What in the slutty hell? (solved)

[mattjewell]

Ok will do. Do you see them on my picture? Or are they tucked way behind like you said? What colors are they?

[Das Delfin]

When I did my car it only had one lead per speaker in the dash (4 total, no negatives), which from what I read, is how bmw did the wiring with premium sound systems (mine's an early cabrio and has premium). Everything works now, but you're telling me that when my stock amp goes out and I get to redo everything, there's going to be actual unused twisted pairs down in there? I kinda want to delete my factory fader so maybe it'll work out

[mattjewell]

Hmm that's interesting.. Maybe mine only has 4 wires as well. I'll definitely look tonight.

This wouldn't be all that difficult if there was just a wiring diagram. Seems like every wiring diagram I come across is different. I mean how hard could connecting 10 or so wires together be ;)

[mattjewell]

Pulled this from the vin decoder:

VIN long - WBAxA2x09Kx26xxx

Type code - AA23

Type - 325I (USA)

Dev. series - E30 ()

Line - 3

Body type - LIM

Steering - LL

Door count - 2

Engine - M20

Cubical capacity - 2.50

Power - 125

Transmision - HECK

Gearbox - AUT

Colour - CIRRUSBLAU METALLIC (189)

Upholstery - NATUR KUNSTLEDER (0192)

Prod. date - 1988-11-29




Order options

No. Description
209 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (25%)

286 BMW LM RAD/BMW STYLING

410 WINDOW LIFTS, ELECTRIC AT FRONT

530 AIR CONDITIONING

540 CRUISE CONTROL

556 EXTERIOR TEMPERATURE DISPLAY

925 SHIPPING PROTECTION PACKAGE


I don't see premium sound in this list.

[StereoInstaller1]

Look, it's simple: I gave you ONE instruction, and that is UNWRAP THE HARNESS!

Don't use stupid adapters, they aren't even designed to use with speakers, I have no clue what bonehead decided to use that stupid pile of shit, but throw it out. Same for those retarded plugs, they don't work on your car.

UNWRAP THE GODDAMN HARNESS!

Luke

[mattjewell]

I got it figured out. It's all working now. Thanks Luke. Stuff like this can be a pain sometimes, especially when there is a ton of info out there..

But definitely appreciate the help!

[mattjewell]

Ok so I'm at least getting sound out of all 4 speakers now, but sounds very distorted and not right at higher volumes. On all inputs, CD, BT and radio.

There was a total of 8 wires that went to the fader, I cut them and landed them on what I thought was the speaker wires. They have the be the speaker wires because I'm getting sound on all 4 speakers.

I have no idea what the hell is going on. Removed the trunk lining and what I thought was the amp, isn't I guess. I took some pics:




Doesn't look like an amplifier to me?



Here is my mess:




















And here is where I cut the fader wires (left enough on incase I need to re-wire them together):




Don't see why I would need the fader, especially if the new head unit already has the fader. So the wires that were in the fader, I wired up to the head unit.



I know what the sound of a blown speaker sounds like and this isn't it.

No damn idea what to do from here. I followed the diagram on the thread "Stereo wiring amp bypass" from the new harness to the dash wires. But the speaker wires aren't in the loom that went to the fader.

And Luke, if you're reading this, I did unwrap the harness.


Any ideas?

[DER E30]

First get rid of those stupid wire nuts, I can't see those passing sound very well. You might have to go to each speaker and write down the colors from there, That's what I eneded up doing with mine so it could make sense in my head.

[mattjewell]

The wire nuts are just temporary to test..

All of the speaker wires went to the fader, so that's where they are? I don't know where else they would be? And why they would be elsewhere?

[Navarone]

What in the slutty hell? (solved)

See on the harness side of the green crimps how each blue and yellow with brown tracer is wrapped with a single wire? One is wrapped with yellow/black, one is wrapped with yellow/red, one is wrapped with blue/black, and one is wrapped with blue/red? That's positive and negative for each speaker, and they're taped into pairs. Red and black tracer is right and left positive and brown tracer is ground.

Did you cut off those green crimps and wire each blue/brown and yellow/brown as the ground to the corresponding positive they're wrapped into a discrete pair with? If you haven't yet done that, it's probably your problem. Each speaker needs two wires directly to the deck, not crimped grounds together like those green crimps are doing.

I think the amp (if you have one) is higher up near the speaker on the left side of the car in front of the antenna. It'll have around 19 wires on it, 2 in and out for each speaker the same colors as in the dash where you're working, outs are black and grey I think, check the amp bypass thread, a power, a ground, and a white "turn on" wire. Maybe it uses chassis ground, not sure. You'll need to bypass the amp too by matching up and crimping all the speaker wires into their respective pairs and capping off the power etc.

[mattjewell]

Those green crimps are from the previous owner. I'll try what you said.


That picture of the supposed amp, is that an amp? Sure doesn't look like it to me.

[Navarone]

What in the slutty hell? (solved)

If those green crimps have grounds spliced together they are %99 likely what make your speakers sound like crap. You may even have damaged your head unit if you cranked the volume. Let's hope not.

If you read the guide you would have seen that step one was open up the harness, which you've done, and step two is cut out that splice and separate the grounds to each discrete channel.

That pictured "amp" is not the amp. The amp will have 4 yellow in 4 blue in 4 grey out 4 black out, power in, turn on signal in, power ground out. Look at the pics from the OP who got his working perfectly, you'll see yellows and blues spliced to blacks and greys.

[AndrewBird]

The green crimps are FACTORY crimps. As everyone said, you need to cut those and separate the wires into their individual pairs.

[mattjewell]

The green crimps are FACTORY crimps. As everyone said, you need to cut those and separate the wires into their individual pairs.

This was it. I didn't realize I had to actually open those up. After a few trial and error tests, finally figured it out.

Everything sounds so much better. But will definitely need new speakers at some point.

Thanks everyone for the help. R3v for the win :D