IC/Stereo wiring prob

[FroznToes]

I recently purchased an 87 325e for my wife, and some idiot of a kid jerry-rigged a cheap aftermarket stereo into the dash (idiot, cuz he even cut the antenna lead). after taking the head unit out, and seperating the mess of wires, I am unable to get the Tach/MPG gauses to function properly. I connect the gry/red wire to the violet/gry wire, and then the tach works, but the MPG gauge pegs out to the top (well over the 40MPG hash mark) at idle, I disconnected the wire again, and the MPG settles down to around 25 MPG, but the Tach then fails... any thoughts?

does anyone know any resources for quality wiring schematics, as the ones in my Chilton's guide are crap...


Thanks

Ross
Anchorage, Alaska

[jllphan]

I realize the following diagram is for an e36, but I don't think BMW changed much of the wiring between these years.

If this helps in no way, search unofficialbmw.com as their site contains a wealth of knowledge concerning such problems.

[FroznToes]

thanks for the try, but there arent anything close to that many wires for the stereo. I have the following wires, and have ID for some:

Violet/Gray - Switched 12v
White - Power Antenna
Yellow - Speaker +
Yellow/brown - Speaker -
Red/green - ?????
Lt Blue - Speaker
Blue/Red (or maybe Orange) - Speaker
Gray/Red - ?????
Brown - Ground

this was really a mess.. this doesn't even count the 6, yes 6, various types and gauges of speaker wire that was jumbled in there! all of it just twist spliced and wrapped in electrical tape

kid didn't even try to tuck the wires behind the dash or under the carpet, they were routed out the side of the console and over the seats


I found a small article on unofficialbmw, but it didn't explain anything about the tach/mpg gauge. but it did answer the stereo wiring stuff, so thanx for that

Ross
Anchorage, Alaska

[Aether]

Well, as for the economy meter, it's going to top out if you're going like ten miles an hour without pushing on the gas. It's analog, so it'll fly around a bit when it is working properly. That's just what it does.