Well I've got my new system all wired up and naturally there's a problem. My amplifier turns on and off and roughly one second intervals. When I have a CD playing I get little blips of sound when the amp turns on. I'm thinking it's either a problem with my ground, or my remote wire. (I wouldn't be surprised if I connected the remote turn-on to the wrong wire from my factory harness, but who knows) Can anyone please help me with this before I go tearing everything apart again. Thanks so much fellas.

oh, I should mention that it was all working fine for a short time...then this problem began. loose wire?

Do you have the same problem when using the tuner? If not, the problem is probably with the deck. Maybe the remote wire is connected to the power antenna lead. Sometimes this can cause problems. But, usually it means you have no output at all when playing a CD.

Jay

Thanks for the response. Nope, same problem from any source. The amplifier power light is going on and off. Can anyone tell me which color wire or which pin # of the factory wire harness I need to attach the remote wire to? I could check that.

If it just making a thumping sound in the speaker and doing this about every one second there is a very good chance the amp is blown. If you have a friend with a spare amp, try to rig it in to see what happens. If you used the correct wires in the diagram, then everything should be ok. I had an amp that did the same thing and it had to be buried 6 feet under. Sorry if that is the case. Maybe you can claim warranty. You could also try hooking the amp up in somone's car who has the wires run. It would take a little time but would answer the question. Good luck.

It could be a low remote turn-on voltage coming from your deck. On most E36s the remote wire is white. I had to use a bosch relay to provide a strong enough 12v signal for the remote on my amps. An easy way to check is to connect a 12v source to the remote wire when the system is on amd see if the amp stays on. You can take a wire right from the battery to test this. The stereo schemtaics are in the Bentley or you can go to
www.unofficialbmw.com for the pin IDs.

Jay

well i wired up another amp i have using the same power, ground, and remote wires......everything worked fine. so I guess this means I'm f*cked huh? :mad: If anyone has any ideas I'm open to suggestions, but at this point maybe I should look for a new amp.

Before buying a new amp, I'd try the suggestion I made earlier to see if the amp will stay on. If not, you could always find out if it's repairable. Depending on whether the amp is worth fixing or not.

Jay

My amp is showing the same symptoms that Audioman described. Anything is worth a shot though. Where is the most accesible 12V source i can tap into to test this?

Straight from the positive side of the battery. Just take a length of 18ga wire. Remove the remote wire from the amp. Connect your test wire to the rem terminal on the amp. Turn on the audio system. And, then hold the bare end of the test wire to the positive terminal on the battery. If the amp still comes on intermittently, it's time for a new amp. If not, the amps not the problem.

Jay

i'll do that. thanks for all your help:wave: