HOW TO: Hardwire ipod in 96+ e36 without an adapter

[BCM M3]

EDIT: I went back and took some pictures, and I also added some switches so that the CD changer still functions and I can switch between it and the ipod. Scroll down for photos and a more in-depth explanation.

EDIT 2: I figured out another, greatly simplified way to do this without switches and without the need to cut the wires in the CD changer harness. This method can be found in post 8.

Hey guys -

Well, after doing some experimenting, I figured out how to hardwire an ipod (or other auxilliary audio input) via the CD changer wiring without using the blitzsafe adapter that most people seem to use. I didn't feel like shelling nout 80 bucks just for an adapter, then waiting for it to be shipped, so I just made my own adapter by splicing into the CD changer cable. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures while doing it, but I'll try to describe it as clearly as possible. I did this on my 96 M3; the procedure should be the same for other 96-99 e36s.

1. Remove the OBC and sunglass tray, and locate the CD changer cable. It is the thick black cable running up to the stereo. If you're unsure which one it is, you can pop out the headunit, and see what it looks like.
2. Carefully cut into the sheath of the CD changer cable. You will see that the wires inside are protected by a shield. Spread apart or cut the shield to expose the wires inside. You will see a few wires, I think there is yellow, green, and brown, if I remember correctly. Ignore these. There are also two smaller shielded bundles.
3. Locate the two smaller bundles within the CD changer cable, and spread apart their shields. Each bundle contains two wires: one has red and gray (right audio signal/ground), the other has white and black (left audio signal/ground).
4. Cut all 4 of these wires and strip off some of the insulation from the side towards the radio. Connect RCA connectors to each pair of wires.
5. Run a stereo to RCA cable to wherever you want to place the ipod. (Mine is in the center console, behind the cupholders), and connect the RCA end to the connectors you just spliced in.
6. At this point, the CD changer is disabled, because you have cut the wires that carry the audio signal from the changer, and replaced the signal with the signal from the ipod. It would be a good idea to add switches to switch between ipod and cd changer inputs so that you don't lose the function of the changer. I haven't done this yet, but likely will soon.

OK, basically all this does is trick the radio into thinking that the signal it's getting is coming from the CD changer, when in reality has been replaced with the signal from the ipod. As long as you have a CD in the changer, the radio will play it, but the signal from the ipod will replace the signal from the CD.

Again, I apologize for the lack of pictures, as I know they'd be helpful. If anyone has any questions, I'll try to explain everything the best I can. When I add the switches, I'll try to take some pictures.

[onrailsm3]

Ok, my wife's car is a 97 328 and I would love to splice her Ipod cord in.

Can you backtrack and take some pictures? I know you finished but if you can just snap some shots of the bundle of wires and which ones you cut it would help ALOT!

Please?

[BCM M3]

I'll see what I can do.

[BCM M3]

I went back and took a few photos while I was adding some switches to retain CD changer functionality.


Here's a (horrible) MS paint sketch of the wiring. It's pretty simple and self explanatory.


This photo shows the basic setup, with RCA jacks spliced onto the audio signal/ground wires. At this point, the CD changer no longer works becuase the signal wires have been cut and the signal from the changer has been replaced with that from the ipod. At the bottom of the photo, you can see the other ends of the signal/ground wires. The colors are:
red = right audio signal
gray = right audio ground
white = left audio signal
black = left audio ground
The top halves of these wires are soldered to the RCA jacks.

In order to retain CD changer functionality, you need to reconnect the grounds, and add a switch so that you can turn on/off the signal coming from the CD changer. (Alternatively, you could have just tapped the grounds in the first place, rather than cutting them.)


This pic shows everything wired up and connected, but not yet taped up. You can see that I reconnected the ground (gray/black) wires back to the upper part by the RCA jacks. The signal (red/white wires) were also reconnected to their upper halves by the RCA jacks, but with a switch in the middle so that the CD changer can be switched off so that it can be replaced with the ipod signal.


