head unit

[dkerchner]

Originally Posted by oakley

either side of the head unit u'll find 2 very small and very discreate little flaps of plastic..lift em up and use a small hex key to undo the nuts...as u do it'll push the head unit out so DONT force it!! If u cant find em let me know i'll post a pic but just have a good look!!

I'm having problems getting my head unit out. I just bought the car at the beginning of the year and a few weeks ago i cleaned the battery terminals... Well I need the security code to use the radio again and I don't know it or have it. I called the dealership and they told me to get the serial number off the side of the head unit. I found the flaps and what not, but hex keys aren't working for me unless I'm doing something horribly wrong. It looks like I need something that has a 5 sided head. It's a pentagon shaped, 5 sided figure. I tried every tool I had and I went to 2 other friend's houses and another relatives house and still got absolutely nowhere... Any suggestions? Help me please!

[dkerchner]

I found another post that might have given me the info I needed...

[pnosker]

That's because you need the "BMW Pentagon Radio Removal Key"

[adamud]

Originally Posted by Mad-Machine

this brings up a question.. what's behind the plastic at the bottom of the console? There is that big open area that is recessed, it sits between the temp dials and the cig lighter.. what's behind that?

I'm not really sure whats behind it but other than a bunch of wires. I didn't pay attention when I was running my ipod cable. I took out my ash tray and dilled a hole so the cable could come up through the hole into the empty ash try. Ipod nanos fit perfectly, even with the cover closed! All I saw/felt were a bunch of wires. Couldn't tell you what else is behind there

[zboot]

tagging on to this - the car I bought had an aftermaket unit installed with was removed and the stock put back when I got it. Unfortunately, the antenna cable had been cut (I guess to mate with the aftermarket unit) and so was not connected back to the stock.

I didn't notice this because we didn't have the correct code for the radio (it had been replaced by the original owner who accidentally kept the original code card instead of replacing it with something with the new code) - so I only discovered the issue after I'd gotten back to tallahassee and had a chance to take it to a dealer to get the correct code.

My question is: is there something I could use to patch two antenna cables together? That way I can buy something with the correct end on it to mate to the stock alpine unit and patch to my existing cable.

[pnosker]

To zboot:

Yes, I bought what you're talking about at Best Buy that converts ISO to DIN or whatever, just tell them what you're looking for and they can find it.

[zboot]

The connector end of my antenna has been cut off. So it is just the bare coax. Does this ISO->DIN thing clamp onto the coax? Pretty much I need to first terminate a bare cable, after that, I can locate an adapter so I can plug it into my head unit.

[chicayne]

To get the radio to play sound in the 10-speaker setup you need a special harness. I don't know where to get it but what it does it convert the factory speaker wires to RCA jacks and you plug those into the back of your head unit. But, if you do not have a powerful enough head unit it will sound like crap. The solution is, since you are not using the head units speaker out wires just run new wires from those to the woofers and it sounds good. Make sure that you unhook the speakers from the factory wiring and tape them off and whatever you do do not hook up the illumination wire. Now the tweeters should be running off the factory harness and plugged into the RCA jacks and the woofers should have new wires ran to the head unit.

[2cam16]

Originally Posted by ipswich318ti

tryed the glove box idea and still need about a inch to get it to fit flush
will have another go tomorrow its really annoying me

Reviving this from the dead:
So today I installed my Alpine HU and everything works perfect. Only thing is I'm having the same problem with shoving the wires back there. Specially with the harness adapter being square, there just doesn't seem to be enough space back there.
Ipswich, any update on your install ? How did you get the wires in there ?
Right now my HU is hanging by zip ties as I ran out of time to work on it (it'll have to wait until the weekend now).
I've never had a problem with any of my past vehicles (all Japanese) and this is my first one with so little space behind the HU.
thanks

[ipswich318ti]

got mine in

just kept pushing the wires down and slowly edgin it back
i did take the glovebox out and that helped alot as it gave me a few inches of space

[2cam16]

Cool.I'll try it with the glovebox removed.
Thanks !