New here and new BMW owner, quick question.

[ninetyone318is]

Hey guys, I just joined on here tonight after registering my 91 318is yesterday and figured I'd say hey and ask a quick question. In any case I migrated here after leaving the Club Protege forums seeing as I had to junk my 96 Protege before transferring plates to the bimmer. I look forward to hanging around on the boards and learning the ins and outs of owning an E30.

As to my question, its a silly one at best but I can't for the life of me figure out how to extend the electric antenna and I can only pick up radio stations if I am near where they are being broadcast from and no other stations. When I got the car, it would just extend when I turned on the car. Then I pulled out the ancient and terrible aftermarket Sony head unit that some previous owner had installed. I installed my own Pioneer and it no longer extends even though I know I wired it correctly. My guess is it had something to do with a blue wire that had no counterpart from the Pioneer headunit. Even if thats the case however, I have no idea what to do about it. Can anyone help me out?

[genocide98]

The antenna is going to run on a wire that is switched by the stereo or some other unit. When the head unit gets power, antenna comes up. unit loses power, antenna goes down.

Did you dissect the wiring harness yourself? Or did the previous owner do that?

If you didn't DIY, I suggest you grab a manual or wiring diagram, label all the wires, and start from scratch. Remove the fader etc. I can't think of a headunit/wiring harness I have installed that didn't have a wire specifically for this purpose.

[ninetyone318is]

the sony that the previous owner installed had an identical harness to my pioneer so I just followed the colors since they are all the same in modern head units in my experience(especially japanese ones), but for some reason I couldn't figure out where he had the blue wire with red marks coming from the car wired which I assume is the power to the antenna. I guess I can try splicing the blue wire into the power wire of the head unit and see where that gets me.

[genocide98]

the sony that the previous owner installed had an identical harness to my pioneer so I just followed the colors since they are all the same in modern head units in my experience(especially japanese ones), but for some reason I couldn't figure out where he had the blue wire with red marks coming from the car wired which I assume is the power to the antenna. I guess I can try splicing the blue wire into the power wire of the head unit and see where that gets me.

Maybe there's an 'aux' or 'aux antenna' wire ?

If the harness are identical then there is either a wire left unused or it needs to be doubled up with another, such as the power wire for the headunit as you have suggested.

[ninetyone318is]

theres a wire left on the Pioneer harness but it has a connector on the end which I believe is the wire to connect it to an amp for a more complicated system

[genocide98]

Here is a diagram of a stock e30 harness, for reference.

There should be a switch / switch accessory / antenna ? switch wire that will toggle on and off when the head unit is on and off. You use this to tell your amplifier when to go on/off.. I'm guessing you have to use it to power your antenna, too. It performs the same function either way, and shouldn't hinder the performance of your amplifier.

EDIT:

Forgot to say welcome to the forums! If you don't find help here you can always check the specific forums (styling, lights, track, engine swaps, service, etc) or try e30tech or r3vlimited, 2 other e30 bmw specific boards, though many members cross post between some or all 3.

[ninetyone318is]

Thanks, its good to be here, after driving an 01 Chevy Prizm then a 96 Mazda Protege, feeling entitled to joining a bmw forum is a nice change hahaha

and thanks for the diagram, I think I have a few options to pursue in the morning, weather and tool access permitting