cleung

you got any pics? I used to run hertz equipment in my e46 great sounding stuff. I had the MLK 165 in the front and 1 ML2500 sub loved it. I ran the MLK's by amped with a JL 450/4 and the ML with a JL 1000/1, I ended up decding not to do stereo in the e60 and sold the equipment. To answer your question you might want to try adding a hybrid capacitor to your system to take some of the strain off of your battery.

methodsound

If they removed your door panels without the battery disconnected it will trigger the airbag warnings, this is absolute fact. Most installers think that as long as they do not turn the key in the ignition it is ok to unplug components. That is not true with modern BMW cars. Second, the active steering malfunction comes on when you disconnect the battery. Usually by driving the car slowly and turning the wheel all the way both ways it will clear the active steering malfunction, although I did once have my battery die with the wheel turned to the right and it took a couple days for it to reset due to the position of the wheel when the battery died.

Also, for the long term, did they ground any wires directly to your negative battery post? If so you should have it moved to the other side of the IBS sensor.

subterFUSE

Yes, I did have airbag warnings after taking the car back. But once those faults were cleared from the car computer they did not return. So I think those are OK.

The Active Steering Malfunction is definitely a hardware fault, and not as simple as resetting the active steering like you describe. I am fully aware of the situations you describe, but this is definitely a more severe issue. I have tried many times the reset procedure listed in the owner's manual, and BMW has now worked on the problem twice. They insist the car's computer is saying hardware fault and the module must be replaced. I ordered a replacement AFS control module and it should be installed late next week. I'll be sure to report back.

Lastly, here are some pics of my battery and grounds. We have removed the subwoofer and sub amp so that BMW could access the trunk components during my service appointment recently. So the battery is easily viewable and I took some pics.
They did not connect any ground wires directly to the negative battery post. They have grounded to this spot here in the picture, highlighted with an orange box.




Here is a pic of the battery. Negative battery post is boxed in Orange. There is nothing connected to it that does not appear to be factory.
On the bottom left of the picture you can see one of my fuse holders. There are two fuses for my system. A 100 Amp and a 60 Amp.



And here is a photo of the equipment rack with the Audison amp, BitOne and the two crossovers for my Mille component speakers. They are installed on a rack which is mounted under the rear deck. This photo is taken from inside the trunk looking up.



Here is a pic from outside the car. You can see the side of the Audison amp below the rear deck. I am running a JL Audio 12W6v2 woofer in the E60 stealthbox. It goes in the left corner of the trunk, but it not in this picture because we removed it temporarily for BMW to access the trunk easier.

subterFUSE

By the way, thanks for the suggestions....

Like I mentioned, I have had many Active Steering Malfunction messages in the past and they all could be reset. I got them once when my battery died, and also got them when I was starting the car and my foot slipped off the brake pedal. This effectively made the car think the battery was disconnected. And that happened to me once when my wheel was turned and so I had to drive away with the wheel about 30 degrees off angle.

But all these times in the past when I got the warning, I was able to get the steering reset by either following the directions in the BMW owner's manual.... or by taking the car to my dealer.

However, after the stereo install the car began registering a "hardware fault" in the Active Steering control module. This fault would not go away after they cleared the fault memory. And so my dealer says the control module must be replaced. Do you think the stereo system could cause a hardware fault like that?

There is also one other fault which keeps coming back. It is a TCU fault saying the cellular phone antenna is not working.


I'm not really sure what could be causing these issues? One thought which crossed my mind was that maybe the subwoofer's magnet is causing electrical interference because it does get rather close to the Logic 7 amplifier. But I have not had any problems with the stereo playing and I am running my Audison BitOne by taking the speaker level outputs from the Logic 7 into the high level inputs on the BitOne.

Do you have any thoughts?

methodsound

I highly doubt that they damaged you active steering system during the installation. You are wise to keep your cool until the problems are resolved. No need to blame anyone until you have fixed the issue and know the real cause.


