CD43 business CD head unit installation....

[George Mann]

Will be getting subject radio in a week or so from a Z3. My understanding is...for later model E-32 and E-34's, the radio car harness female plug will directly plug into the CD43. Issue for my E-32 is...I have the previous design level radio plug...the harness changed I believe in model year 1991 and my '90 harness/connector will not plug to the CD43 Blaupunkt. Anybody have a female car harness radio plug that will plug in from a late model E-34? Winfred, do you have one in your yard? If so, please let me know if you would like to sell it to me.
Thanks,
George

[mholbrook]

See www.installer.com for the harness stuff you need. I did this a while back and you need the harness to the newer radio (from the car to radio) and an antenna adaptor (commonly called a vw antenna adaptor). After that, I used some instant wire splicers to tap into the wires to hook up the harness.

If you get the instruction book for the radio, can you take some good pictures of it and email to me or post them someplace to download. I have a business cd with no booklet and I'd like to know a little more than the "trial and error" I have done so far.

[winfred]

i can butch a plug if you need it, i don't have the radio you are talking about to try out, but i know the 96 and up e36 standard tape deck which plugs in, uses a different order of wires in the plug, because all of the speakers don't work if you plug it into a 95 and older e36, it sounds like ass also, i like the pioneer 95 and older units for better sound quality with a pioneer changer for it's faster disc access, smaller case and cheep cartriges


Will be getting subject radio in a week or so from a Z3. My understanding is...for later model E-32 and E-34's, the radio car harness female plug will directly plug into the CD43. Issue for my E-32 is...I have the previous design level radio plug...the harness changed I believe in model year 1991 and my '90 harness/connector will not plug to the CD43 Blaupunkt. Anybody have a female car harness radio plug that will plug in from a late model E-34? Winfred, do you have one in your yard? If so, please let me know if you would like to sell it to me.
Thanks,
George

[George M]

First, Thanks to both Mike and Winfred for your response. Mike a question...where can I get an adapter for the antenna?...any suggestions? Apparently the connector on the back of the CD43 head unit is a larger diameter than a typical antenna co-ax cable...is that correct Mike?
And Winfred...greatly appreciate your offer man. Will likely take you up on it. What I will do when I get the radio, is take a pic of the back...may post one up shortly so we can figure out what the plug should look like and what the live terminals are from the male prongs sticking out of the back. Ideally I will need a few inches of wire cut off behind the connector from the car harness to splice into my car harness. Mike, if I am not mistaken, I believe Bentley should show which wire/terminal pertains to what. If you have a male connector from a later model E-34 or E-32 with wires attached to it, then you should be able to deduce what wire goes where per Bentley's schematic. I will dig into this a bit when I get the radio. If I can provide any insight of what leads go where...I will to you Mike and others considering this radio option. Winfred, I will post a pic of the back of the radio as soon as I can. And Thanks again for your help,
George

[mholbrook]

You can get the antenna thing from www.installer.com as well as the plug connector. This place is not cheap, at least in my mind but they did have the stuff I needed to connect mine.

[George Mann]

will post a pic of radio front and back when I get a chance. Would like to hook with Winfred for the connector if possible. BMW did make some subtle
connector changes along the way. There is an E-32 1991 750il owner that used his factory car harness radio plug and it snapped right in to the CD43 with no hacking. The business CD43 was sold in certain E-36's as well as the Z3. So maybe I can find the right year BMW plug from Winfred's yard.
George

[Hector]

eventually do the installation and harnessing of the wires and such as I also want to change my radio/cassette deck to a radio/CD. So if you post on a weekend or something I might miss it 'cause sometimes on Mondays I don't have too much time to scroll back to look at weekend posts. I'll try to be on the lookout anyhow.


will post a pic of radio front and back when I get a chance. Would like to hook with Winfred for the connector if possible. BMW did make some subtle
connector changes along the way. There is an E-32 1991 750il owner that used his factory car harness radio plug and it snapped right in to the CD43 with no hacking. The business CD43 was sold in certain E-36's as well as the Z3. So maybe I can find the right year BMW plug from Winfred's yard.
George

[ryan roopnarine]

wow, didn't think anyone else wanted to do this mod. there's a substantial BMW recycling yard in orlando called Michaels (have a showroom, hoighty toity operation). every time i go there, i spend a good 10 minutes looking at their selection of used bmw cd players, as if i knew that somebody else had done it, i'd have put one in in place of my RF cd changer that i bought a year ago. sooooo, the e36 radios are semi conducive to this task? any specific model that works better than another?


