Watch grounds and use power adapter. (archive)

I installed an Aiwa deck (95 525i) not to long ago and used the harness from Crutchfield as well. Installation was pretty easy, but I also used a power adapter to attenuate the speaker outputs to the factory amplifier inputs (talk to crutchfield tech support). The grounds also have to be wired properly otherwise you can damage the radio. In other cars each speaker has a ground wire from the radio, but for the e34 the ground is common so you have to wire it a little differently.

Did you use a power adapter on your Kenwood setup? I've seen some stuff on the net which says that I isn't necessary.

My suggestion is to get the plug adapter from Crutchfield. It costs about $9. This will plug directly to the BMW cable harness, and then you can connect most radio/cd units to its connectors. It has good instructions.

I just replaced the stock radio/cassette unit in my 530i w/the Nakamichi 6-disk indash and it was very easy.

It still uses the stock amplifier located in the trunk. Unless you want to do some extensive rewiring, keep using it, because it also performs the crossover functions for all the speakers.

Hope this helps,
Steve

'91 325iX
'95 530iA
'91 318iS

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