Changing the radio / head unit on 3 series
Discussion
Hello!
Can anyone tell me how to remove the radio on a Bmw 3 Series, it's simply a bmw business single cd player with manual air conditioning controls directly below......
I'm not sure from other things I've found on google whether I need to get a special tool, or whether I can remove it without or can get somewhere like Halfords to pull it out for me...
Is it as easy to install another head unit as it is with a Ford etc. I've heard romours that bmw's have additional amplifiers !!
Thanks,
Chris.
(Freebie)
Can anyone tell me how to remove the radio on a Bmw 3 Series, it's simply a bmw business single cd player with manual air conditioning controls directly below......
I'm not sure from other things I've found on google whether I need to get a special tool, or whether I can remove it without or can get somewhere like Halfords to pull it out for me...
Is it as easy to install another head unit as it is with a Ford etc. I've heard romours that bmw's have additional amplifiers !!
Thanks,
Chris.
(Freebie)
On the E46 you need to remove the trim strip surrounding the stereo (normally silver, but may be wood). Start right by the passenger door and carefully prise it away from the dash - if you press the surrounding in with your finger you can get a small driver or whatever right behind it so as to carefully prise without damage. Work your way along, trying to lift from as close to each peg as possible, until the whole trim is off from above the glove box.
It is now easy to prise off the similar trim surrounding the head unit itself, again starting from the passenger side. Once this is completely off you will see the head unit is located by two torx headed screws. Remove these and it pulls out.
The connector on the back is BMW's own, but if you are fitting an aftermarket head unit you can buy a BMW/ISO adapter from Halfords for about £15, or less on eBay.
The standard setup doesn't have an amp.
Hope this helps.
It is now easy to prise off the similar trim surrounding the head unit itself, again starting from the passenger side. Once this is completely off you will see the head unit is located by two torx headed screws. Remove these and it pulls out.
The connector on the back is BMW's own, but if you are fitting an aftermarket head unit you can buy a BMW/ISO adapter from Halfords for about £15, or less on eBay.
The standard setup doesn't have an amp.
Hope this helps.
What head unit are you intending to fit? Be interested to see what you think of it before and after.
I've had my E46 for a couple of months now, and the standard stereo is very poor. I've been hawking all over for info and the general word seems to be that the stock speakers are reasonable, but the Head Unit isn't powerful enough to drive them. Short of spening wads on a full upgrade, the most popular low-cost solutions seem to be:
1. Fit a better head unit,
2. Fit a subwoofer to take the load off the head unit,
3. Fit an in-line amp.
I didn't want to do (1) as I like the clean look of the standard one in the dash (though I'd like it 100% more if it wasn't a cassette deck! I can't believe that they still make the things - it's about as relevant as having a wind-up gramophone on the dash as far as I'm concerned!).
I didn't fancy the hassle of (2), nor the loss of bootspace, so (3) seemed like the perfect solution to me.
"Connects2" make (or rather "made") an adapter cable which slots into the existing harness and allows you to plug a Sony amp in and hide it behind the dash, ramping the power up to (I think) 28W x 4 RMS. Unfortunately they stopped making this setup a few months ago, but after much searching I've found one on eBay and am currently waiting for it to appear!
Be very interested to compare notes once we've both done our respective upgrades.
I've finally got my hands on a secondhand Connects2 cable so I can splice in a Sony Amp, which everyone reckons makes a huge difference, but
I've had my E46 for a couple of months now, and the standard stereo is very poor. I've been hawking all over for info and the general word seems to be that the stock speakers are reasonable, but the Head Unit isn't powerful enough to drive them. Short of spening wads on a full upgrade, the most popular low-cost solutions seem to be:
1. Fit a better head unit,
2. Fit a subwoofer to take the load off the head unit,
3. Fit an in-line amp.
I didn't want to do (1) as I like the clean look of the standard one in the dash (though I'd like it 100% more if it wasn't a cassette deck! I can't believe that they still make the things - it's about as relevant as having a wind-up gramophone on the dash as far as I'm concerned!).
I didn't fancy the hassle of (2), nor the loss of bootspace, so (3) seemed like the perfect solution to me.
"Connects2" make (or rather "made") an adapter cable which slots into the existing harness and allows you to plug a Sony amp in and hide it behind the dash, ramping the power up to (I think) 28W x 4 RMS. Unfortunately they stopped making this setup a few months ago, but after much searching I've found one on eBay and am currently waiting for it to appear!
Be very interested to compare notes once we've both done our respective upgrades.
I've finally got my hands on a secondhand Connects2 cable so I can splice in a Sony Amp, which everyone reckons makes a huge difference, but
Hiya,
The car gets here tomorrow so I'll do a sort of sound test if you like !
