Need Help badly :(

[e30BMart]

So yesterday I decided to install an aftermarket radio and two twelve inch subs in the back. The stock wires going into the radio were nothing like the wiring harness we bought that was supposedly made for the car. So we found a colour code for all the wires and started making connectors and connecting to the aftermarket radio wiring harness.

We passed the sub speaker wires and remote cable to the front and into the radio.

my speakers sounded fine before the install. But now I need to crank the volume up to 30 to have the same sound as a 1/5 volume sound on the stock radio. And the sound is extremely static-y. Plus I hardly have any bass at ALL and my battery, ABS and some other light comes on red in the cluster... What could be causing all this?

[grantlacey11]

a large large number of things. you need to go back through and check all of your work. grounds, power, everything. voltometer if need be. Its your best (easiest) bet to just get a ready made adapter for your bmw harness to your new head unit. does the head unit have rca cords going to the rear sub amp?

[e30BMart]

I did get the "ready made adapter" and it didn't fit at all since the stock unit has several seperated wires going into the radio. :/ this is why I cut wires and checked the color codes myself

[TurboJake]

This is precisely why I rewired my speakers with all new wires in both E30's.
Something about them putting them in series and grounding to the chassis just kinda bothers me.
Or the problems that arise with the factory amp.

[PROLAZCO]

OK OK OK STOP! I just redid my whole sound system as well and i had the same stock radio as you. The stock radio is NOT amplified so therefore there is a separate bmw amp the is located somewhere between the back seat and the trunk. That is why your sound is all FU*K*D up. so YOU HAVE 2 CHOICES!
-NUMBER ONE: you can rewire your speakers with your own speaker wire. and everything will be fine, (dont use that grounding "series" system like original)

OR

-NUMBER TWO- Go to this section http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=191119 and follow all of LUKE'S instructions to bypass the amp. He is a god and will help you work wonders!

GOOD LUCK man and i hoped this helped! Let me Know if You have any other questions!

-Anthony