The e30 stock radio ipod install

[So Live]

Well, I love my ipod and always will. Im sure many of you are the same way. I have no real reason to buy a whole new head unit other than for my ipod. Ive done some research and found that some people with other cars have hard wired in a head phone cable or what ever. I decided to do the same.

Heres what i did:
-Trip to walmart to get a tape adapter. The one with a 1/8" sterio plug on one end and a tape on the other.

-Cut the wire as close to the tape as possible.

-Strip the three wires inside (red white black).



-Pull the radio






-Then i proceded to open up my stock radio by removing the three screws for the top most cover. I looked around, nothing too promising. Theres this paper stuff taped to the internals just to the right of the tape deck. i moved the paper and what do i find? a plug with three wires in it. Red white and black.





-Take your tapeless tape adapter and solder the wires to where the plug is soldered to the board. The little posts line up the the wires coming out of the plug underneath.





-Tack them on and there you have it, a hard wired sterio input. then i took the adapter wire and had it exit the right rear corner of the radio for clearance.

-Screw the top back on and you can put the 1/8 sterio plug where ever you want it. Through the glove box or out under the hvac panel.




I almost forgot to mention you have to have a tape in the deck to get audio from the ipod. It dosnt seem to matter if the tape has audio or not on it. Only down fall with having a real tape in there is when the tape reaches its end it has to switch sides. Just use the faux tape you cut off the adapter. Normal tapes will play if you dont have the ipod pluged in.

Feel free to ask questions.

[So Live]

Updated!

[E30derrick]

Chris,

It's been a while since you posted this - but i had a couple questions. I have a 86 E30 that is very similar to what you have shown. However, my 'little orange plug' has brown, orange, and red wires connected to it - and i can't tell from the picture above which pins the red, white, and black wires go to. I know which 3 pins need wires, but which color goes to which pin (it's to blurry)?

Very nice write up though.

Thanks,
derrick

[jester7500]

Nice job! Thanks for the write-up.

[takumidrift30]

Nice job! Do you by any chance have a diagram/ or to w/c color codes should I solder the wires from the adapter to a stock E34 stereo?

[E30derrick]

Chris,

...i can't tell from the picture above which pins the red, white, and black wires go to. I know which 3 pins need wires, but which color goes to which pin (it's to blurry)?

bump...

Thanks,
derrick

[E30derrick]

bump???

[E30derrick]

Ok, going to try trial and error - i'm assuming that nothing will get hurt if they are hooked up wrong? Will it only work one way?

[jorgew17]

I was checking this useful thread, however it seems that image DSC01723.jpg does not show very clear the exact position of the wires, do you have another image or the wiring diagram? Thanks.

[93Jag98Bimmer]

Updated!

I really want to do something like this to instead of installing my aftermarket Alpine head unit because I really do like the factory radio that goes along with my E30's premium factory system.

I am currently using the tape deck thing to make my ipod play but you can always hear that faint hissing behind the music. I even went to like 20 different placed trying to find an actual tape deck cleaner!! Some people thought I was nuts but I did find one. It helped, but not as much as Id hope.

So since you cut the wire off your tape deck adapter do you experience any hissing or is it perfectly clear now that its hard wired like you have set up?

Thanks!

[So Live]

Wow guys its been a while since ive even had this set up in my car. I ended up buying a sony with a CD player!

Those are the only pictures i have. I think the radio got thrown out but i can see if its still laying around this weekend when i go home. If it is i can get some better photos but thats all i have as of now. Sorry!!

From what i remember, the red/white/black from the tape adapter go right to the red white black in the deck. They should correspond to left/right/gnd but dont quote me on that.

As far as the hissing, i really dont remember, its been close to two years with a decent head unit in my car. I think i ran into 'noise' problems when i tried to hook up a iPod dock connector so i could charge my iPod at the same time.

I was also trying to get rid of the 'tape in the deck' when the ipod was on. Theres a little tiny switch that tells the radio when theres a tape in the deck. With out any knowledge of how the system worked i tried to take those wires out to an external toggle switch so i could flip a switch and have the ipod play. This didnt work out but i didnt really get into testing it or playing with other methods too much.

[budz01]

this is what im looking for my iphone, thanks a lot you




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