[Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325]

Metish, i have full function of the original head unit... adjust bass treble etc... All is fully operational... I am taking some picture today and post will post them tonight.

[visor]

Originally Posted by Mitesh

Hello Visor

How are u planning to connect your sub? With a high-low converter or from the OEM amp?
I am still battling to get someone in SA (bloemfontein) to wire my amp like Aussie's.
If second option, do u have any wiring diagrams etc.

In my previous e46, I fed the front speaker level wires into the amp via the speaker level inputs. Then, the internal circuitry of the amp splits the signal into hi/lo frequencies and relays them appropriately to the sub and my aftermarket front speakers.

On the e90, I'm hoping to locate the front line level signal if I can from the OEM amp in the left of the trunk, but I might need a VEN4 balanced to unbalanced converter to connect to my add-on amp, since BMW's audio signals run in balanced mode.

[JamieA]

Originally Posted by Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325

JamieA you must understand i do love manual but I live in Sydney (I have a view of the city skyline) only 2 and a bit clicks away so manual would have killed me. Yesterday i picked up my wife from the city centre and i took my 50mins to get home... its nuts.. I could have walked home alot quicker than that.... I bet living in Adeliade lends to having a wonderul six speed manual tranny... i would love to take your car for a run... although i know its that much harder letting somebody drive you manual..... lol haaa

Mate, the traffic was the thing I hated the most when I lived in Sydney and that was 10 years ago!

You are welcome to have a fang in my manual when I get it anytime bud.

[Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325]

Here are some pics of my amp and sub.... As you can see its very easy to remove when boot space is required, but you will note the amp is in a great space saving position...

[Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325]

Ill have to wait till a sunny day sorry about the dark pictuers...

[JamieA]

Great pics George, thanks for that.

[Tierfreund]

Now I don´t want to burst anyones bubble here, but I´m worried for your safety.

There´s something about that install that show´s the installer does not know his business. The positive wire is run from the terminal to the back of the car and then to the fender and only then into a fuse.

If sombody rear-ends the car an electrical fire is unavoidable. Even in a minor crash. There is a reason why the factory fuseholder is directly on the terminal. And has a little explosive charge tha disconnects the poisitive terminal in case of a crash severe enough to fire the airbags.

If you have to wire aftermarket amps directly from the battery, the fuse needs to be as close to the terminal as possible. And the wire up to the fuse needs excellent isolation.

Unless there´s some detail in the install that is not visible on the pcitures that defuses the hazard, then I´d consider it a severe safety hazard.
Not good. Please go to a truely professional installer and have that improved.

[Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325]

Thank you for your concern.. I had it checked out by BMW Canterbury and they have given the install the OK. I would however like more information on exactly what i should be looking for, like you said there could be more to the install than what you can see in this picture.

I appreciate your feedback...thanks alot.

If anybody can explain this i will take this information to both BMW and the installer

[ScotyH]

From what I can see, the wire & breaker could've been a bit neater. However I don't think that there is anything wrong with power wire install.

BUT, that amp shouldn't be upside down. Amps cool by convection. By having the amp upside down, the heat just soaks back into the amp, shortening its usable lifespan and shutting down due to exessive heat. I would shoot my installers if I saw them do that.

[Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325]

Scoty, It was my fault as i wanted the amp out of the way and that was the only place i was happy to put it. Im dont know much about this subject (goes without saying) and was only considering boot space when asking for this. The installer didnt want to put the amp there but i insisted however they didnt warn me of this potential overheating problem. I dont really blast my stereo much anyway or are you saying it will overheat no matter what. I dont get many miles up either. Do you think this will still be a problem? I can always get it changed if 100% essential. Let me know your thoughts...thanks

[visor]

From your pic of the amp, it looks like there's a cooling fan?
If so, you don't have to worry of overheating?

I had also installed my amp exactly this way in my previous e46 and I never had any problems with overheating. The heatsinks and radiator fins were always cool to only slightly warm to touch. So, you should check it and see after having used your amp for half hour or so.