Here is the wiring all taped up and finished. Much less messy now. The red/green wires go to the switches that turn on the signal coming from the CD changer. I had to use two switches, one for left and one for right.


Here are the switches.


Here's where I located the ipod. I put it there to keep it hidden and so that I wouldn't have to do any cutting to the console. I'm undecided as to whether or not I'll add the dock and charging setup that I had in my 325ic: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=218419

I think this is the best solution for connecting an ipod in the e36 for several reasons:
1. It's practically free. All you need to do this is a soldering iron, some wire, some RCA jacks, and a stereo-->RCA cable to connect to the ipod. The adapters that plug into the CD changer harness cost from $60-$120.
2. You don't have to run any wires from the trunk. Most of the adapters plug into the CD changer harness in the trunk, then you have to run the audio wires up from it.
3. It retains stock CD changer functionality. The adapters replace the changer with the ipod. This setup allows you to keep the changer working, and switch back and forth between it and the ipod as you wish.
4. It is a direct connection, which should give the best possible sound quality. Using fm modulators, tape adapters, etc, may result in lower sound quality.

Although I tried to be thorough, I'm sure I missed plenty of things here and there. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask here or email me at ludwig(at)rice.edu

[onrailsm3]

Thanks for the update. My wife actually just peeked into the computer room and was like "What the hell is that?" I said "Remember I said I might be able to wire up your Ipod in your car?" She said "Um you are not doing that to my car, the tape cassette thing is fine"


Well that just saved me a ton of work. Thanks for the tips though.

[Gray Bishop]

looking at this thread just made me more confident in buying an ipod ready clarion headunit, props for the eclipse gum in the center console though

[BCM M3]

Yeah, aux inputs and tape adapters are certainly much easier. The coiled cord in the way of the shifter gets a bit annoying though.

It looks a bit messy, but it really wasn't difficult at all. I thought there'd be more interest in this.

[BCM M3]

OK, I figured out a way to greatly simplify this:

You can retain stock CD changer function AND have the iPod work WITHOUT adding any switches and WITHOUT cutting your CD changer wiring harness. All you have to do is burn a CD with no sound. Just 1 80 minute silent track. Then you can just tap the wires in the CD changer harness rather than cutting them. Select the blank CD, and there will essentially be no audio signal coming from the changer, so you'll just hear the ipod.

So all you need to do is:
1. Burn a CD of just silence
2. Tap the red and gray wires, solder to red (right) RCA connector.
3. Tap the white and black wires, solder to white (left) RCA connector
4. Plug in your iPod, select the blank CD, and enjoy.

[otterizer]

Aquila, I found this thread through another forum I frequent and I have wanted to do this on my ES300. I was just wondering how you went about figuring out which wires to cut and solder. Was it trial and error, or did you use a multimeter or something? Or were you lucky enough to have a diagram for it?

Thanks,
Chris

[BCM M3]

Hi Chris, sorry for the delay in my response. Within the CD changer harness in my car, there were two smaller bundles, each containing two wires. Logically, I figured that these must've been L and R audio/ground. Also, the wire colors for left and right audio are usually white and red, respectively, so that was another clue. To lest it out, I just touched the contacts of the RCA cord from the ipod to the wires.

-Jon

[Baykah]

Has anyone hardwired something other than an I-Pod...a Dell DJ maybe?
Is that possible in an e36?

[glroby]

Will this work on a 97 528i E39 with business cd player

Laterz G

[otterizer]

Aquila, thanks for the response. I haven't ripped into my dash yet but I'll look out for something like that. worst case scenario I just do a little trial and error I suppose.

[SmashOnCommand]

THIS IS exactly what i have been looking for, great thread but just making sure, i am almost confident the wiring harness should be the same for a 10/95 m3, right?

[SmashOnCommand]

also when doing the method of with the blank cd track do u need to splice into the right and left Ground wires still, or just the signal wires?

[dmurray14]

Can I have your interior?

