Help With Sony Headunit In My E36?

[Styles5001]

Who has a relatively new Sony brand headunit in their E36. I just got one and I am having trouble with it. I got it to work but no sound came out of it. According to the installation instructions it looks like I may have to connect my (stock) speakers and amp to the headunit. I find this kind of odd. I matched all the wires to the wireing harness that I bought and I also have the antenna adapter.

Basically let me know if you have a relativly new (made within the last 2 years) Sony headunit

[Arakon]

I'm having the same issue.

I just bought a beautiful 316i and I'm wanting to change the stereo HU out. It still has the factory Tape player unit in it.

I have a Kenwood MVP6022 and the unit powers up but I get no sound when going through a wiring harness. I really REALLY don't want to do anything ghetto with the wires on the car, that's why I bought the harness.

Any clues? The factor works fine and the Kenwood works fine when I tested it out in another vehicle.

[Arakon]

The only thing I can think of is that I was told this had the premium audio package with 12 speakers... maybe the HU I'm putting in doesn't have enough power to drive them all?

[jllphan]

It's because your not powering up the oem amp.

Your remote wire (Blue wire on the HU's harness) should connect to the amp turn on lead (BMW's harness). Both your power antenna lead(blue/white wire) and your remote wire (blue wire) must be connected.

That's why your not getting audio. Lemme know if you need anything else.

Joey

[Arakon]

Originally posted by jllphan@Feb 5 2005, 01:13 PM
It's because your not powering up the oem amp.

Your remote wire (Blue wire on the HU's harness) should connect to the amp turn on lead (BMW's harness). Both your power antenna lead(blue/white wire) and your remote wire (blue wire) must be connected.

That's why your not getting audio. Lemme know if you need anything else.

Joey

[snapback]286332[/snapback]

Sweet, yeah that did the trick, at least partially. Now I get great radio reception, but for some odd reason no CD Audio... although i didn't see a remote wire, just the power antenna lead, which I just connected (blue wire). I didn't realize the car came with an amp pre-installed.

I'll fiddle with the CD more tomorrow after work.
of course if you know the answer to this problem I'm more than will ing to listen.

THANKS a lot.

[Kowalski]

Originally posted by Arakon+Feb 5 2005, 01:48 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Arakon @ Feb 5 2005, 01:48 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-jllphan@Feb 5 2005, 01:13 PM
It's because your not powering up the oem amp.

Your remote wire (Blue wire on the HU's harness) should connect to the amp turn on lead (BMW's harness).* Both your power antenna lead(blue/white wire) and your remote wire (blue wire) must be connected.*

That's why your not getting audio.* Lemme know if you need anything else.

Joey

[snapback]286332[/snapback]

Sweet, yeah that did the trick, at least partially. Now I get great radio reception, but for some odd reason no CD Audio... although i didn't see a remote wire, just the power antenna lead, which I just connected (blue wire). I didn't realize the car came with an amp pre-installed.

I'll fiddle with the CD more tomorrow after work.
of course if you know the answer to this problem I'm more than will ing to listen.

THANKS a lot.

[snapback]286396[/snapback]

[/b][/quote]

dont let the word amp fool you they're really shitty amps

[Arakon]

Originally posted by Kowalski@Feb 5 2005, 10:24 PM
dont let the word amp fool you they're really shitty amps

[snapback]286629[/snapback]

Well, I'm all tuned out now. CD player works great. You have to splice both blue wires (one with white stripe, one solid) into the blue wire off the harness. Problem solved.

Hey the amp gets the job done. but if I were interested in changing the amp out... where in the car is it located?

What good reason would I have to change it out? Other than getting bigger speakers.

If i did do it, I'm not interested in a system that blows the windows out and needs extra batteries and what-not. Just a good basic amp that won't make me completely re-wire my car.

[e30fanm3]

You had the amp hooked to the antenna lead which does not get power when the cd player is on. It only gets power when the radio is on

[Arakon]

Originally posted by e30fanm3@Feb 6 2005, 09:31 AM
You had the amp hooked to the antenna lead which does not get power when the cd player is on. It only gets power when the radio is on

[snapback]286752[/snapback]

Yup figured that out, although it seems odd that I need 2 seperate power lines to the amp from the same HU just becuase it has a radio and a CD player in it. Seems one would be enough wouldn't it?

Do people out there really have a seperate amp for when they fire up a CD versus just listen to the Radio?

[jllphan]

Ha ha ha, that's not how it works. Your amp in your trunk has to be turned on or triggered by something. If not it would just be on all the time and run down your battery. So you have to run a lead from your head unit that tells the amp to come on. Now for some radios the remote lead (the one you found to make your CD player work) will suffice for both radio and CD, and for others (Sony, Kenwood, etc.) you have to connect both the remote lead and the pwr antenna because those leads are only hot when that source is selected. In other words, your car's amp will turn off when you switch from radio to CD if you only have your pwr antenna lead connected. Get the idea?

I meant for you to connect both leads origionally, but rereading my post I guess that wasn't clear. Oh well, you got it.