my vehicle. Red/Green is light switch related. Now its written down somewhere for future reference. :up:

tk

[iPee]

Hi guys,

I've finally finished reading the thread over the last couple days. I have a 91' 318is w/premium sound (tweeters and no fader), so this is supposed to be the easiest one. My goal is to install a deck and power the speakers with a 4 channel amp.

Everything seemed clear until I pulled the aftermarket deck from the PO.


It appears that the PO rewired all 4 speakers, but reading the thread seems to suggest only the fronts need to be wired. If I'm not mistaken only the ones with a fader needed this? Also I can't not find the wire to attach the illumination to, maybe I need to look further into the dash.


Towards the rear seat it seems like the wires were wired up to be repurposed. It seems looks to be done the opposite of this diagram.



I'm not sure why the front speaker wires are connected to the rear speaker wires.

Everything worked fine except for one of the rear speaker, but I can't remember which one. When I pulled the deck out a couple of the speakers wire came undone, so I couldn't tell if it was undone to begin with or if it came loose during removal.

My question is what would be the easiest method to to hook up my new deck and power up the speakers and a sub?


I was hoping I could just use the method above as shown in the killer $500 stereo thread. Is this still possible? I want to understand whats going on in my current wiring situation before I proceed.

Thanks
Ivan

[StereoInstaller1]

Ivan, you poor guy, what a mess!

If I were you, since you are planning to do a real amp and a proper install, you would likely be best to try to get back to stock. Hopefully all the wire is still there, just cross-connected and hacked to bits.

I bet the speakers themselves are all jacked up too, you are going to want to get the colors straight from deck to trunk, then from trunk to speakers. Hope it all works, and really it shouldn't be too bad.

GL!
Luke

[iPee]

Yea it was a bit of a mess. I ended up running new wires instead, didn't want to have that many crimps running from speaker to amp. System sounds a lot better, but I blew my sub in the middle of tuning it haha. Going to pick up one of your boxes while the deal is going on and a new sub.

[cWalk3r]

Hey, I have no clue about wiring a stereo and don't understand how the e30 is setup. I've got a 90 325i vert with an amp. I think the amp is bad and not putting sound to all speakers, only some weird pulses and heartbeat noises but all speakers work and aren't blown. I'm gonna try and get my friend to help me get the system working again. I have no real clue to what I'm doing lol

Also my antenna didn't work so I just removed it today. What type of connection does the antenna use and will a newer antenna hook up no problem?

[cWalk3r]

Omg I finally think I understand you're diagram on the first page lmao...

Car is a 1990 325i vert no fader with amp and tweeters

This is my wiring at the amp


I want to keep the factor hu and this is the wiring.

So since I'm keeping the factory hu would I just connect colour #2 and #3? Like I'd connect blue/red and grey/white at the amp wiring?

I probably have this completely wrong though lol

[Javierocks]

Quick question Luke. After reading 31 pages I went to town on my installation. By the way I'm installing a e36 c43 business HU. The installation is on a 1985 325e no premium sound but it does have a fader. I wire all the power cables and i have power to the HU. I identify the rear speaker cables and found them as well in the front kick panel. whats confusing is that by the front driver side kick panel i only found 2 -'s a BLUE BROW AND YELLOW BROWN and all the +'s YELLOW BLACK, YELLOW RRED, BLUE BLACK AND BLUE RED. I used those two cables as my REAR -'S (BLUE BROWN AND YELLOW BROWN). So now i have my rears as BLUE BLACK+ BLUE BROWN - YELLOW BLACK + YELLOW BROWN -.Now if i was to just connect the fronts +'s YELOW RED AND BLUE RED with out negatives they some how work. I know you said that speakers don't share -'s so can they by connected to a chassis ground?? Previous set up was a JVC KS-F100. The set up was funky. They connected the SOLID YELLOW from the fader to the front + on the HU and the YELLOW BROWN - to the (-) of the HU. The solid BLUE wire from the fader to the front + of the HU and the BLUE BROWN - to the (-) of the HU. Fader would cut of all the sound if moved to one side and only play right rear if moved to the other side. All 4 speakers would work but would sound like shit. Im also replacing stock speakers with premium sound speakers.

[StereoInstaller1]

The left front and left rear share a ground, same for the right channels.

Common ground means both channels share a ground, in this case they do not.

To do your install properly, you need to run 2 more wires for the front grounds, but that is kinda silly, just run new wire to the fronts.

Your CD43 was intended to be used with an amp, so the ground issue isn't a problem.

[cWalk3r]

Hey stereo installer. Is it normal for a 1990 vert premium sound with amp and no fader to have one colour wire leave the amp and change to another colour wire to the speaker? It all looks factory but seems strange

[97audia4]

Just picked up this 86 325es and the mess from the PO is astounding.
Im going to be reading through this thread to fix all this mess. And my cluster issues.

[StereoInstaller1]

^thats a Circuit City install, just dig in, they shouldn't have hacked too bad

[97audia4]

^thats a Circuit City install, just dig in, they shouldn't have hacked too bad

it seems that someone has wired in there own speaker wire, im really hoping they didnt remove the oem wires. I just cleaned it up quick with butt connectors till this weekend so no fires start on my way to work.

[lemansguy]

First off, wanted to thank you and others for posting so much information. ive read through this entire thread, hoping to gain some knowledge on how this stereo system is wired. it wasn't until a couple pages ago where you stated that the headunit produces signal wires, and the amp produces speaker wires that it finally clicked. ive installed many stereos before, and for whatever reason, I have had trouble wrapping my head around this sorry German excuse for wiring lol. gonna look into my stereo this week and rewire it correctly. the PO tried to redo it himself, and since my e30 isn't a DD, I just haven't bothered with it. now its time.