2000 BMW 328Ci (e46) - laptop install - Page 3

Hark · 07-22-2005, 09:42 AM

Here's how I ran the wires from trunk to dash:

With the back seats folded down, you can see the hole where the wires run:

Then, with the back seat out, you can lift up on the shoulder padding part and pull the cable through:

From there you can run the cables where the others run in the door jam:

Then I took out the front driver's seat (tip: the tire iron in your car's toolkit is the right size to loosen/tighten the nuts holding the seat in place), and ran the cables underneath it (following the crease already in the carpeting), and ran the cables into the center console/armrest, underneath the gear shift, and up to the dash where the monitor sits.

The hardest part was getting the plastic cover off of the door jam that exposes the end of the carpet so you can pull it back and run the cables. You really have to pull up hard on it, and I had to replace some of the white clips that hold it on, but they're really inexpensive.

Hark · 07-22-2005, 09:47 AM

Here's a pic of a cooling fan that I installed over that vent in the trunk area, which as it happens also shows the red ignition wire coming from the mess of cables, which I'm sure I just spliced from one of the CD changer cables:

Hark · 07-22-2005, 10:07 AM

Here's how I mounted the laptop/amp:

On the other (bottom) side of the board, I put the weeny stock amp:

Here's how it looks when it's put into place. I've since replaced the metal hinges at the top holding it in place with zip ties (makes it much easier to undo when I need to rewire things):

srcstc · 07-22-2005, 10:53 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Hark

The hardest part was getting the plastic cover off of the door jam that exposes the end of the carpet so you can pull it back and run the cables. You really have to pull up hard on it, and I had to replace some of the white clips that hold it on, but they're really inexpensive.

The easiest way to remove that is to pull out the last 2 white clips (one is sideways and the other is angled) then you can actually slide the sill cover back leaving all the other clips still attached to the body. Then you just pull out each clip with needle nose pliers.

Nice work btw.

Rich

Jir1984 · 07-22-2005, 08:16 PM

hark its looking good. i have a question though. Did you use an aux adaptor where the cd changer was. I just recieved my USA SPEC interface adaptor with 2 rca inputs...so i turn my car off. I locate the cd changer cords. There wrapped up in a piece of felt. I plug the 3 pin and 6 pin into the adaptor...rca's into my laptop....turn on my car and i hit cd. it shows 6-1 and 6-2. 6-1 is the first aux input. Play some music and hear nothing. try 6-2 and plug in there...nothing happens. the Only thing i hear is when i full blast the volume a small faint noise. i call up crutchfield..guy basically doesnt know what a BMW is lol...so there sending another out monday. Did i do anything wrong here?...what the poopsicles is goin on. any suggestions?

Hark · 07-23-2005, 02:59 PM

Sorry, can't help you - I removed my CD changer since all my music is on the laptop. I can tell you that the 3-pin connector for the CD changer is the IBUS, I assume the other plug is the audio-out.

Jir1984 · 07-24-2005, 01:49 PM

hey hark have you traced the acc line. just wonderin where to tap into with my shutdown controller..let me know when you have a chance

thanks

Magician · 08-13-2005, 10:51 PM

Hark, can you clarify where you placed the BMW harness? From your Visio diagram it's shown right by the HK amplifier; curious if you have found a way to hook it up to amp right there, instead of running separate 4ch audio cables all the way to the front. My constraint is, just like many others, to not make any permanent change to original wiring. I don't want to cut anything.

It would really help if you can list the wires that goes from back to front.

Thanks.

gork · 08-14-2005, 12:24 AM

Magician:

If you don't want to cut anything you will have a hell of a time connecting up to the amp in the trunk. The connector is a monster (40-something pin) connector and even after you untape it all you'd still have to trace the wires and use vampire taps. You can do it that way if you really have to, but I guarantee that it's faster and easier to run some cables up to the front. The other thing to consider if you tap in at the amp is that you have 8 very long unshielded wires essentially dangling off of your audio cable. While the audio is balanced and should eliminate most of the noise that this kind of problem would cause, it certainly is not optimal.

Jir1984:

AFAIK, nowhere except actually behind the key in a BMW is there an official "ACC" line that is on and 12V when the car is on. All of the other 12V lines that go high when you turn the key are seperately fused and controlled by the ECU in some way. In this regard, I would recommend that you use the 12v ignition wire in the wiring harness for the radio/headunit to control your shutdown controller, running an extension back to the trunk if that is where you have located your computer. That being said, this line will actually *be* in the trunk if your car has NAV. Even if the car does not have NAV there are a couple of other points where you can get a 12V when the car is on out of the trunk. Both the alarm harness on the right side of the car and the telephone module harness on the left side of the trunk will have a 12V acc-type line. Please be cautious using these as I can't guarantee that they are always on when the car is on and always off when the car is off. I also have no idea how they are fused or if it would be a good idea to run a shutdown controller off of them.

Magician · 08-14-2005, 12:49 AM

Gork, thanks a lot for the prompt response. I'm convinced to run the cables to the front. Here is my list of cables; I'd appreciate if you can comment.. (FWIW, I have 2000 E46 4 door; laptop goes to trunk, xenarc 700ts goes to upper bay; for now, there is nothing else in the front, keeping HK amp, removing the head unit)

- 4 x thin coaxial audio cables (these are very similar to RG6 from specs standpoint, but about 2mm in diameter -- I had some 20 meters of it and because it's thin, I'm thinking it'll help)
- 1 x RG6 for extending antenna back into the trunk where I'll connect some USB FM receiver.
- 2 x 18-2AWG flex cables for various power needs (total of 4 wires; 2 will supply xenarc, other 2 is spare (may be a small USB hub later) ). Xenarc's own DC supply used 20AWG, I couldn't find 20 so next best thing is 18 -- hope this is appropriate for power.
- 1 x VGA extension cable. This connects to xenarc's VGA cable somewhere around handbrake.
- 2 x Cat6. Now these are spare but I figured, each has 8 wires, running these will give me enough flexibility to do other things. I have no intention to do wired ethernet in the car. Things like OBD, radar detector etc comes to find (for future).
- 2 x USB extension cables. One of these drive the touch screen on xenarc, other is for future use.
- (Thinking of using 1 wire inside one of the Cat6s to connect shutdown controller to AMP enable)
- (Also was thinking of asking whether the black wire on SVEN4 was supposed to go the front -- again hoping that Cat6 reserves can be used for this purpose)

So what do you think?

gork · 08-14-2005, 01:04 AM

That all looks good; but you may have some trouble using BMW's antenna with your computer's FM tuner. Some have reported success with this; for me it doesn't give me any improvement. I just strung a normal FM dipole antenna across the top of the trunk and it works better than using BMW's OEM antenna. Still it's worth trying.

Those cat6 cables would be good if you wanted to hook up some serial devices or something, so I think you have the right idea with that. I actually bought serial extension cables; I don't know what I was thinking. I have a big bag of like 50 RJ45->DB9 hoods!

Instead of burning one of the wires in the cat6 cable for your shutdown controller, why don't you just run an extra pair of that 18-2AWG cable? or a single spare 20-24 guage wire? Since you're running the cables all anyway might as well not waste that spare cat6 so fast...

And yes the black wire on the SVEN4 needs to be connected to the GND in the radio wiring harness in the front, but it should be the same GND you can attach to anywhere in the car or by screwing to the chassis. See, the amp wiring in the E46 is balanced, so it's actually 3 wires per speaker: Signal +, Signal -, and GND (GND is shared between all 4 speakers) This is unlike unbalanced audio which will have only a signal and GND (but often the GND is isolated) Since this GND wire is a vital part of the audio path I would not recommend putting it through on a piece of cat5. The wire is not big enough for one and the potential for noise is greatly increased. I would put the entire SVEN4 up front. Run unbalanced audio from your computer up to the SVEN4 through your coax then connect the balanced audio out of the SVEN4 to the wiring harness in the front of the car.

Hark · 08-14-2005, 10:03 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Magician

Hark, can you clarify where you placed the BMW harness? From your Visio diagram it's shown right by the HK amplifier; curious if you have found a way to hook it up to amp right there, instead of running separate 4ch audio cables all the way to the front. My constraint is, just like many others, to not make any permanent change to original wiring. I don't want to cut anything.

It would really help if you can list the wires that goes from back to front.

Thanks.

I didn't run the ignition wire back to the trunk, I looped it as described here.

The BMW harness is right by the HK amplifer, definitely didn't run any audio cables from front, since the only thing in the front is my Xenarc. The only cables I ran from front are Xenarc extension cable (VGA and USB), and a power cable (Xenarc is powered by shutdown controller in trunk). Everything you need is in the trunk.

Hark · 08-14-2005, 10:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Jir1984

hey hark have you traced the acc line. just wonderin where to tap into with my shutdown controller..let me know when you have a chance

thanks

I'm pretty sure I took the acc line from the stalk of wires in the trunk, but it's been so long I can't remember for sure. The pics I took seem to indicate that it's the case (see above posts). I am positive that it's from the trunk somewhere, and not from behind the dash.

gork · 08-15-2005, 01:48 AM

Hark: The key difference between your install and most of the other E46's like mine is that that you started with a car that had NAV. In a car with navigation, the main car's wiring harness is completely different.

In a NAV car the radio harness (the one that the the adaptor I built that you linked to) plugs into the radio module in the trunk. In a car without nav, it plugs into the head unit at the front of the car. Sorry for the confusion; it's the same approach either way.

So anyway, the short story is that if you have a car with nav, an acc line on the radio wiring harness is suitable, and it's in the trunk. If you have a car without nav, the acc line on the radio harness is suitable and it's behind the dash

Hope that's clear as mud!

Hark · 08-15-2005, 08:24 AM

Thanks for clearing that up - sorry for misleading anyone