Questions installing OEM CM5907 Back into my 325i

[dillera]

Hello:

After many years and a few different radios (not done when I owned the car) I'm ready to put the OEM radio back in my '87 325i

I got a CM5907 from ebay.

I've removed the mess that was already in my 325.

I have the premium sound - tweeters, fader in the dash.

My questions are around these wires. They don't all seem to connect back up.


Below is a diagram I did based on what i see unwrapping the wires back past the branching to fader:



The single white wire on the left is a larger guage than the other white, and seems to mate to the white plugged into the POWR ATTN on the deck.

But:

1. what is the other white? +12V?
2. For the two brown/Black- should I connect those back together?
3. The Deck speakers have blue/yellow w/ stripe, but there is nothing to connect them back to- how do I ground those?

When I pulled the previous deck, someone had done something like putting all the ground wires together in a big group. I'm sure that was something related to this common ground that I hear about.

Well, I hope someone has some time to help, I'd like to get this deck back in and working without blowing it.

[Todd Black 88]

One white is power antenna, the other is amp signal on.

Black brown is ground

Blu/yellow are speaker inputs to fader. They get split into 4 channel after the fader.

[dillera]

One white is power antenna, the other is amp signal on.

Black brown is ground

Blu/yellow are speaker inputs to fader. They get split into 4 channel after the fader.

SO I can connect the whites together?

And ground all the grounds together?

My biggest question is where do I connect the L/R grounds out of my deck? (the yellow/black and the blue/black) There is no place for them to tie into.

[Todd Black 88]

30 second search

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=2222741&postcount=13

And another

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=2223295&postcount=19

[Todd Black 88]

Post your year and model of the car. There are some colour changes made during production.

[dillera]

Post your year and model of the car. There are some colour changes made during production.

It's a 1987 525i convertible, with fader and amp (i'm guessing).

I've hooked it up and have some sound- however-

when I turn on the lights the display goes blank and cuts constant power.

Thanks for the links, i've tried to read everything I can before posting, but I'm still a bit confused.

Where can I ground the Main Power into the deck to? Just the frame?

[dillera]

I also realize that i don't need to really ground the speaker L/R out from the Deck- i get sound w/o doing that.

[dillera]

Well I jammed it all in there, and it seems to be working.

I ended up just putting all the brown grounds together.

I grounded the 2 speaker grounds (yellow-blk, blue-blk) together.

I still get this random popping - but I've read that may be the amp going.

Does anyone re-build the amps and or replace them?

How hard was that?

[StereoInstaller1]

SO I can connect the whites together?

And ground all the grounds together?

My biggest question is where do I connect the L/R grounds out of my deck? (the yellow/black and the blue/black) There is no place for them to tie into.

HEY! Yellow/black and blue/black are POSITIVES....didn't you at least try to look at the diagram in the ETM?

That popping is caused by your attempt to blow up your radio by grounding the positive output leads, go take that shit apart and un-fuck your install, I bet it all goes away.

GL!

Luke

[dillera]

HEY! Yellow/black and blue/black are POSITIVES....didn't you at least try to look at the diagram in the ETM?

That popping is caused by your attempt to blow up your radio by grounding the positive output leads, go take that shit apart and un-fuck your install, I bet it all goes away.

GL!

Luke

OK, thx- then what are the solid Yellow and solid Blue out of my Deck? Are those the grounds?

I've looked at the ETM, and it's fine -EXCEPT- for figuring out the speakers. It don't make sense to me!

[StereoInstaller1]

Ya...well, you and apparently the entire car audio world...don't feel bad.

Blue and yellow go to the fader, where they are split to blue/red (front) and blue/black (rear) positives (same with yellow) that feed the amp or speakers. Only the positives are used, that is why you have so few wires.

BMW uses brown/black as the "input negative" which is actually chassis ground on all PS cars and unless it is a late model car (90+) also is speaker negatives.

How it is wired is weird too: left and right each have a ground and are separate all the way to the fader, where they are combined...neat-o, huh?

Just remember that /black wires are positive behind the deck, should be no more issues.

GL!
Luke

[dillera]

Ya...well, you and apparently the entire car audio world...don't feel bad.

Blue and yellow go to the fader, where they are split to blue/red (front) and blue/black (rear) positives (same with yellow) that feed the amp or speakers. Only the positives are used, that is why you have so few wires.

BMW uses brown/black as the "input negative" which is actually chassis ground on all PS cars and unless it is a late model car (90+) also is speaker negatives.

How it is wired is weird too: left and right each have a ground and are separate all the way to the fader, where they are combined...neat-o, huh?

Just remember that /black wires are positive behind the deck, should be no more issues.

GL!
Luke

Ok, but look at my diagram above.

There are solid Blue/Yellow coming FROM the fader.

From the DECK, there are these little plastic plugs which have:

Yellow
Yellow/Blk

Blue
Blue/Blk


Are you saying connect the Yellow/Blk from the DECK to the Yellow into the Fader?

And also connect Blue/Blk from the DECK to the BLUE into the Fader?


If yes, then what do I do with the Solid Yellow and Blue from the DECK?

If no, then this is already what I have done.

[dillera]

Here is a quick diagram of what I did:

I get those pops randomly, they do not seem to be related to anything that I can control, except they are worse when I was holding the brown ground together (before I soldered them).

[dillera]

Everything seems to work fine, but the grounding part still has me confused as hell.

I could get a ground using a meter only on the two BROWN to CAR above, the BROWN to fader didn't have a ground that I could find.

ALso, those annoying pops- they are more like scratches, they are NOT the extreme speaker pop you get by screwing things up, more like scratching when there are some loose connections.

Maybe the amp connections are loose. I will have to check that next.

[dillera]

And again, for reference, here are the only plugs for the Deck: