2003 BMW M3 Custom Dash / Overhead Console - Page 25

Jir1984 · 05-07-2006, 11:33 AM

Hey man, im thinking about mounting a dvd drive next to the dome lights and sunroof controllers.. What exactly do i need to wire it from the drive to the carputer. please let me know and thanks in advance for the help

Jason

DarkSlice · 05-10-2006, 11:38 AM

bimmerpc · 06-17-2006, 10:23 AM

Hi!
VERY nice install
Could anyone please post a bmw-related

comment/suggestion to my worklog at:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/worklogs/79059-bimmerpc-bmw-320-02-touring-car-pc-project.html

aal2000 · 06-26-2006, 08:13 AM

I am thinking about mounting a dvd drive next to the dome lights. Could you please tell me if is it necessary to do what you di with the headliner? I do not have sun roof and I was thinking in just cutting the headline and put the DVD drive there attached with some kind of double tape from 3M. Is it possible?
Thanks

bimmerpc · 06-26-2006, 10:56 AM

To me it sounds like You should secure the item good so that it wont move/drop down during rough roads

Aberrant · 07-25-2006, 05:57 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 3onDubs

...in between the ashtray and the AC controls is a row of buttons...well, in my car i only have one button to the far left, dsc i think.

When I dropped my AC down using 51 16 7 001 408, I ran into a problem... The problem is that my DSC button and a speaker button. My non navigation part had a larger gap inbetween the AC controls and the ashtray. So the DSC button and the speaker button do not fit into 51 16 7 001 408, as it is more slim. Does anyone have any idea of what the part number on those two buttons that will fit the nav part (and a 2 button wide spacer)? I'd really appreciate it if anyone knew, as I looked at ETK and could not figure out what part it is.

replicant · 08-06-2006, 10:04 PM

not to bring this thread back to life but i was looking at purchasing an 02 or 03 bmw m3 so i was searching on google for m3 info and this thread is number 5 on google for "2003 bmw m3". how funny is that? congrats gork and the rest of the folks who have posted on this thread.

umpculi · 09-24-2006, 01:10 AM

hey gork! i am trying same setup need help with wiring plz. where does 2 black wire from sven4 attach to?? thanks alot.

dasha877 · 12-13-2006, 01:10 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by gork

1) There is no amp pop in BMW. The audio all goes through a DSP before the amp so you don't actually interface with the AMP directly anyway.

2) Opus 150W. I don't know if this model is available anymore but I can recommend any of the Opus PSU's. Carnetix PSU's are also very nice.

3) I supplied the PSU directly from the battery with a seperate fused (15A) run of wire to the battery in the trunk. The 150W opus will draw up to 12A (It is also internally fused at 15A) so I did not feel comfortable attaching it to any existing circuit in the car. The shutdown controller in the OPUS needs a 12V source to tell it when the car is on or off, and I supplied this from the ACC power line (the one that goes on and of with the key) wiring harness at the front of the car via 18ga wire. the current draw is very small. I believe the actual BMW head unit is NOT powered via this wire but from a battery connection, so don't try to power anything major off of it.

4) The normal VEN4 use is to wire the speaker load wires to a headunit's speaker output. We are wiring backwards, feeding these into the AMP's input -- so yes connect the speaker load side to the wiring harness and the RCA jack side (which would be running to an amp in most circumstances) to your sound card.

4 again) Yes, I am powering my radar detector from the same harness but it is not relevant to the CarPC -- just a convenient place to get 12V that turns on and off with the car. Don't forget that you also have to attach the ACC/Ignition (whichever comes on with the key) back to the antenna / remote wire in the same harness though. This will make the amp power on with the car. (See the loop in the photo above)

Gork - I have to revive this discussion, as I do in fact get amp pop. Any reason why I would experience it given what you stated above? I have an HK system running headless. I read that Zebel had the same thing. Any ideas?

gork · 03-26-2007, 02:36 AM

It's been a lot of fun but it's time for me to move to a four-door car and so I'm putting my 2003 BMW M3 SMG Coupe up for sale with some very nice bonuses for any carpc enthusiast who might be interested!

Vitals on the car are available at My classified ad and extra information about what's included for an mp3car referred purchase are available in my project thread.

Thanks for your interest.

gork · 03-26-2007, 03:01 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by dasha877

Gork - I have to revive this discussion, as I do in fact get amp pop. Any reason why I would experience it given what you stated above? I have an HK system running headless. I read that Zebel had the same thing. Any ideas?

I seriously doubt you are having real "amp pop". Most likely you have "Soundcard Pop" where you get a pop when your computer turns on. The pop is coming from your soundcard. Onboard sound and cheap soundcards are pretty notorious for this kind of problem and it's not really cheap or easy to prevent while still using such a device. The way to do it is either with a device that will delay turning the amp on until after your computer is started or will delay (and dampen) the audio connection until after your computer is started. Both devices are available and any car audio expert can direct you to one, but they are more expensive than the following solution:

A good sound card will not do this. I have firsthand experience with Creative Audigy2/NX USB and M-Audio USB devices with the HK amp and they do not pop. It is possible that BMW has changed amp models or something and are now building E46 cars with amps susceptible to this kind of problem, but I doubt it.

If you hear the amp pop even with your soundcard's audio disconnected from it, then we'll have to figure out what's going on with that -- if that is the case you probably have a bad ground connection on your VEN4/SVEN4/Whatever else you use to convert unbalanced to balanced...

1300mer · 03-27-2007, 01:57 AM

You power the amp through the pc power supply. Problem solved.

diosagain · 05-10-2007, 10:55 PM

Gork,

I am trying to do the same thing you did with the firewire bridge, but can't figure out how to get it to work. In short I purchased a super slim panasonic cd/dvd rom. I ran the firewire from the computer to my center console where I want to install the drive. I plugged the ide into the firewire bridge, and also plugged the power from the bridge to power on the cdrom drive. Just there is no power nothing is turning on and I have no idea if the bridge is even working. Thanks for your time.

ghanchi · 01-01-2008, 08:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by gork

Yes; the amp is on the driver's side behind the trunk panel. Both the regular Alpine and HK use the same harness.

If you just want to use the factory amp w/ no headunit, the easiest way to do it is to attach to the factory stereo harness rather than trying to splice into the wires that feed the amp. Unlike aftermarket amps, the only plug on the amp is a ~40 wire connector that is going to be a real pain to tap into. You can do it by just buying a BMW harness from Best Buy or any car stereo shop. Hook the harness connector up to the outputs of a Peripheral Electronics SVEN4. Loop the 12V ignition wire to the 12V antenna wire (this is your amp turn on wire also) and you're all set to plug RCA audio into the SVEN4. Another user has suggested to me that you use a line driver to turn your stereo audio output from the PC into higher voltage RCA input for the SVEN4. This is recommended, but not absolutely necessary.

You are basically going to build yourself one of these except you will probably be using an SVEN4 rather than the VEN4 that I used (it is now discontinued):

The biggest advantage for using this method of attachment is that you do not have to cut any wires! It's just like plugging in an aftermarket headunit. In fact, aside from looping the iginition wire back to the amp turn on, this is how you wire aftermarket headunits in the E46 to the stock amps.

wat color/pin# is the antenna wire that needs to be looped with the switched 12v?

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