Radio/Tape Player repair - mid 1990's unit

[djoelt1]

Ugh...several stations no longer work on my Radio/Tape Player in my 1995 M3. It's the stock BMW unit. A few months ago one station started crackling, and now its several of the ones I regularly listen to. The unit might be old enough that big components like capacitors might be replaceable...if I knew what the problem was.

Does anyone know what would cause the garbling of particular radio stations? The ones that don't work to date are in the upper part of the FM dial.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

It could be a bad radio signal, bad earth of the antenna, the head unit tuner IC's/circuits beginning to fail, the rest of the unit's IC/circuits beginning to fail etc.

How much do you *have to* have the 22 year old OEM head unit? if you *must* have it, then you'll either need to spend money sending it away for diagnostics and then repair if it can be serviced, or you can buy a known working similar unit and hope it too doesn't fail soon'ish, or, you can buy a brand new head unit with all the latest features and safety features (hands free, BT, voice activation etc) and use that.

My recommendation would be the latter option.

Cheers, Dennis!

[djoelt1]

Thanks.

There is no reason to keep the existing unit. I only thought if it was a discrete component problem like a cap I could replace it myself.

It's in an M3 Lightweight so the car will be resold at some point with the original blank cover plate installed...but obviously I don't want to do anything that is not reversible. I see plenty of interface electronic connectors, but will aftermarket units fit in that opening without cutting the dash in any way? What holds an aftermarket unit in place?

[magnetchief]

Crutchfield has all you need.


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