See www.installer.com for the harness stuff you need. I did this a while back and you need the harness to the newer radio (from the car to radio) and an antenna adaptor (commonly called a vw antenna adaptor). After that, I used some instant wire splicers to tap into the wires to hook up the harness.

If you get the instruction book for the radio, can you take some good pictures of it and email to me or post them someplace to download. I have a business cd with no booklet and I'd like to know a little more than the "trial and error" I have done so far.

[George M]

Ryan,
Believe the reason why this swap isn't performed more readily is availability of the CD43 and the incompatible harness that scares many away. The appearance of the radio is amazing in the dash of an E-34 or E-32...looks better than the original radio IMHO which is hard to beat for appearance. There are some great radios out there...the issue is how they cosmetically meld with the I.P....most not so well.
Once I saw one mounted in an E-32, I had to have one.
Will post some pics tomorrow if I get a chance.
George

[George Mann]

Here are the pics of the CD43 business CD head unit. As you can see, it looks right at home in the I.P. of the E-34 and E-32. Winfred, if you read this... have a look at the back of the radio. Since this is from a late 90's Z3, as discussed, do you think a later E-36 car harness/radio plug will fit with the correct mating connector wires-to-pins for this radio? Could probably compare radio pin position of a late model E-36 in your yard to see if the
E-36 connector plug has pigtail wires "in the right positions" corresponding to the pins shown. If so, would you splice one from a car if you have one, gin up a price for me covering your shipping cost and please let me know?
Thanks to all...still have to learn wire postions...what they pertain to so I could splice the connector pigtails into my car harness. Will learn this shortly and post to help others who want to mount up this radio.
Thanks again,
George
CD43 business CD pics:
http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/CD43FRONTVIEW.jpg

http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/CD43INSTALLED.bmp

http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/CD43REARVIEW.jpg

[Jason]

Ryan,
Believe the reason why this swap isn't performed more readily is availability of the CD43 and the incompatible harness that scares many away. The appearance of the radio is amazing in the dash of an E-34 or E-32...looks better than the original radio IMHO which is hard to beat for appearance. There are some great radios out there...the issue is how they cosmetically meld with the I.P....most not so well.
Once I saw one mounted in an E-32, I had to have one.
Will post some pics tomorrow if I get a chance.
George

[winfred]

that looks like the common later radio plug (91-) like i said earlyer the plug's the same style but the pin positions change, for example you can plug a 96 and up e36 head unit into a 95 e36 and not all of the speakers work, so some of the inputs to the crossover are not getting there. you may get to do some detective work to get everything going to the correct input for good stereo sound. i tried a factory infinity amp from a 92 750 that had the same plugs as my 535 and the sound was weird, i had to turn off the radio on the trip home because the harmonics were making my head hurt (screwing with my inner ear i guess) i've come across a lot of that crap where the wires move around the plug from year to year on the later bmw's all over the car

[George M]

with the BMW plug from '91 on...though I have no doubt what you wrote is correct...the pins likely move around a bit between model years even using the same connector. According to the guy that installed the CD43 into his 91 750iL is was plug and play. Do you happen to have a 91 E-34 or E-32 out in the yard?

If not...Mike as I recall you purchased your plug from www.installer.com.
Was that connector plug and play? Also, which model BMW radio did you install?...terminals though using the same connector may be slightly different than the CD43 as Winfred stated. Mike, do you have the part number for the connector you purchased?
Many Thanks,
George

[Alan_525i]

That head unit looks really nice. Will my existing pioneer CD changer be compatible with it if I were to upgrade? My existing head still works great but one of the bulbs in the display is out and I'm lazy to spend the afternoon soldering. Wouldn't mind a new head with buttons instead of the slider to skip tracks though.

[George M]

the Kenwood 715S I currently have in my car is a wonderful radio...real good sound, but it doesn't integrate cosmetically as good as a BMW factory radio...why I am switching. Would say your CD changer will not be compatible but you may contact a reputable radio shop and get the skinny on whether the two could be made to work together. Generally the head unit and CD changer must almost be made for one another for them to communicate without a glitch.
George

[Alan_525i]

My existing head is a BMW OEM with a Pioneer branded CD changer. I know that some of the old alpines in BMWs also work with the Pioneer made changers. Wondering if this one is one of them. Time to do some research.

[winfred]

yep


Do you happen to have a 91 E-34 or E-32 out in the yard?