z4 stereo under the knife (i'm at it again)

[rusty_sojah]

so originally i wasn't going to mod my z4,, well that was the story i told my wife and myself before i bought it. well fast forward a year and it now has 19's, slammed on some coilovers, spacers (cheap), replaced a bunch of lights, black grills (cheap), and now an aftermarket sub/amp/headunit.

i just wanted to add more bass, like all my other cars have so i thought adding a 10" sub/box/amp/headunit would do the trick... apparently these cars are finicky to say the least. when i picked up the car after they had installed the headunit and other items i left, the install was superb but the sound now sucks.

the highs are almost non existent and the main speakers you hear are now the rear subs and rear 4", but mainly the rear subs doing most of the work.

the stereo shop couldn't wire up the factory speakers to the headunit because they said it would take way too much time and effort so just ran the headunit signal to the factory amp (i have the 10 speaker hifi system with nav BTW) so the factory amp is supplying the power to the speakers, other than the newly added 10" sub which is getting fed by the aftermarket amp.

i was stuck with the decision of paying a lot of extra labor to have them re-wire from the factory speakers (minus the rear 8" subs which would be turned off) to the new headunit, or to just buy new speakers and another amp to drive these properly. since there was the chance that the factory speakers would sound like ass when hooked up to the new headunit i just ordered a new set of type R alpine 6.5" componenets for the front and 4" speakers for the rear, which will be powered by a new alpine 500 watt amp all at 4 ohms.



just wondering if this is what others had to do or what...?? i guess i shouldn't be too mad because i have read in numerous places where after replacing the headunit that people couldn't listen to their stereo at all in our cars because of the factory amp not getting the proper bmw like signal anymore from the factory headunit.

i just wanted more bass and this has now turned into a bigger project money, time, and patience wise than i had budgeted for...

[spr_bimmer]

i went all out and replaced every speaker and the amp and head unit, mostly because the previous owner butchered it but i would have probably done it anyways...

[ssummers]

I'm sure the folks here get tired of me saying, I am a big fan of rip and replace on the Z4.

If the shop was moderately competent it is very easy to use the existing speaker wires, with an aftermarket amp. All of the speaker wires terminate at the factory amp, you can find the wiring diagram in a number of place on the 'net. I'm not really sure what they were thinking trying to feed the factory amp with an aftermarket head unit, honestly I'm surprised it worked at all.

Here is my build...

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=784148

[rusty_sojah]

thanks ^ ^ ^; you're talking about this wiring diagram right:

BMW E85/E86 Business Radio Pin Outs
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 A Signal, AF radio, rear right + Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Viol Basic (Blu/Blk Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
2 A Signal, AF radio, front right + Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Red
3 A Signal, terminal 50 via vehicle immoblizer Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Red
4 A Signal, AF radio, rear left + Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Viol Basic (Yell/Blk Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
5 A Signal, AF radio, rear right - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Grn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
6 A Signal, AF radio, front right - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Brn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi Carver)
7 A Signal, AF radio, front left - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Brn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi Carver)
8 A Signal, AF radio, rear left - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Grn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
9 E/A K-bus signal K-bus connector 0.5 Wht/Red/Yell
10 E Telephone mute circuit Cellular telephone 0.35 Wht/Brn
11 E Signal Telephone on Cellular telephone 0.35 Wht/Grn
12 M Ground Ground point 2.5 Brn
13 E Aerial switching signal Aerial amplifier or aerial diversity 0.5 Wht
14 E Activation, left bi-xenon headlight Light switch cluster 0.5 Grn/Red
15 E Terminal 30 Fuse F50 Unsitched power 2.5 Red/Yell
16 E Terminal R Fuse F47 Switched power 0.75 Viol/Wht


found here with more info

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthre...hlight=diagram


yeah so the shop that did the super awesome looking install said they were not able to run the wires from the new headunit to the existing speakers cuz of time and it not being a normal request but my previous 8 or so other cars have never had this problem with replacing the factory headunit.

when my new stuff gets here i will have them install it with the correct wire diagram so there are no questions. cept they are japanese and have only ever done a handful of bmw's and never a z4 they said, so we shall see how easy the wire diagram is. i would help translate myself personally but i am color blind which is why i am paying them to do the headunit install (amongst other reasons)

and yeah ssummers i had previously read your thread you linked to, your setup looks nice and i bet sounds great too... i hope i'm with you on that one of these days.

