OE Radio Help(not code related)

[Germanautos12]

I am in need of some help. Im restoring my e30 back to original and when i bought the car it came with a OE radio...or at least i thought. The radio that came with the car wasnt installed, and it was just thrown in the trunk. The radio fits in the car but it has a handle on it and it sticks out about 1 or 2 cm's and isnt flush like i think it should be. So my guess is that its not what was installed out of the factory. The radio has no markings or tags on it anywhere so its useless because theres no way of aquiring the code. I already took it to the dealer and they had no idea what it was out of even though its marked as a bmw radio.

Now i want to buy another OE radio to put in my car and Ive done some searching. It looks like theres two kinds of radios. Which one is better because i heard that the later one "pyramid type" isnt recommended. What do you guys think? My car is an 88 m3 what radio came in the car new?

Thanks,
Eric

[Raxe]

I've got a few of both types, right now I have the "slider" type in my car (Alpine manufactured I think) simply because I prefer the way it looks. I used to have the "pyramid" type because it's manufactured by Pioneer, and I was using the factory BMW Pioneer CD changer so it was required. If you're not hooking it up to anything just choose whichever you suits your taste.

Edit: Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure my 318is parts car has a third style of OE radio. I'll check later.

[Germanautos12]

third style? Yea if it does would it be possible to post a pic of it for me. Thanks

[E30 Cabrio]

It's tough to find a good, OE radio that fully functions.

Various issues like a scratchy volume knob, cassette player that won't eject my cassette adapter, one side drops volume, 1 or more LED's are out, AM band that doesn't work, etc...

I've gone thru about 3 of them in 6K of driving and plan to go with a CD43 eventually.

Looks stock, but plays CD's instead of cassettes and I will use an inline adapter for my MP3 player.

Unless you're doing a restoration, I would go the same route. If you're doing a full restoration, I would try to find a good radio and have it reconditioned.

Good luck.

[Car Addict]

if you are seriously looking to buy one from someone i have 2 units that work perfectly.

[Germanautos12]

Yea out of the 2 or 3 models which one do you guys think is better. Which ive heard to stay away from buying the pyramid version. Not to sure tho

[Raxe]

Here's the pictures I could scrounge up on my hard drive.

The one in my car, I believe it's the Alpine model:



Pyramid style, Pioneer manufactured:



Here's the mystery one in my parts car, not sure what it is? Don't think I've had any other cars with one.

[SynSyx]

^^ i have that one in my 89 convertible, maybe its the premium sound package head unit?

[E30 Cabrio]

I think the 3rd one was on 89 or 90 and later "Premium" audio optioned cE30's.