I commend you for tackling this. No lecturing here from me

First things first, very few of us here know exactly what each wire does. On top of that, looks like you have both the factory wiring and the wiring from your new radio shown on these pictures. We have absolutely no idea what these wires do, especially the ones that came with your new radio. So really showing the wires is not all that helpful. Having said that, these two connections are a bit weird.

It's possible that these two connectors are meant to simply join these two wires, but I can't be sure. It's possible that someone tried to repair these wires that were cut. Can you trace the two wires coming out of these two connectors to see where they go?

 

Great job figuring all the chopped up wires. And I'm really impressed that you went back to stock connector before adding a new radio. Most people just connect the loose wires. Try the blue cables. It's the number one problem we have when people install our parts. I talk about it on this video.

 

Great job figuring all the chopped up wires. And I'm really impressed that you went back to stock connector before adding a new radio. Most people just connect the loose wires. Try the blue cables. It's the number one problem we have when people install our parts. I talk about it on this video.

I will check out this video rn thank you Christian
I read something about the blue cable. It’s the antenna/amp power wire. I might have to take some of the i terroir out to see the wiring.
Putting the stock adapter was the smarter choice, messing with the wires when your not “qualified” just complicated things that shouldn’t be complicated at all. Lol and it will make it easier when I choose to upgrade.

 

Hey @kaboom28, so I traced the wires and I think you might be right about it being cut. The first photo shows the weird attempt to join the wires.

( second photo )
The purple circle is where one end of the wire connects to the pink lines are the wires. The left pink line is to the harness and to the cables that run throughout the car. Now I’m thinking somewhere in the middle either went another adapter or they just need to be joined together again.

 

(blue circle)
I got the stock hardness from the junkyard and used butt connectors to reattach it to the factory wires

(Purple circle)
Factory antenna wire which I have to reattach when I get one either junkyard or I might order one with the adapter set.

(Pink circle)
Factory wires for the ac unit, shift lever cover thing

 

After tracing one of the wires:

(Purple line)
Connects to the factory radio harness #7

(Pink line)
Connects to the plug-in which says “amp”

(Blue line)
Wires that run though the car under the carpeting

I’m going to put a butt connector to join them and see what happens.

 

Here you can find the BMW E46 wiring diagram. Be warn that it's not for the faint of heart and requires some learning to understand how the drawings are put together. It's difficult to understand if you're looking at it for the first time.

BMW WDS Online

bmw wds online for all browsers

bmwteka.com

Good luck.

 

I think we do know what all the wires do. The car wires are all documented in the BMW WDS linked above - ask if you need help deciphering that - and the radio connectors appear to be international standard - Google ISO10487. All you have to do is match them up.

As I say, ask away for help with WDS. The colour codes there are German language abbreviations for colours and the wire diameters are in mm, but we have the knowledge

 

My only suggestion is that you solder the connections as crimp connectors can come loose.

 

I agree. However I opted for the connectors because my soldering skills aren’t that good and the connectors were fast and easy to get started.

 

Solderers will often say soldering is better. Crimpers will often say crimping is better. Truth is, either done properly is better than the other done poorly. FWIW, BMW generally crimped rather than soldered their wires to their terminals.

 

Terminals should be crimped (with the proper tool). End to end joints should be soldered and covered in heat shrink.

Both require at least 10% of wires connections to be done twice because that's just how it is.

 

I'm on MST What zone are you in? We will need 2 modes of operation. The 1st is you or I load questions in the evening & (most of the time) I can have the answer by 11:00 am your time.
The 2nd mode is when you are there with the car and able to work on it in real time. If you gave a PC where the car is perfect. If bot we can work just like this so long as we know we'll both be here at the same time. I have a job & all that, but some flexibility. I can give 30-40 minutes some times.

Does that make sense? I like to get things fixed fast where possible. and in your case you are able to reason your way thru. trying to work a problem like that via ransom discussion times we work ... eventually and i'm happy to do it. But it you can be my eyes, ears hands in near real time we might have it busted out pretty fast.

Here are my questions

1.) Do you already know how to work, read, and understand a multimeter? Do you have one ?
2.) OR ... Do you prefer to speaker test with the McGuiver safety pin /battery approach,

Please let me know . The safety pins and all that stuff on my list will work just fine .. but if 10 bucks is nothing to you , you will quickly learn how to use the Multimeter ... and that is a very good thing to know about.

if you have the time and one of those line item choices in hand. We can start tomorrow morning (for me, about 8 mst) we speaker testing it #1 on the list.