For the active steering: I did not mention it earlier but the one time my steering wheel was stuck 45 degrees off center, it did not reset until I parked it straight and used the computer to reset/ re-calibrate the active steering angle. There is a process for this with the plug in computer tool. However it was not able to read one of the steering sensors and failed the re-calibration. The good news was that it reset by itself an hour later. ( I am sure the dealer all ready went through this procedure but did want to mention it ).

As for the TCU antenna error: I believe the TCU has an antenna on the left side of the rear shelf. ( if it is not a TCU cellular antenna then please advise me as to what it is but I am 95% sure ). The reason I bring it up is that you have so much equipment screwed into the rear shelf from underneath. I am sure they checked before they drilled into that area. But just in case, can you take a better photo showing the underside of the rear shelf? The antenna is held down with two 10mm plastic nuts which are visible from under the rear shelf on the left side. As long as that area is clear then your ok. I have a photo of the top side of the rear shelf showing the antenna but I have re-located my antenna to make room for other equipment.

subterFUSE

Thanks again for the help.

The equipment is attached to a metal frame which is attached to the rear deck via 4 screws. I am hopeful and fairly confident they did not screw into any wires when they attached the rack, but I will be certain to mention your point to them. I have taken some extra photos of the rack and specifically the left corner of the rear deck.

This picture was taken by laying my camera on the trunk floor and looking up. This is the left corner of the rear deck you asked to see more closely. In the upper left of the pic is the folding seat release lever. Below the two wire bundles which go the Audison amp you can see the metal frame rack I was mentioning. This rack is what all the components are attached to. So none of the gear is screwed into the car itself.



This is the same corner but from the opposite angle. I took this picture by folding down the rear seats and then looking into the trunk from the cabin.
You will notice they did add some dynamat material. Is that covering your view of where the TCU antenna should be located?


Here is another pic taken from the cabin looking into the trunk through the folding seat opening. You can see my BitOne and the two crossovers for my Hertz MLK2 speakers, and the metal rack they are attached to.



My stereo shop has requested I bring the car to them before we install the replacement Active Steering Module. They want to review all connections, grounds, etc.... So I plan to give them the car for the day today. I will be certain to mention your points to them and have them check for the TCU antenna.

Will report back with an update soon.

methodsound

If I were them I would do the same thing just to be sure. I still do not think the steering issue is their fault and most likely the other issue is not either but it's worth checking before it goes to the dealer.

Their work looks even better in the new pics you just posted. As an installer myself I can appreciate how clean the wiring is with all the expandable sleeving over it. Also the metal amp rack looks solid and clean. What did they do for your speakers up front? Did they change your A-pillars or door panels? Can you PM me with their contact info? I am curious if they came to the same conclusions that I did regarding the phase of the factory front / rear / subwoofer wires that I did when I blueprinted the L7 system. ( the phase of the front subs and rear speaker wires are not the same as how they are connected to the speakers in the car ).

subterFUSE

In my opinion, coming from a history with high end car audio starting in 1995, this system is the most beautiful work I've ever had in any car. So I am very confident in the stereo shop which installed it.

Ultimate Audio
Orlando, FL

As for the front componets, the crossovers are installed on the rack in the trunk. Then they installed the woofers at the bottom of the door, and the tweeters in the OEM tweeter pod location. But they had to modify the OEM tweeter pods to fit the Hertz tweeters. They wrapped them in a suede material. They look perfect if you ask me, though.

Tweeter




Woofer




Door Panel




BitOne controller





I went to their shop today. The installer took apart the rear deck and we located the TCU antenna. FYI - The TCU antenna was located more towards the center of the rear deck, not the left side. But regardless, it definitely was not affected during the install. We checked the wire to it and even removed the antenna to check under the bottom for screw holes. It was not affected by anything.

The stereo equipment was grounded to two locations. The first location is where I showed you in an earlier post. But the Audison BitOne is grounded to the factory ground wire location right near that other grounding point in the same photo.

My feeling is that it must be BMW who is missing something here. To support this theory I will submit the following story:


About 2 months before I decided to upgrade my stereo I ran into a problem with one of the rear seat belts. My car has the folding rear seats, and one of the features with folding rear seats is a detachable middle seat belt. Well, one day I was transporting some large cargo and had to fold down the rear seats. And so I detached the middle seat belt and it retracted into the rear deck as it should. When I unloaded the car and put the folding seats back into place, I found that the middle seat belt was stuck in the retracted position and would not return to the seat bottom to connect. I tried and tried to bring it down but the belt was stuck.

