325is Radio/CD question...

I just bought a 1995 325is for my daughter at college. The car is in great shape and has the factory cassette radio. The radio works fine but she wants CD. (Duh!) There is supposed to be a harness in the trunk somewhere to connect to a 6-CD changer that will play through the existing radio. First problem is that I can't find it! I removed (with great difficulty) some of the side trim from the trunk but all I saw was what appears to be an amplifier unit. I didn't go beyond that. Does anyone here know exactly where to look? It's too difficult to remove the side trunk panels for a hit-or-miss approach. The dealer only said that it's in there... somewhere. If that doesn't work, I also have a Sony radio/CD that I could sub for the stock radio, however, it's set up to power speakers directly and the factory unit appears to power the amplifier instead. I don't want to put the Sony in and end up with smoke. Anyone here have any experience with this? Thanks in advance for any help.

r221b

Those trunk factory mount CD changers/ players are available from Bavarian Auto sports but they get $500+ for them. I called Crutchfield and spoke with a guy who knew systems & changed out the existing radio with an AM/FM CD head with Ipod hook ups & room to expand it with even more external options such as Sirius satellite radio. The head I got with the correct wire harness connector ran around $180 or so. It sounds MUCH better than the stock unit which may be an Alpine unit. I then changed out the factory junk speakers with the best Boston Acoustics I could put in. Now I have a nice sound system for much less than the system from BMW. Hey unless you have the factory Harmon kardon unit, and I doubt you do, scrap out the factory sound system.

Thanks for the info. The unit is indeed an Alpine. My daughter is far from a music purist. She thinks the stock unit sounds fine. Who am I to argue? She just wants CD capability. I've seen the BMW changers (used) on eBay and that would probably be sufficient. Still don't know where the trunk harness is though... :tongue: I know Crutchfield does sell an adaptor to mate the BMW radio cable with whatever you want to put in for about $20. As I mentioned, I already have a nice Sony unit but it's output is for speakers and not just drive for an amp. Do you know if the Alpine dash unit is made to drive the amp only? I was led to believe from other sources that the amplifier was an option and you could get the radio without it. That would mean the radio should be able to power speakers directly. I'm trying to keep the project as simple and inexpensive as I can but I'm also trying to find out all the options....

r221b

[The pw cable is on the rear passenger top speaker side. The interface cable is looped from the amplifer thru the trunk door to the other side of the car. It is looped almost to the rear passenger side signal lights. You have to open the "rug" and the plastic in other to see both. The interfere cable is built-in but you need to find and plug into your cd changer
Good luck