Installing stereo/speakers in stock '89 325i

[Afredo]

hey guys, I just bought an absolutely CHERRY, bone stock, grandma-owned 1989 325i coupe, and needless to say I gotta have some tunes! I've got an Alpine head unit to put in, as well as some JL interior speakers. I went down to my local audio shop and they told me that there isn't a harness adaptor for the stereo, that I have to rewire the whole car...also, they told me I would have to replace all the stock speakers since they are grounded differently and wouldn't work with the radio. Are both these things true? If so, can anyone point me to a tutorial for this car, or help me out? I saw the sticky but wasn't sure if it applied to me car. Thanks! Feel free to PM me.

[greentalks43]

Check out the sticky and look at the Electronic Troubleshooting Manual for your year. http://wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/19...g%20Manual.pdf

[Gregs///M]

hey guys, I just bought an absolutely CHERRY, bone stock, grandma-owned 1989 325i coupe, and needless to say I gotta have some tunes! I've got an Alpine head unit to put in, as well as some JL interior speakers. I went down to my local audio shop and they told me that there isn't a harness adaptor for the stereo, that I have to rewire the whole car...also, they told me I would have to replace all the stock speakers since they are grounded differently and wouldn't work with the radio. Are both these things true? If so, can anyone point me to a tutorial for this car, or help me out? I saw the sticky but wasn't sure if it applied to me car. Thanks! Feel free to PM me.

Yes and no. You can replace all the speakers with 5.25 inch speaker and tweeters, that size will drop right in. Your head unit probably will have to be hard wire because there was no single harness connector in those years. You can view the sticky for diagrams and color codes.

However, you don't HAVE to replace all the wires and replace the amp. You can retain the amp and feed its audio inputs directly from your new Alpine head unit.

But the Alpine amp sections of the head units is really good, especially those high output Alpine with the larger amp. These usually come with the large gauge yellow wire that should be hooked up to a large power source like directly to fuse box or battery.

So lets put it this way. If your new speakers do not require a lot of wattage to be powered, then you can use either the OEM amp or your amp in the Alpine head unit. If they require more wattage than your head unit puts out, then you will need an after market amplifier to drive them.

Most of the time, and I've installed hundreds of head units in BMW audio systems, is to install the head unit, use the speaker output to feed signal to the OEM amp. Replace all speakers but leave the after market crossovers out. This usually yields the best results unless you install an after market amp or your Alpine HU has high output.

[Afredo]

ok I think you may have misunderstood what I was asking a bit haha. I have an Alpine deck I want to install; since there is no harness adaptor for these cars, and I currently have no aftermarket speakers to put in, can I manually wire up the aftermarket head unit to the factory speakers? and I have subs with their own amp that I'm gonna wire up as well. just need to know how to wire up the aftermarket alpine deck I have to the factory wiring.

[German Audio Specialties]

ok I think you may have misunderstood what I was asking a bit haha. I have an Alpine deck I want to install; since there is no harness adaptor for these cars, and I currently have no aftermarket speakers to put in, can I manually wire up the aftermarket head unit to the factory speakers? and I have subs with their own amp that I'm gonna wire up as well. just need to know how to wire up the aftermarket alpine deck I have to the factory wiring.

Yes, you can.

Read the tutorial in my sig, your situaltion is covered in depth.

[Eddie Haskell]

A 9 volt battery and Luke's tutorial is your friend. The install shop were lubing you for the Breakback Mountain procedure. Read Luke's tutorial, the wires are there. Same applies with a 01/18/89 manufacture date I coupe. No fader/premium sound. The leads are behind the drivers kick panel where Luke specifies. The HU leads you need are approx 6" behind the factory connectors at the stock HU wrapped in OEM tape. Cut and test with 9 volt battery for a instant and you know your correct. It is a one hour job. The factory wires are quality, it's foolish to hack and run new one's and wind up with substandard materials plus the time involved. The ETM from Videophone are whatever the site specifies is correct for the color coding everywhere on my 89I.