AchtungE60

I have some really weird issues to document.

Car (04 U.S. spec 530I) has standard system with woofers under seat and the little amp in the boot.. The subs never worked and I'll be damned if i dont have navigation. This Car was pre-wired. I got a professinal screen and Nav CCC, Threw it in and no sound....no chimes, no PDC alert etc. I also had purchased an AUX adapter from BMW dealer. I had MP3 coded and the Aux menu programmed at the dealer and have the latest program code. Sound came back.....Woofers under seat still did not work. The aux menu was there but didnt work when I plugged in. The BMW aux pretty much uses the L+ and R+ and a ground. I believe problem is at the head unit.

Amp - Power, Ground and remote to the tiny amp do work fine. I assume its a signal line issue going to the amp. I've decided to upgrade anyway. I tapped into the rear speakers unsure of which one is + or -. Remember, these rear deck component sets are NOT driven by the amp. They're driven by the Head unit.

Right (Passenger)
Yellow/black stripe (+)?
Yellow/brown stripe (-)?

Left (Driver)
Black/violet stripe (-)?
Black/red stripe (+)?

Does anyone know which one would be the negative on each or how I can find out? I tapped into the wires already and above is how I have them hooked up. I've tried different ways and this is the one that produces the most power (although capacitated)

Since it appears that the tiny factory amp incoming line-levels don't work I've tapped into the rear speakers and have them going to the hi-level inputs on the amp. I believe I have it figured out perfectly since I do have sound but it appears that the signals coming from the rear deck speakers are "capacitated".........I didn't see any capacitors inline with the wires so I'm assuming the head unit does the crossing over?

At any rate. 325 watts RMS 4 ohm load Mono into a 10" speaker should produce enough punch that you can feel but it surely is not more than that of a well driven 5 1/4" midrange. I plug my iphone into the amp and I get amazing response! So I've decided to use a Scosche line-level converter. I tried this and it was worse than the hi-level inputs on the amp although i did recieve signal.

Do you think the problem is the output on the CCC? Is the CCC programmable? Because I believe that this is my problem. My BMW Aux doesn't work and my tiny factory amp line levels don't work. Although I can tap into the rear speakers the signal is shit.

Anybody want to chime in here? Am i missing something?

AchtungE60

Bump

530inOK

This diagram shows more than you're asking but does confirm your polarities and that the head does provide high pass filtering(see top center). You may have to search the archives here see where others have tapped into with a converter to provide line levels for an aftermarket amp. Seems like they're tapping into the mid-range drive but I'm not sure.
edit:sorry about the quality

AchtungE60

I appreciate the feedback. I've seen all this before and don't know why I overlooked it. Indeed this is a problem if the head unit provides midrange crossover. This is definately my problem. I plug my iphone into the amp and it works fine due to the full range. If I find a filter soldered into the wiring I'd jump for joy at ripping the wiring out and re-soldering at the speaker terminals. Does anyone know if there are filters in the wiring? Or has anyone taken a CCC apart to bypass.
I guess the real problem is.. WHY THE HELL AM I NOT GETTING THOSE LOW LINE SIGNALS TO THE REAR AMP!!!? Remember it didn't work with the original M-ASK and doesn't with the CCC.

bruce_miranda

I think your CCC is taken from a EU car that did not have the Hi-Fi option. The CCC will only output the line level outputs when its programmed as the Hi-Fi unit.

The reason you are getting bad response from your rear speakers is because the HU is sending crossed over signals to the speakers. So you are effectively only getting a midrange signal. Also I hope you new amp is able to take High input signal.

AchtungE60

New amp takes Hi-Level inputs fine. The low-level didn't seem to give as much response as the hi-level anyway. I see your point in believing it came from an EU car. But i plugged it in and it was stuck in Los Angeles until iI figured out how to hook up the Ariel Antenna (I had to unplug the blue fakra connector from the bluetooth module and plug it into the other blue fakra tucked away under velco ..... remember the car is pre-wired for nav.......so again, it was stuck in L.A. and all nav menus were in English........and this doesn't explain why the original M-ASK was not pushing line-levels to the amp as well.

AchtungE60

I had a lot of things to do this weekend. A LOT. But I'll be damned if I didn't resolve this ASAP. So after painting my wifes car and letting the 5 coats of clear harden I decide that my car is only a car and wires and it will submit to me.

Let me first add that I owe "John" the BMW programmer an apology and I will do this in the next few days when I go to buy a wheel well cover. The problem was all mine.

I ripped apart the dash and looked at the back of the CCC. Originally I bought the BMW part 65 12 0 153 502 for the plug and play....so I thought. That part number already has the X13813 plug attached to it. I was under the impression that this aux kit uses the existing slot where the CD changer would be plugged into. When i opened up the dash and checked the main plug X13812 it had an existing X13813 plugged into it. So I unplugged the existing X13813 and plugged in my new X13813 that is fixated to the wires the AUX kit comes with. Afterall it's a "kit" right? I guess the instructions flew right past me.

"Disconnect the existing cables from branch A2
and connect them to plug X13813 :
- WS/BL cable to PIN 7
- WS/RT cable to PIN 2
- WS/BR cable to PIN 8
Connect plug X13813 to plug X13812"

If I didn't know it was not plug and play and I had to chop it all up....I would have made my own for $5 and plugged it into the existing plug X13813....because this is what I ended up doing anyway. So here's the kicker, the existing X13813 plug was the plug for my amp. So I plugged it in and powered up the CCC. Sure enough I had some extremely low frequencies shaking the car. Nice. So I figure this is my issue. I used the X13813 that came with the kit and i never rearranged the damned wires as stated above. I did have to wire in the CCC's fan unit to the X13813 though. And let me tell you getting those little pins isn't easy and i gave up. I just ripped the wires out, cut them soldered the copper together to make a firm wire for insertion and slide it back into X13813. After this i ran a bit of super glue down the wire and used compressed air to quick dry it. I plugged up the CCC set it to AUX and it worked! Hooked up the amp and everything works! Isn't that something? An issue so small overlooked.

The speakers under the seats are in fact sub-woofers. They pick up very low frequencies. Of course when the BASS is turned all the way down you wont hear them and I keep it a practive to keep the bass at a negative if using an external subwoofer. But without my new sub/amp hooked up and the BASS all the way up those speakers do rock the car. You can feel them and they do have a low response if the BASS is turned all the way up. Anyone though of putting some Kicker Solo Baric 8" subs in there?