[ssummers]

That's not it, you want the wire diagram for the wires at the amp in the trunk, those are the wires that are actually feeding the speakers.

The only wires that are needed at the HU are the power, illumination wires. Run RCA's to an amp, then feed the existing speaker wires from the amp.

Originally Posted by rusty_sojah

thanks ^ ^ ^; you're talking about this wiring diagram right:

BMW E85/E86 Business Radio Pin Outs
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 A Signal, AF radio, rear right + Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Viol Basic (Blu/Blk Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
2 A Signal, AF radio, front right + Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Red
3 A Signal, terminal 50 via vehicle immoblizer Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Red
4 A Signal, AF radio, rear left + Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Viol Basic (Yell/Blk Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
5 A Signal, AF radio, rear right - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Grn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
6 A Signal, AF radio, front right - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Blu/Brn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi Carver)
7 A Signal, AF radio, front left - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Brn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi Carver)
8 A Signal, AF radio, rear left - Amplifier or Speaker 0.75 Yell/Grn Basic (Brn/Org Hi-Fi)[not used Carver]
9 E/A K-bus signal K-bus connector 0.5 Wht/Red/Yell
10 E Telephone mute circuit Cellular telephone 0.35 Wht/Brn
11 E Signal Telephone on Cellular telephone 0.35 Wht/Grn
12 M Ground Ground point 2.5 Brn
13 E Aerial switching signal Aerial amplifier or aerial diversity 0.5 Wht
14 E Activation, left bi-xenon headlight Light switch cluster 0.5 Grn/Red
15 E Terminal 30 Fuse F50 Unsitched power 2.5 Red/Yell
16 E Terminal R Fuse F47 Switched power 0.75 Viol/Wht


found here with more info

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthre...hlight=diagram


yeah so the shop that did the super awesome looking install said they were not able to run the wires from the new headunit to the existing speakers cuz of time and it not being a normal request but my previous 8 or so other cars have never had this problem with replacing the factory headunit.

when my new stuff gets here i will have them install it with the correct wire diagram so there are no questions. cept they are japanese and have only ever done a handful of bmw's and never a z4 they said, so we shall see how easy the wire diagram is. i would help translate myself personally but i am color blind which is why i am paying them to do the headunit install (amongst other reasons)

and yeah ssummers i had previously read your thread you linked to, your setup looks nice and i bet sounds great too... i hope i'm with you on that one of these days.

[rusty_sojah]

Then I have been unable to locate the correct wire diagram and the shop said they can't find it either.

Can you please assist by posting up a link of a pic??? thank you sir!

[ssummers]

I did hours of research and searching when I did mine, unfortunately I can't find some of the info. Just search the forums, and look at posts.

I did find this one in a thread...


http://www.bmw-planet.com/diagrams/r.../e85/index.htm

[rusty_sojah]

i found that site while searching too, but it doesn't work, nothing ever pops up and i've tried it from like three different computers so i confirmed its not my computers.

i checked through some of the old posts on here for a little while last week and couldn't find anything useful either. found some broken links, found some that went back to that WDS site you put up a link.

if you remember or get a chance please hook a fellow z4 brother up and post a link. thank you again for your help.


wait is this the correct amp wiring diagram:

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showpost...7&postcount=19

wish the pics worked on this old thread

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showpost...07&postcount=1

[elerner61]

I think this is what you are looking for: http://www.billswebspace.com/A18%20Amplifier.htm

[rusty_sojah]

Thank you. Now i just need to reasearch which pin is number one and which way they count by.

[rusty_sojah]

picked up my car today from the stereo shop and it sounds amazing.

i went cheap with this stereo since my z is not my main modified car. i went with some 6.5" alpine type r's for the front, 4" alpine type s's for the rear, an alpine 4 ohm 85wx4 amp, a rockford 10" power t1 sub in a sealed box with a 1500 watt hifonics amp hooked up to it (4 gauge wiring) and a 2 farad cap, plus a cheap $100 clarion head unit. it is not the most powerful system i own but it sounds cleaner and more in tune/balanced (my other car/system has a lot more bass).

all in all bout $1,200 for parts and about $500 for labor (including the sub box and 4 gauge wiring) but it is not even comparable to the stock 12 speaker hi-fi or whatever its called that was in there from the factory.