upgrade stereo question - BMW Forum

augusta323IS · 02-12-2010, 04:27 AM

Hi all. I have a 99 323is and am trying to upgrade the factory radio without a whole lot of luck... I took out the old and got the BMW wiring harness and the harness that goes with the sony deck i'm installing. I plugged the BMW harness into the one that came off the old radio and plugged in the amp RCA's into the new radio. I took the 4 wires (red, black, yellow and blue/white) and used connectors to match them up with the ones on the sony plug.... now when I plug it all in, nothing happens when i turn on the key. anything you can think of I may have missed????
any help is most appreciated

marti5 · 02-12-2010, 06:34 AM

A ground maybe??

kandi08 · 02-12-2010, 10:03 AM

Check the fuse mate.
Stereos need to be grounded before you connect any other wires.
Or else the fuse will blow. Also check the fuse in the back of the stereo, if its got one.
I have done this so many times it is untrue.
You should be able to connect it all together, and then plug the bmw harness back in.
Hope this helps.

DanielBMW · 02-12-2010, 12:03 PM

Also make sure that you have the wires for the live and the memory in the right place. I just upgraded mine last weekend and that exact thing happend. I wasn't getting anything at all when I turned on the car so I flipped them and BAM it worked.

ppolis · 02-17-2010, 11:01 PM

Check out:

The 12 Volt Shop

They will hopefully have something on your model and the stereo wiring.