[Tierfreund]

What I´m concerned about is the length and the position of the unfused (before the circuit breaker) aftermarket power wire. In case of a rear-ender, that wire can be grounded in several places (the negative battery terminal or sharp pieces of protruding metal). Since it runs directly to the outer most rear end of the car and is only poorly protected (the regular wire isolation) it is shorted very easily. Once the wire is grounded the battery will start welding the wire to the chassis with very high amps. Enough to burn up anything in the vincinity.

Now the pictures are not very clear, but that wire is either run directly from the positive terminal unfused, or it is run via the main fuse for the cars main power line running to the front.
In the first case it is totally unprotected (up to the ciruit braker). In the second case, it´s run over a too big fuse. That fuse is sized for the stronger main car wire. So when your wire is short, the fuse might not blow or blow too late. The main car wire also has additional protection (the black mesh at the angle) and is run differently.
Also mounting the circuit braker at the fender is equally bad. Your thereby even hindering the wire from moving when the area is crumpled and "mount" it close to the metal as too make shure it´ll be severed.

The very least you should do is rewire the main amp power cable. Run it directly forward instead of round to the back of the car. The cirucuit braker needs to be installed as close to the terminal as possible with the shortest possible wire length (but still with a little slack as to move in case of an accident). And the wire piece between the terminal and the circuit breaker could do with some extra protection. It´s a good idea to not only crimp the connectors on that wire pice but additionally solder them. Isolate the connectors with heat shrinking tube. And then protect the whole cable with solid split loom. The vertical bracket over the battery might be a good mounting spot for the breaker.

After the breaker you can more or less do what you want with the wire. If the breaker is the propper size (it needs to reliably disengage the power if the amps run more than the wire can handle without melting, so less is more. I´d go for an opening of 40amps (60 at most) with the wire you´r running which still would be sufficient for your amplifier). The fuse is sized by the wire that follows. Never by the load it´s supposed to handle. It doesn´t protect the amp, but only the wire. The amp has it´s own (internal) fuse.

[Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325]

Tierfriend... Wow... didnt know that this thing was so complicated. Now i can see how people like me can be taken advantage of in this situation. I thought it was a straight forward process. Thanks for the education (i think Still confused but understand your reasons behind your comments) It would be cool if i knew somebody like you in Sydney to help me out because i know when i go back to the installer they will confuse me with a plethora of scenarios and jargon. If there is any Sydney people here please let me know if you can help out..

PS. Tierfirend...do you have an electircal engineering background or is this just common sense to the car/music ethusiast. I might run it past a couple of my guys as they are electrical engineers but not sound engineers...

PPS. Thanks again...i appreciate your time and effort you have put into your reply... Maybe i can say hi when i vist Germany next year....

[Tierfreund]

It´s just plain best practices with all automobile electrics. I did do the auto sound competition circus in the late 90´s for quite a while though. I competed and judged in Germany and Europe.

Think what you might about sound-offs, but some of the organisations (especially http://www.iasca.com) put a very high priority on electrical and mechanical safety of an install. Their guidelines and regualtions are a good hint at what to do and what not to do. If you want to find a good installer, finding a top scorer on the sound-off ciruit is a starting point.

[Costa]

Originally Posted by Tierfreund

What I´m concerned about is the length and the position of the unfused (before the circuit breaker) aftermarket power wire. In case of a rear-ender, that wire can be grounded in several places (the negative battery terminal or sharp pieces of protruding metal). Since it runs directly to the outer most rear end of the car and is only poorly protected (the regular wire isolation) it is shorted very easily. Once the wire is grounded the battery will start welding the wire to the chassis with very high amps. Enough to burn up anything in the vincinity.

Now the pictures are not very clear, but that wire is either run directly from the positive terminal unfused, or it is run via the main fuse for the cars main power line running to the front.
In the first case it is totally unprotected (up to the ciruit braker). In the second case, it´s run over a too big fuse. That fuse is sized for the stronger main car wire. So when your wire is short, the fuse might not blow or blow too late. The main car wire also has additional protection (the black mesh at the angle) and is run differently.
Also mounting the circuit braker at the fender is equally bad. Your thereby even hindering the wire from moving when the area is crumpled and "mount" it close to the metal as too make shure it´ll be severed.

