Replacing Factory Deck

[Canadian535is]

I have a 1987 535i and i want to put a pioneer deck in and remove the oem tape deck... what will i need?

[Canadian535is]

Come on guys i need some help here....

[m lew]

You may want to talk to a professional installer for tips on the best way to remove the stock head unit without damaging your dash.

If you must do it yourself, get the Bentley manual for your model and year car. This will likely have photos showing how to remove the stock unit.

[Canadian535is]

Ok time to be a bit more detailed. I have a Pioneer 5600MP, Standard DIN 1.

How do you...

A: Remove the factory deck?

B: What do ya need as far as taping into a wiring harness, and also is there a factory amp i have to worry about?

Thanks for your time...

[m lew]

As far as removing the stock deck, it may be more economical to pay a professional installer than to risk damaging the dashboard and ancillaries. Here in California the typical car audio shop will charge between $35 and $50 (obviously U.S.) to change out a head unit. Large mass merchandisers will charge about the same. The advantage to letting someone do it is that they already have all the necessary tools and presumably know how to do the job correctly and efficiently. You, on the other hand, have to deal with a steep learning curve.

From my experience, the stock BMW amp is always located in the trunk, underneath the carpeting on one side or the other. It is relatively easy to remove such an amp once the carpet is pulled back sufficiently. You may have to remove one or both tail-lamp covers to be able to pull the carpet back. I hope this helps.

[m lew]

Almost forgot. In a lot of BMWs, access to the back of the stock head unit (or any other installed head unit) is achieved by removing the glovebox. Sometimes you have to remove parts of the center console as well.

As far as wiring up the new head unit, if the instructions don't make it clear, again pay someone to do it right the first time. It's more than just a matter of knowing how to solder. If you don't make the proper connections, you can fry the new head unit. I don't like expensive experiments and so just paid someone to do this for me. But I found it easy enough to hook up other items like amps, crossovers, and speakers. Good luck.

[Canadian535is]

ok, so you do have to by-pass the stock amp?

What comes out of the stock head unit for line into the amp?

[m lew]

Now you have opened the can of worms. I am not the expert on stock head units or amps, but am willing to pass on what I've read about the topic from various other threads. I am doing this from memory so if there's a question about any issue below, I would direct you to conduct a search of the threads in this forum. I hope someone will correct me if 'm wrong.

1. An aftermarket head unit can be used with the stock amp. However, you may have to buy "line converters." I am not sure but believe this means the output of the stock head unit is "speaker level" whereas the output of most any decent aftermarket head unit is "pre-amp level," a much lower level. A line converter will convert this high speaker-level output to a pre-amp level output or vice versa.

2. One problem with using the stock amp with aftermarket speakers is that the stock amp incorporates the cross-overs. This makes it difficult to send signal coming out of the amp into an aftermarket cross-over. One way to avoid this issue altogether is to simply bypass the stock amp with an aftermarket unit.

I do not mean to suggest that one must bypass the stock amp. I have read of many others in your exact same situation whose goal it was to coordinate an aftermarket head unit with the stock amp. As I recall, there were small technical issues but nothing insurmountable. I would be interested in learning how your installation turns out. Good luck.