-Ourmandan-

 

I'm on MST What zone are you in? We will need 2 modes of operation. The 1st is you or I load questions in the evening & (most of the time) I can have the answer by 11:00 am your time.
The 2nd mode is when you are there with the car and able to work on it in real time. If you gave a PC where the car is perfect. If bot we can work just like this so long as we know we'll both be here at the same time. I have a job & all that, but some flexibility. I can give 30-40 minutes some times.

Does that make sense? I like to get things fixed fast where possible. and in your case you are able to reason your way thru. trying to work a problem like that via ransom discussion times we work ... eventually and i'm happy to do it. But it you can be my eyes, ears hands in near real time we might have it busted out pretty fast.

Here are my questions

1.) Do you already know how to work, read, and understand a multimeter? Do you have one ?
2.) OR ... Do you prefer to speaker test with the McGuiver safety pin /battery approach,

Please let me know . The safety pins and all that stuff on my list will work just fine .. but if 10 bucks is nothing to you , you will quickly learn how to use the Multimeter ... and that is a very good thing to know about.

if you have the time and one of those line item choices in hand. We can start tomorrow morning (for me, about 8 mst) we speaker testing it #1 on the list.

-Ourmandan-

on a multimeter I use “ohms” the most and that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge on it.

I do have a Mac and can work on real time

 

I know you're busy with other issues. There is no timeline for me. activate me when you are ready.

I'll email you info on how to test the speakers as soon as I get a wiring diagram from somewhere. .. so I can give you wire colors as a guide. Its easy.

Don't forget on that drive shaft support to push it forward toward the engine until the rubber is under a little bit of tension.
MrMcar (professional BMW service) taught me that. If you don't, the shaft will clank at take off. Also that big nut-looking sleeve that joins the 2 shafts together ... you are supposed to tighten that down after you have both front and back shafts bolted down to Engine and differential ends .. or it will also clank.

 

you mentioned to push the driveshaft forward, I don’t think i did that the first time I did the flex disc and support mount replacement. That was the first thing I did on this car when I bought it that was part of the Problem I encountered when putting the driveshaft back on. It didn’t line up and it wasn’t letting me push it on the rubber so I removed it took it apart and redid it slowly and correctly lol

I just got the transmission mounts I ordered yesterday right as I was about to put stupid exhaust back on so that’s on my to do list right now.

Your awesome, thank for your time and help. As soon as I’m done with the mounts and the car is off the ramps I’m going to test drive it.

I’m on PST zone so your only an a hour ahead of. And yes I do have a multimeter.

 

you mentioned to push the driveshaft forward, I don’t think i did that the first time I did the flex disc and support mount replacement. That was the first thing I did on this car when I bought it that was part of the Problem I encountered when putting the driveshaft back on. It didn’t line up and it wasn’t letting me push it on the rubber so I removed it took it apart and redid it slowly and correctly lol

I just got the transmission mounts I ordered yesterday right as I was about to put stupid exhaust back on so that’s on my to do list right now.

Your awesome, thank for your time and help. As soon as I’m done with the mounts and the car is off the ramps I’m going to test drive it.

I’m on PST zone so your only an a hour ahead of. And yes I do have a multimeter.

lol, we've now gone from radio to drive shaft and center support bearing. Fun times!

@Miz_Nessa just to clarify, when you install the drive shaft, you want to "preload" the center support bearing by slightly pushing it forward towards the front of the car. We're talking about maybe 1/4". You're not pushing the drive shaft forward. The drive shaft is mounted to the transmission and the rear differential so you can't really push it forward. It's the center support bearing that you push forward. This is to account for the fact that when you lower the car back on the ground, the rear suspension compresses, thereby articulating the rear section of the drive shaft and this tends to move the center support bearing forward. By "pre-loading" the center support bearing during installation, you relieve the stress when you lower the car. Good luck with both your radio and your suspension work!!!

 

Check your fuse panel fuse number 7 and 41, I installed my head unit and my music wouldn’t play on the speakers but the head unit worked perfectly fine I found out it was my fuse. Your fuse box location should be inside glove box on under the dash, there are two gray tabs push up on the fuse panel and swivel the tabs in open position and then the fuse panel should drop down. I wired everything up and the only problem I ended up having was when I set my parking brake my music cuts out and my brake light is hard set on my dash so I wired up my parking brake signal wire instead of grounding it by accident.