I've got an E36 BMW Coupe (1998) here in the UK and would like to install an external AMP. I'm totally new to this and I gather this has probably been mentioned enough times, but unfortunately I cant seem to find much descriptions on the web (and some sites are barred from work!). I wish to keep the standard BMW RDS Head Unit and possibly connect the AMP.
Is this possible? How about the speaker connections? I already have a BMW CD Changer in place in the boot (trunk).
many thanks for the reply. In your post to the other member you mentioned a factory amp. I didnt know there was one. Is this located in the boot (trunk)? Would I potentially need to run any cabling to the front console or could I just hook everything up to the cabling in the factory amp?
you can just hook up and keep things how they are.
if you want to bypass the factory amp its gonna take a lot more work. that willt take rewiring the whole mess and either some crossovers or new speakers...
To my knowledge, most of the e36 cars have a factory amp. I would assume any of these cars that have the multiple speaker set up (1" tweets and 4" mids in door, 5.25 in the kick panel and 5.25 in the rear deck) would need an external factory amp to run all of that. I have never seen one of these cars without this speaker set up, so i guess they all do (have the factory amp). It is located under the rear seat. When i tapped the wire for the aftermarket amp turn on wire, i did so at the radio because i was replacing it and running rca's. if you don't wish to pull an amp turn on wire all the way from the radio location, i'm sure you could tap the factory amp location, but i dont know which lead terminating in the factory amp is the one that turns it on and off. I'll look into it or maybe someone will beat me to it and post the answer.
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, i have yet to remove those drivers and just assumed it was the same as my old 5. Thanks for the heads up!! 
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