I took the car to BMW and they inspected the seat belt. But they were unable to get the seat belt to release. And so they called me on the phone and said they must replace the seat belt. Cost. $550 I told them to forget it for now, and I would return if necessary.


Fast forward a couple of months. I drop my car off for the stereo upgrade. They take apart my rear deck to install speakers and amps. In doing so, they inadvertently fix my stuck seat belt. So much for $550 replacement.

I am very happy the seat belt is fixed. But at the same time, I am very annoyed that BMW did not actually try to fix the problem. It is very obvious to me that they did not take apart the rear deck to see what was going on. They simply pulled on the seat belt, said... yup, its stuck, and then asked me to pay for a full replacement.


Now consider my current situation. Car says "active steering hardware fault". BMW says thy must replace the AFS control module. But part of me wonders if there is a more simple answer? Maybe an unplugged wire harness? I just don't know whether I can trust the dealer when I consider the seat belt fiasco.


Lastly, in response to the phasing question. I honestly have no idea. One thing I do know is that they did not connect the center channel or one of the subwoofer channels from the Logic7 amp to my BitOne. I have been wondering if this was the right move or not? Honestly, since I primarily will be running music from my iPod I doubt this makes a difference. The iPod is connected directly to the BitOne Aux input. But I have been wondering if my high level inputs are plugged in and programmed correctly?

methodsound

The installation does look great. Do you have pics of the sub box?

Audio is only two channel in your car, so it is usually better to not use a center channel speaker. In fact I have a much better centered image now ( without the center channel connected ) than I ever did with the center channel connected.

As for the phasing question I had here are my thoughts:

I just wanted to see if they came to the same conclusion as I did or if they found a different solution. So if your car sounds great then I would trust that your installer connected everything right.

By the way Hertz sells their speakers separately so you could add the Milli midrange or High energy midrange to your system and make use of the last two channels on your Bit one. Of course that means you would have to add another two channels of amplification and ditch the crossovers as well. Maybe thats going to far but it could be a possible future upgrade for you.


And one more thing, your stock amp is upside down. ( it would stay cooler if you flipped it over. The cooling fans are supposed to pull cool air in thru the bottom and have the heat exit the top. If you do not believe me then test it out with some smoke or incense or something that would allow you to see the airflow pattern.)

subterFUSE

So you agree it is the correct move to not connect the Logic7 center channel output into my BitOne? What about the two subwoofer outputs from Logic7? Should they connect both to the BitOne, or do you think just one is correct?

Yes, I am aware of the potential for adding the Mille midrange ribbon speaker. In fact, I had the shop install speaker cable for a third front speaker in the doors with that option in mind (since they already were running cables). So I might go that route one day in the future. I would have to ditch the Mille crossovers and either run my speakers active-crossed from the BitOne or I could purchase the Mille three-way passive XOvers. But those three-ways are even larger than the two-ways I have and I might not have the space unless I relocate them.

As for the subwoofer, I will have to wait to take a pic because the box has been removed temporarily. BMW said they needed to access the TCU to try and diagnose the antenna fault.

I am running the JL Audio stealthbox for the E60. It goes in the left side of the trunk by the Logic 7 amp, and runs a 12W6v2 woofer. I have a JL Audio HD750.1 mp running that sub. The HD amp sits on the trunk floor above the battery, and has a cover panel so I can throw my lacrosse gear in the trunk without damaging anything.

I went with the stealthbox because one of my stipulations for the system was to keep as much trunk space available as possible, and also not lose my folding rear seats. I have always had JL Audio subs in all of my car stereos but never had a stealthbox before. But I have always heard good things about their stealthboxes. And so far I have been thrilled with the performance of mine in the E60.

I will be sure to post some pics after we put everything back together hopefully before Turkey Day.



Are you talking about my Logic 7 amp being upside down, or the Audison?