Dont you wish you could have an iPod input on your factory headunit?

[So Live]

I did too...

check out my solution for this common problem. lol

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26694&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I figured some people here may find that pretty interesting.

BTW ive been running it since june and its been fine the whole time. no problems at all.

Hope you like it.

[misterlance]

That's tight. Thanks for the nice write-up.

[netcsk]

oh wow, I thought it was somehow prewired, till I saw that you have to have a tape in the deck to be able to hear it. Did you do any testing or did you manage to get it right just by guessing? I'm amazed. Congrats.

[So Live]

Well, funny story. I was like fuck this tape adapter bs so i was on a mission to find out how to get this to work. So i cut the end off my extra tape adapter and was like oh ok black red white (or what ever the colors are) and then i opened up my sterio and moved that paper thing out of the way and saw the same colors. i was like no way what are the chances this will work... so i tried it and it worked. I got extreemly lucky.

It does make sense though. I was looking for an input. mabey the fm antenna input or whatever. I hppened to stumble upon the tape deck signal which worked out nicely. It seems like one of the better ways to go about hooking something extra up to the sterio. Im not sure what would have happened if i did hook it up to the fm input.

Oh well, Thanks for your kind words. Hopefully this will help a couple people get better sounding iPod in their e30's

[wycoco]

damn, ipod into factor HU's.. what will we think of next

[StereoInstaller1]

Damn, what a great idea.

Instead of having to use the tape, you could make your radio/tape switch external. If you inset a cassette, you will see a tiny little toggle switch sliding. That is the radio/tape switch. You would have to unsolder it and extend the wires...but if you are anything like me, that is a hell of a bunch of work for very little benefit.

Great job on the writeup, too!

Luke

[ZinRot325i]

Hahaha you could just get a brand spanking new BMW HU, somehow fit it in since they don't use normal DIN slots, and use the stock BMW Ipod adapter.

Although they changed the databus that the cars use now so that might not even work

[So Live]

Right i found this to be the cheaper of the two options ZinRot. Thats a sweet idea Installer. Im obviously not too inteligent on the way sterios work. I knew enough to get this done but it kinda happened by a stroke of luck.

[mitch500]

or just buy a deck with an auxillary input and do it that way. and have better sound quallity. just seems like a waste when the old factory head is so weak.

[So Live]

This is true but for $15 or what ever the tape adapter was. I find it well worth the trouble.

[StereoInstaller1]

seems like a waste when the old factory head is so weak.

Not quite true. Yes, they suck in the factory application. If you feed the output of that deck into a decent crossover/amp combination, they have excellent sound quality, equal to anything under about $500 (retail) or so.

The preamp stage is very clean and quiet, you just have to have decent power to add to it. Teh E36 "Business Class" deck is awesome done like this.

Luke

[golde30]

instead of putting in a tape, couldnt u just press down whatever switch gets depressed when u put in a tape?

[equate975]

I did that a while ago... sort of. But I took the tape mechanism out and couldnt get it back then. Then I broke it trying to put it back in.

In the end my deck ended up in about 40 difference pieces on the floor, I never got to see if it would work or not.

[ibavarian]

Best free mod so far! ..thanks

[gregorymsnyder]

So you're sending an amplified signal direct to the tape head "inputs"....I wonder if it'd work if you took a connector/wire from, say a Belkin and hooked the pre-amp signal from the bottom of the ipod and hooked that direct to the tape head???

I might have to try that. You could also use the Belkin cable to hook up a charger to charge your Ipod...