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Thread: Recommended Radio repair shop in L.A

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    444
    My Cars
    1991 320i M-Tech II

    Recommended Radio repair shop in L.A

    I've already made a thread on the E30 forum about this here.

    Short of it is this- I want to repair my broken OE radio head unit on my E30. I'm having a hard time finding a competent shop in the L.A area. Any recommendations would be highly appreciated, thanks!
    My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7l...rJvxZHr_00nuhA

    Current cars: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300E, 1991 BMW 320i M-Tech II, 1991 Mitsubish Galant AMG Type II, 1992 Nissan Figaro, 1993 Toyota Chaser Tourer V

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    West London/Heathrow - UK
    Posts
    7,204
    My Cars
    03 530dT - Ex Police Car
    Hi,

    From your other thread, it's a Sony head unit and is a Japanese specification model as well;

    https://encompass.com/model/SONXR5B925
    http://handbooks.jp/?pid=57750023

    Google searches turn up those two and not much else.

    It's from 1989 so 30 years old and you've got a decision to make. You can send it off to a competent car audio repair specialist who can open it up and perform fault finding tests to see if it can be repaired perhaps by using some parts from the link above or maybe generic same specification ones, give the unit an overhaul where other internal compoinents/mechanism can be renewed/lubricated/cleaned etc and then all reassembled. Costs for this are likely to be relatively high depending on what's wrong with it aside from the faulty display/3 dead output channels.

    I strongly suspect, like the UK, there wasn't an 'OEM' head unit as such from BMW. Local dealers would install a head unit the customer chose when ordering new, so some cars had Alpine head units, other's Pioneer and also perhaps Blaupunkt's. I 'Think' in the Germany there was an OEM head unit option from factory, it's been so long since my E30 days now!! *quick search shows the CM5905 unit which does look like what BMW would have provided !

    When I had my E30's Alpine was my choice and a couple of Blaupunkt's as well, so technically there wasn't any 'one' standard OEM look head unit. Whilst I fully understand wanting it to be period correct, I'd suggest not spending money on this unit, plus the fact it uses 76-90Mhz FM which I believe the USA had no broadcasts on (like the UK) it's bit of a limited unit overall.

    My vote would be to find a good/decent period Pioneer/Alpine/Blaupunkt and at a decent price as nowadays, some sought after models have quite high asking prices and put one of those in. Or one of the BMW units in - I'm not sure on pricing levels. Another option could be a VDO unit or a nice Becker but these are harder to find nowadays.

    Sorry for being a bit vague ! you have other options I think would suit better and be better value for your money spent.

    Cheers, Dennis!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    444
    My Cars
    1991 320i M-Tech II
    Hi Dennis,

    Thank you for your detailed response. Some good info there. I actually already own the original owners manual for the unit, same as the one in the link you provided.

    I decided to go ahead and get this unit repaired for an number of reasons:
    1. I want to keep the car as original as possible. I looked at the other options for the car, and the head units in good shape that I wanted were all pretty expensive, plus the plugs on the back weren't exactly the same. Didn't want to deal with the headache of new wiring.
    2. The car also has a matching 10(!) CD player in the trunk. I would like to use that in conjunction with the stereo unit, so another reason to keep it original.

    Only negative will be as you mentioned- the FM wavelength is only 76-90 Mhz frequency. Here in the U.S we operate at about 88-108. At least I can still pick up most AM stations.

    I called up many different shops in my area, all want an arm and a leg. I was able to negotiate a solid price from the original shop I went, plus he's going to go ahead and refurbish all 4 speakers in the car. For me, original is almost always best. If I could have found a matching period Pioneer/Alpine/Blaupunkt I would have definitely gone with that. Hopefully the repair turns out well and I'll be back to enjoying late 80s audio.
    Last edited by E34 5er; 03-28-2019 at 10:28 PM.
    My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7l...rJvxZHr_00nuhA

    Current cars: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300E, 1991 BMW 320i M-Tech II, 1991 Mitsubish Galant AMG Type II, 1992 Nissan Figaro, 1993 Toyota Chaser Tourer V

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    444
    My Cars
    1991 320i M-Tech II
    Update on the radio situation: The guy I gave the stereo to said it cannot be fixed, unfortunately... He said a lot of water got inside it and damaged the board- it is now all corroded. It also ruined all the filters. I actually did notice there was some oxidation on top of the radio when I took it out, but didn't know it was this bad. Any ideas on how water could have gotten in there? Everything else in the interior is bone dry, all other electronics are perfect as well. Such a weird situation!

    So my options are as follows:
    1. We can put in a new unit as was told before. I still don't like this idea, as it ruins the whole look of the interior in my opinion.
    2. He can refurbish one of the old Pioneer BMW units he has on hand. Then he would need to get the code. Or I can bring him a unit myself and cut on costs that way. He said it needs to be 4 channel connection and have a CD player plug in it. Should I just go to a junk yard and pull one out? Or is it better buying off eBay or something?

    Advice would be appreciated!

    Edit: Here's a picture of the back and front of the unit again:

    Last edited by E34 5er; 03-29-2019 at 03:54 PM.
    My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7l...rJvxZHr_00nuhA

    Current cars: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300E, 1991 BMW 320i M-Tech II, 1991 Mitsubish Galant AMG Type II, 1992 Nissan Figaro, 1993 Toyota Chaser Tourer V

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    444
    My Cars
    1991 320i M-Tech II
    Ok, the radio odyssey continues. I found a fellow forum member who I may be buying his old OEM unit from, but just in case, I purchased an aftermarket unit.Here is what is going on in the back of this new unit:

    So standard looking wiring harness, but this radio is only a two channel using the standard RCA cable input. My radio is 4-channel and the cables look like this:
    And the wiring harness cable looks like this:


    And here are pics of the actual wiring


    So what the heck do I need to do to get this new radio working with my car? I'm guessing first to get this wiring harness adapter. I'm probably going to need some adapter for the speakers as well, but the closest I found was this.Do I also need an antenna adapter? How do I get the actual speaker cables wired up? Will I need to splice all the wires together? Help is very appreciated here!
    Last edited by E34 5er; 04-08-2019 at 08:58 PM.
    My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7l...rJvxZHr_00nuhA

    Current cars: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300E, 1991 BMW 320i M-Tech II, 1991 Mitsubish Galant AMG Type II, 1992 Nissan Figaro, 1993 Toyota Chaser Tourer V

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Sacramento, California
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    143
    My Cars
    2000 M Coupe 1995 M3
    E34 5er, I saw your title and thought I would reply. I see very thorough conversations and specifics related to your problem so this may an oversimplification. However I have had success with German Audio Tech in Long Beach with my 1995 e36 m3.
    1995 Dakar M3​-Z3 Steering Rack
    2000 Dakar M Coupe-Bilstein Shocks, H&R springs, upgraded sway bars/bushings, and rear shock mounts
    2000 Dakar M Roadster-Sold
    2005 Alpine White/Imola Red M3 Vert-Sold
    2002 Dakar Yellow Z3 Coupe-Sold

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