I have all the bits ready to plonk it in and according to this post is simple so I'll take photos to try and show how well it goes (or how badly)
I have a Kenwood MP6090 which is an MP3 Cd player and its around 40Watts per channel and used to sound really good in the Ford Focus I used to have it in (although I did stick a bass box in that but I'm not going to bother with the bmw as it's hassle when you want to use the rear seats & boot lol !!)
I shall let you know, the only bmw radio I've heard is in a Z3 and that one sounds fine & in a 3 series but that has the loud speaker upgrade!
As for tape decks in cars, oh dear that has to go !
The car gets here tomorrow so I'll do a sort of sound test if you like !
I have all the bits ready to plonk it in and according to this post is simple so I'll take photos to try and show how well it goes (or how badly)
I have a Kenwood MP6090 which is an MP3 Cd player and its around 40Watts per channel and used to sound really good in the Ford Focus I used to have it in (although I did stick a bass box in that but I'm not going to bother with the bmw as it's hassle when you want to use the rear seats & boot lol !!)
I shall let you know, the only bmw radio I've heard is in a Z3 and that one sounds fine & in a 3 series but that has the loud speaker upgrade!
As for tape decks in cars, oh dear that has to go !
Right well I've got all the stuff & made the change with one small issue !
I can't get the head unit all the way in, the connector for the bmw radio is so large that no matter how hard i try to tuck them down the side and hide the wires that it still sticks out and half a CM..........
HELP!!
I can't get the head unit all the way in, the connector for the bmw radio is so large that no matter how hard i try to tuck them down the side and hide the wires that it still sticks out and half a CM..........
HELP!!
Have you taken out the air vent assembly from above the radio? Two screws just above the ones that held the radio in, then press down at the top of it at each end to release the catches that retain it.
If you still can't get at it well enough to get the cables out of the way, then take the glove box off too. Held by about 6 screws in reasonably obvious places though it's a bit of a wriggle to actually get it to come out - needs a little bit of patience.
When I installed the amp last week I had all the same problems. Even with the above out of the way it was still a major scrat to get the cables to stay out of the way. Just keep playing and you'll get there in the end...
How does it sound by the way? With my new amp mine sounds much better and has stacks of power, but I still find that the front speakers are way too "bright" and the rears shove out very heavily coloured bass and not much else (it's a touring, so the rears are in the boot space). Taken in all there's all the top end coming from the front and the bass coming from the back but nothing in between, so I'm now pondering over possible front speaker upgrades... Any suggestions welcomed!
If you still can't get at it well enough to get the cables out of the way, then take the glove box off too. Held by about 6 screws in reasonably obvious places though it's a bit of a wriggle to actually get it to come out - needs a little bit of patience.
When I installed the amp last week I had all the same problems. Even with the above out of the way it was still a major scrat to get the cables to stay out of the way. Just keep playing and you'll get there in the end...
How does it sound by the way? With my new amp mine sounds much better and has stacks of power, but I still find that the front speakers are way too "bright" and the rears shove out very heavily coloured bass and not much else (it's a touring, so the rears are in the boot space). Taken in all there's all the top end coming from the front and the bass coming from the back but nothing in between, so I'm now pondering over possible front speaker upgrades... Any suggestions welcomed!
Thanks for that...
At the moment the original cage is all still in (if that makes sense?) I couldn't see a way to remove it without removing the above air vents and the heating controls below.
I don't think it needs to come out - does it ? There is space to the back left and back right that I have used as well as I could but it just wasn't quite enough.
As for sound quality it used to sound better in my Ford Focus which makes me think bmw ship the cars with cheap speakers to make you consider buying the 'loud speaker upgrade - which is apparently the daddy'
I would not want to have to wire a subwoofer up to such a car, it looks like a nightmare, and the amp would be equally as hard as you'd need to get that live wire through somehow.
So to recap on what to try next,
- Take the radio back out
- Remove all four screws
- Then remove the air vents to get a better look?
Do I then need to remove that cage (which looked impossible last night - although I was keen to take the car out and put some miles on it so I was in a bit of a rush) or does this just help you put those cables down the sides (at the back you can see a tunnel on the left and a tunnel on the right that feel physically large enough to take the adapters but you just can't seem to get them down there!)
I'm sure it will be worth it once it's done.
At the moment the original cage is all still in (if that makes sense?) I couldn't see a way to remove it without removing the above air vents and the heating controls below.
I don't think it needs to come out - does it ? There is space to the back left and back right that I have used as well as I could but it just wasn't quite enough.
As for sound quality it used to sound better in my Ford Focus which makes me think bmw ship the cars with cheap speakers to make you consider buying the 'loud speaker upgrade - which is apparently the daddy'
I would not want to have to wire a subwoofer up to such a car, it looks like a nightmare, and the amp would be equally as hard as you'd need to get that live wire through somehow.