[donoman]

Originally Posted by AquilaXC

OK, I figured out a way to greatly simplify this:

You can retain stock CD changer function AND have the iPod work WITHOUT adding any switches and WITHOUT cutting your CD changer wiring harness. All you have to do is burn a CD with no sound. Just 1 80 minute silent track. Then you can just tap the wires in the CD changer harness rather than cutting them. Select the blank CD, and there will essentially be no audio signal coming from the changer, so you'll just hear the ipod.

So all you need to do is:
1. Burn a CD of just silence
2. Tap the red and gray wires, solder to red (right) RCA connector.
3. Tap the white and black wires, solder to white (left) RCA connector
4. Plug in your iPod, select the blank CD, and enjoy.

This is a VERY bad idea. Your I-pod and your CD changer were meant to output relatively low amounts of current through their output channels. When you splice the wires together, you are not "adding" the signals as ipod+changer, you are actually making the two systems' output stages fight each other for who wins. In this case you have verified that the Ipod is winning but there is a price to be paid. You are likely running your ipod at a much higher load than it was designed to handle. You could be ruining your Ipod, changer, or BOTH by using this method.

I would advise AGAINST this method and encourage you to simply put a 2-way switch to select Ipod input or changer input.

[Ty Vil]

I'm going to embark upon this today.

[Ty Vil]

halfway done, we have sound out of one side.

we just cut all the wires and took out the stock CD changer for simplicity

[Tom Powered]

Originally Posted by Ty Vil

halfway done, we have sound out of one side.

we just cut all the wires and took out the stock CD changer for simplicity

You mean I cut all the wires and took out the stock CD changer for simplicity.

Fun project!

[Ty Vil]

yea well tom did. the only problem is that it needs to think there's something playing in the changer so everytime it gets to the end of a track (on the changer) it skips

how do i solve that burn one long blank track? the audio outputs and ground for the ipod are disconnected.

[BCM M3]

Woah, sorry I haven't responded to your posts guys, I forgot about this thread.

donoman - You're probably right. I hadn't thought about that, and I have the switches in my car rather than the 'blank cd' method. However, I did try burning a blank cd and leaving the switches in the 'CD player' position, and it seems to work fine.

Baykah - Yes, the wiring operation is the same for any audio source. Just plug your Dell into a stereo->RCA cable going to the jacks that you install.

As for cars other than 96-99 M3s, I can't say for sure that the wiring will be identical, but it will certainly be very very similar. Just cut open your harness and identify the left and right audio signals/grounds and wire it up.

Ty - I don't know for sure, but I think you'll need to leave the changer in the car for this to work. The reason is that for the headunit to play the signal coming in from the CD changer wiring, it needs to think that the CD changer is working.
As for the changer skipping between every track, that's odd. Mine doesn't do that. You could solve the problem by burning a CD with one 80 minute track and selecting that CD whenever you play your ipod. There is still a slight pause when the changer reaches the end of the CD before it begins playing it again, but I just live with it.

Sorry again for the delay in response, I didn't notice that this thread had been bumped.

[Ty Vil]

thats what i did, burn one cd with an 80 minute track, since I didn't wire the switches it's not even an issue.

[BCM M3]

Oh, I forgot to mention...I also made a new cord that connects to the dock connector on the bottom of the ipod, so that it charges as well. Now all I have to do is plug the cord into the bottom of the ipod, and it charges, plays, and even auto pauses itself when I turn the car off. Woohoo!

I got the dock connector to make the cord from Jason Holt. Here's his website: http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl3lk6/default.html

[BCM M3]

Originally Posted by Ty Vil

thats what i did, burn one cd with an 80 minute track, since I didn't wire the switches it's not even an issue.

How does it work? I noticed that if I leave the switches in the CD player on position (basically the same thing as having no switches, like you did), there is a tiny bit of static, that is presumably just background signal coming from the CD changer. With the switches installed this is eliminated. If you have any background noise, you may want to add the switches.