Aftermarket Radio Install Problems - BMW Forum

blk325is · 01-31-2004, 02:57 PM

I did a search on this topic in every way that I knew how to and came up with nothing. I have a '93 BMW 325is and wanted and aftermarket CD. I bought an Alpine 7893 and installed it and the radio works great but whenever I go to play a CD no sound comes out of the speakers. I called my local audio shop and they told me in order for the CD player to work that I had to run speaker wire to each individual speaker. I thought they where joking but I took an old speaker that I had laying around and hooked it up to the radio to see if I had gotten the magic factory defect but to my suprise it worked. I was wondering if there is a way to get around this or if the only way to get the radio to work is to wire each and every speaker individualy? I appreciate any help that I can get. Thanks in advance.

ghead

El Presidente · 01-31-2004, 03:40 PM

If you get sound from AM/FM but not CD then you probably have a faulty HU. If you dont have AM?FM, then its not really installed.

Pull the headunit, and examine the harness. There should be an adapter that at some point in time plugged the speaker outs into the factory harness. If you see none, then the installer cut the harness off and wired the new HU incorrectly.

Also, Im moving this to audio.

blk325is · 01-31-2004, 05:00 PM

I installed the HU myself. I bought the unit brand new and hooked it up in one of my other cars to see if it works and it does just fine. I hooked all the speaker wires from the HU harness to the corresponding speaker wires on the BMW harness. Everything is hooked up right but for some reason when I play a CD no sound comes from the speakers. The HU works perfect on AM/FM. It seems like the factory wiring can't handle the signal coming from the HU and needs seperate wiring that can handle the impendance. In a nutshell thats how it was explained to me. I was just wondering if someone was trying to take me to the cleaners or if this was the truth with this model BMW. As I staked I hooked a speaker that I had laying around up to the HU and it worked fine so I know the CD portion of the HU works fine. Just something in the '93 BMW wiring is what has me confused. Does anyone know any tricks to get around this? Any help is appreciated.

El Presidente · 02-01-2004, 01:28 AM

Thats BS.

A CD player puts out the same load regardless of the source, be it CD or airwave. Thats like saying a TV can't handle DVDs, because the picture overwhelms it. The HU is putting out the same RMS wattage irrespective of media.

If the HU played CDs in other cars and you know the wiring is correct, I can't think of what would cause that.

007ben · 02-01-2004, 03:04 PM

I've seen some HUs have problems from being a bit squished or tweaked from install and only having the problem with things like playing CDs if AM/FM works fine perhaps something mechanicaly causing a problem with the CD mechanism.

I just had a Alpine 9811 installed in my '94 325i and it works great. installers were done in less than an hour and i doubt they ran any extra wires in that time...

lelzie · 05-02-2004, 03:37 AM

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

CiscoKid · 05-02-2004, 09:05 AM

that would be a question for the bastards that made it. You could probablly get free stuff out of it

jllphan · 05-02-2004, 10:19 AM

No guys, there is a much simpler solution, i posted the answer on the thread started by, lelzie.

CiscoKid · 05-02-2004, 10:21 AM

http://www.bmw-forums.com/forum/index.php?...topic=12055&hl=

(form url)

BUSTaMOVE · 05-02-2004, 11:46 AM

I had same problem the thing is u need to switch some wires on the harness . theres a antenna remote wire and a ant/amp remote wire u only have the antenna onehooked up not the ant/amp remore one i had some problem . just look at a wiring chart. and u will see what im talking about