The very least you should do is rewire the main amp power cable. Run it directly forward instead of round to the back of the car. The cirucuit braker needs to be installed as close to the terminal as possible with the shortest possible wire length (but still with a little slack as to move in case of an accident). And the wire piece between the terminal and the circuit breaker could do with some extra protection. It´s a good idea to not only crimp the connectors on that wire pice but additionally solder them. Isolate the connectors with heat shrinking tube. And then protect the whole cable with solid split loom. The vertical bracket over the battery might be a good mounting spot for the breaker.

After the breaker you can more or less do what you want with the wire. If the breaker is the propper size (it needs to reliably disengage the power if the amps run more than the wire can handle without melting, so less is more. I´d go for an opening of 40amps (60 at most) with the wire you´r running which still would be sufficient for your amplifier). The fuse is sized by the wire that follows. Never by the load it´s supposed to handle. It doesn´t protect the amp, but only the wire. The amp has it´s own (internal) fuse.

Tierfreund - some good points in your post (ie: how the job should have been done, I agree it looks somewhat clumsy) but I personally think that the scenario you are describing, where the wire may be welded to the chassis in an accident does not seem realistic.

As you pointed out yourself, the fuse would be sized for the thickness of the wire, and BMW would have also followed this principle ie: the car wire that these sound people tapped into would have to be fused - I can't imagine that it was run straight from the battery by BMW without protection - even it it was, there would (hopefully) be a fail-safe mechanism somewhere. Aussie - you can check this by looking at the battery under your hood to see if there are any new wires attached to the postitive terminal - if there is, chances are the sound people have bypassed the car's existing power supply wires (created a new circuit), and the scenario tierfreund is describing is valid ... dangerous ...

[ScotyH]

Originally Posted by Aussie_E90_SBLACK_325

Scoty, It was my fault as i wanted the amp out of the way and that was the only place i was happy to put it. Im dont know much about this subject (goes without saying) and was only considering boot space when asking for this. The installer didnt want to put the amp there but i insisted however they didnt warn me of this potential overheating problem. I dont really blast my stereo much anyway or are you saying it will overheat no matter what. I dont get many miles up either. Do you think this will still be a problem? I can always get it changed if 100% essential. Let me know your thoughts...thanks

I don't see anything wrong then. Enjoy!

BTW, how does it sound?

[Tierfreund]

Well you´ll have to judge for yourself wether you want to take a risk. And asess for yourself wether that risk is significant.

I would not drive my car with that setup, it is a compromise on safety. More than that, it´d show me that the installer is not very professional / knowledgable. It´s not diffucult or more exepsive to do a proper and safe install right away. The only difference is knowledge and ambition.

So I´d be weary about the shop you went to.

[RodyP]

does somebody have pics of their sound installation ?...

greetz rody

[parachute]

I just stopped by the shop where they are installing my system and the same lights went on. They said they would have it fixed by tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna get a goodnight sleep till I finf out that my baby is alright!

[knonenone11]

i just posted on a diff thread regarding a sub install question...

after all is said and done, is there a general concensus about how to 'correctly' install an aftermarket system?

i realize that everything could ideally stay in the trunk of the car, but I'm concerned about where I should run my remote wire too


thx

[golfpro]

a lot of other threads talk about the remote wire. u cannot run it to the headunit, you need to run it to a power supply wire on the car so when the car turns on power will run to the amp. Some amps (JL) have built in remote wires so when you cut your factory amp wires and put in your HI-lo converter your aftermarket amp will turn on, i suggest doing a search and buying a JL amp or other amp that has this option.

[PittWm]

PAC has a unit call "Trunk-LOC" that sense the input signal and throws a 12V trigger to amp turn on. Its about $25.00.