So to recap on what to try next,
- Take the radio back out
- Remove all four screws
- Then remove the air vents to get a better look?
Do I then need to remove that cage (which looked impossible last night - although I was keen to take the car out and put some miles on it so I was in a bit of a rush) or does this just help you put those cables down the sides (at the back you can see a tunnel on the left and a tunnel on the right that feel physically large enough to take the adapters but you just can't seem to get them down there!)
I'm sure it will be worth it once it's done.
I'd say you need to get the glovebox out, then feed the original wiring down into the void to the left of the stereo aperture. Plug your adapter in there and feed the cable from it back up so that the only connector in sight is the ISO one that goes into the back of your new head unit (or whatever type it is).
Removing the air vents just allows you to see what's going on, I only suggested it as it's literally two screws and out it comes (once you twig where to press down to get the top catches to release).
Sounds like you've reached the same conclusion as me - the OEM speakers are car@p!
Removing the air vents just allows you to see what's going on, I only suggested it as it's literally two screws and out it comes (once you twig where to press down to get the top catches to release).
Sounds like you've reached the same conclusion as me - the OEM speakers are car@p!
Thank you very much!!
As soon as I removed the glovebox, Voila it was dead easy..
You could really pull on the wires that caused the problem to help while pushing the stereo in.
It also made it easy to feed the ariel adapter around the back as opposed to it causing an obstructtion!
Nice onE !!
As soon as I removed the glovebox, Voila it was dead easy..
You could really pull on the wires that caused the problem to help while pushing the stereo in.
It also made it easy to feed the ariel adapter around the back as opposed to it causing an obstructtion!
Nice onE !!
Well after listening to it......
The front speakers are not bad (thanks to the tweeters that bring it up)
The rear ones are poo poo poo.... they need changing, I have some spare ones from an old car... 3 range pioneer speakers... probably would fit as they're 5 1/4" I believe...
Is it easy to change them over ?
The front speakers are not bad (thanks to the tweeters that bring it up)
The rear ones are poo poo poo.... they need changing, I have some spare ones from an old car... 3 range pioneer speakers... probably would fit as they're 5 1/4" I believe...
Is it easy to change them over ?
Just on the subject of fitting things to the 3 series... I had a nightmare fitting my SatNav.
There were no less than 16 RCA leads coming out of the back of my Pioneer TFT Screen head unit, along with CD Changer, Navi Bus, Power, normal loom etc.
Took about 8 hours to get the wires in, ended up taking out the vents, and much of the dash. Because the head unit goes into a "box" like thing behind the dash, I had to *break* the plastic behind it, to make a larger space - it just wasn’t going to fit.
Even fitting a standard head unit, fitting the HUGE wiring loom is a nightmare, and if you have a stalk adaptor, that’s another lump to shove somewhere. The other problem is that the dumping space for wires is at the far side of the head unit, and in my case, the wires did not reach this far... so I had to extend every single F****** one of them!
Anyway - hope you got your head unit in without too much fuss!
If anyone is interested, take a look at some of the photos.
www.2dmedia.co.uk/Picture3.jpg
www.2dmedia.co.uk/Picture4.jpg
(Pics showing the cable I added into the door seal... about 4 inches thick - from CD Changer to PS2 controller leads!)
Tip - if you like ICE and BMW's don't try fitting it yourself.
Sounds great now though, sadly its not that great for showing off with because its VERY loud in the car, yet not that loud outside - though you buy a Nova for that "lack of sound proofing" effect I guess!
There were no less than 16 RCA leads coming out of the back of my Pioneer TFT Screen head unit, along with CD Changer, Navi Bus, Power, normal loom etc.
Took about 8 hours to get the wires in, ended up taking out the vents, and much of the dash. Because the head unit goes into a "box" like thing behind the dash, I had to *break* the plastic behind it, to make a larger space - it just wasn’t going to fit.
Even fitting a standard head unit, fitting the HUGE wiring loom is a nightmare, and if you have a stalk adaptor, that’s another lump to shove somewhere. The other problem is that the dumping space for wires is at the far side of the head unit, and in my case, the wires did not reach this far... so I had to extend every single F****** one of them!
Anyway - hope you got your head unit in without too much fuss!
If anyone is interested, take a look at some of the photos.
www.2dmedia.co.uk/Picture3.jpg
www.2dmedia.co.uk/Picture4.jpg
(Pics showing the cable I added into the door seal... about 4 inches thick - from CD Changer to PS2 controller leads!)
Tip - if you like ICE and BMW's don't try fitting it yourself.
Sounds great now though, sadly its not that great for showing off with because its VERY loud in the car, yet not that loud outside - though you buy a Nova for that "lack of sound proofing" effect I guess!
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