Aftermarket HU will only play AM/FM not CD

[lelzie]

If there was any solution to this issue I would love to hear about it. I just purchased a 2003 BMW 330i and replaced the CD with a Sony. I hooked up the harness correctly and the AM/FM works wonderfully. The sound quality using the HK speakers that were with the car was excellent. However, once I put in a CD, it ran and you can see it working but NO SOUND at all comes out of the deck. I too then placed this same HU in a toyota and no problems with the CD. I would like to not have to modify the existing speaker wiring or go thorugh and route wiring for each speaker individually. PLEASE HELP

[jllphan]

The reason is because you are not connecting the remote wire. The BMW has a factory amp, the Toyota did not.

Why does AAM/FM work and not with CD? Im not absolutely positive, but I think it is because of a difference in voltage. Once you engage the CD drive, the motor that spins the CD draws more current and thusly you loose your current feeding your factory amp.

Regardless, I have at least one person a week come in my store with the same problem, and this is what is necessary to fix it.

You probably won't need to, but if you notice everything now works, but only with the car running, you will need to install a three phase relay to keep a constant +12V going to both the factory and Sony amplifiers.

[lelzie]

YOU FOLKS AS FREAKIN GREAT.

[lelzie]

That was exactly the problem. I hook up the amp wiring and all was wonderful. No additional work needed. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

[jllphan]

No problem.

Unfortunately, I know more about this crap than i need to (it takes up too much space in my brain).

[TMac325is]

how do you connect the remote wire, if i am not mistaken, it was the wire just below the antenna wire on the factory deck

im having the same problem with my Alpine head unit, but there is not spot to plug in this wire, is it suppose to go in the black harness?

[jllphan]

All of this advice is based on the fact that your CAR still has a plug on the end of the wirng harness, if the moron that installed your Kenwood deck cut the plug off let me know and i will start over...

The METRA wiring harness has a plug on one end and bare wires on the other.
The ALPINE wiring harness has a plug on one end and bare wire on the other.

Take the bare wires from each harness and connect. The blue wire is the amp/remote wire on each connector. Do not get this confused with the power antenna lead.

So to reiterate, using your Alpine manual and the wire code on your Metra (or whatever brand you bought) harness, make sure to connect the two wires together that are labled "amp turn on" or "remote wire". I think it is the solid blue wire but it may be the blue/whte stripe (Sorry I cant keep it straigh between all the different brands)

This should fix the issue.

[TMac325is]

alright, i think i see what you mean with the blue/white wire

it is connected to the metra harness going into the alpine unit, but the metra harness is connected to another metra harness, and theres nothing plugged into the Remote Turn-on

also there is a spare wire that i could not connect to anything, i dont think this is the wire to the factory amp is it? (pictures below)
also, i didnt use the harness that came with the head unit, i just used the ones from Metra
there is no ground wire on it, im not sure what to do about that

Anyway, in order to get my cd player to play sound, how would i go about connecting the blue/white wire with the wire to the factory amp (which one goes to the factory amp, is it in the black harness from the stock stereo?)

im thinking, remove/cutting the bluewhite wire off the metra harness, and crimping it with the wire to the factory amp?

sorry its a lot of questions and confusion, but if someone can help me out, youre awesome

i have a lot of pictures to show you what im talking about (ill post them in a minute)

[TMac325is]

This is the wire that would not connect to anything.
Its out of focus, but this is the wire that was connected directly under the antenna on the factory head unit.

[TMac325is]

Here is the connectors on the harnesses. The bottom wires are connected to the headunit, the above wires go into the factory stock bmw harness.

as you can see the blue/white wire on the bottom is not connected to anything in the slot above it

[TMac325is]

here is the back of the alpine unit

[jllphan]

OK, you are using one of those new double harness thingies. Haven't seen one before, but I had heard about 'em.

As far as i know (and as the diagram i posted illustrates) the white wire (pin16) coming out of the bmw harness is labled remote wire.

Trace this wire (the white one)from inside of your dash all the way up as far as you can.

Ultimately, just make sure this lead is connected to the Alpine amp turn on lead.