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Figuring out my E36's aftermarket wiring + installing a C43
I've found myself in an interesting situation with my E36's audio system, and while I have some ideas on how to figure this all out I could certainly use some feedback on how to approach this best. I have some experience with home audio systems but all the wiring possibilities for car audio has my head spinning - especially with my atypical situation here.
What I have now:
I've got a 1999 M3 Coupe, with a Kenwood eXcelon KDC-599 head unit & some aftermarket MTX Audio speakers; here's a link to the deck's manual, the good stuff is on p29. The PO had two 10" subs in the trunk with an amp, though at the end of our "negotiation" he hastily clipped all the wires and removed the box + amp. While I test drove the car I did hear the speakers working, so I know the existing wiring setup works, but considering the amp was removed I haven't been able to use the radio since I've owned the car. Here's an overview of what wires are where in the car:
- head unit has RCA + sub cables going into the trunk
- head unit has standard speaker wire exiting the wiring harness, some of which appear to be linked to the speakers (look for the blue/red + blue/black ones in the photos)
- trunk also shows a bundle of speaker wire
(some photos of the above wires)
What I'd like to build towards:
I'm not a fan of the aftermarket look, so I picked up a C43 head unit from another member on here. I do want to add bluetooth functionality, and read that this adapter works for the C33, C43, and CD43 units. My ideal goal is to simply get that adapter plugged into the C43's wiring harness, and use as much of the existing wiring that I can in the car; I understand this might involve me buying another 4-channel amp to fill that gap in the existing wiring setup.
My current questions:
What's the right way to interface this C43 deck given that the current head unit has connections for both its wiring harness & RCA outputs?
I read on this post that the C43 is capable of working with aftermarket amps if you simply attach the positive wire to the RCA cable, and the negative to a chassis ground line - the easiest approach would just be with some female RCA adapters like these. This seems like a reasonable solution if I should prioritize the RCA cables, though it seems like these just go directly to the trunk. I don't care so much about sound quality, so if it makes more sense to only use the regular speaker wire that appears to be linked to the speakers then that's fine with me.
Does the existing wiring make any sense?
What other things should I be testing/investigating? I'll be digging around a bit more to see what the speakers are actually connected to, and what the bundle of speaker wire in the trunk is coming from. Another thought that I had was to pick up a new amp & wire it up with the existing stuff, and theoretically if everything else is done correctly then my Kenwood unit should work.
Any help or suggestions are welcome & appreciated!
Last edited by amelagrano; 08-23-2020 at 05:42 PM.
Member
Your car came from the factory with a separate amp in the left side of the trunk. The CD43 head unit does not have a built in amp. So you’ll have to buy and install an amp. You’ll need to see if the wires that connected the factory head unit to the factory amp are still intact. Go to www.newtis.info and enter the last 7 characters of the car’s vehicle identification number. Hit enter and bookmark the page. newtis is BMW’s official technical information system. It’s free. Do some digging to find the wiring diagrams for the head unit to amp wiring. The diagrams will include color codes. Be advised that the color abbreviations are for the German words for the colors! So, head over to google translate and make a list of German words for colors with the English translations.
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If you ever find yourself north of town around Salem area, feel free to stop by - I'll take a look and possibly help you out.
You would need to have stock head unit harness still in the car (it is possible that aftermarket deck was installed with adapter than kept original harness untouched!) in order for CD43 to be more or less plug and play. I may have some harnesses laying around, I'll take a look. You will require an amplifier that will power your interior speakers since CD43 does not have built in amplifier.
Your picture link does not work.
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I just took a brief look on there - tons of great docs available. I'll do some additional research tonight, appreciate the tip!Originally Posted by MarcoZandrini
Apologies about the photos - should've tested all the links before posting. I've attached a series of them here - hopefully they're large enough to be able to discern the various wires.
I have a clipped wiring harness for the C43 that I figured I could attach to the existing wiring, assuming the original stuff was left untouched (like you mentioned). I'm going to pull the trunk liner to see a bit more of the wiring in the rear, and investigate what's left of the stock amp.
IMG_20200804_195425.jpgIMG_20200804_195649.jpgIMG_20200804_195451.jpgIMG_20200816_123828.jpgIMG_20200804_192729.jpg
Last edited by amelagrano; 08-24-2020 at 10:01 PM.
Member
Looks like I might be able to get off easy - appears that the stock wiring is all in place still, as is the stock amp. PO seems to have split out some of the wires to go into the amp he had installed.
My assumption then is that if I splice these cut wires back together so they all feed into their original harness locations here and plug them back into the amp, everything should be fine?
Attachment 677032Attachment 677033Attachment 677034
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