[TheMaxXHD]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum so I apologize if I post incorrectly. I am recently feeling a bit frustrated with regards to a longtime objective of replacing my E90's HU with an aftermarket HU solution.

I understand this is VERY highly discussed topic here, in the past and still to this day. Some backstory for my current dilemma.

I have a 2011 328i with the HiFi 676 option and Professional HU 663. Now as a disclaimer, I am in no way a genius when it comes to radio wiring, car wiring in general, and have no confidence in my ability to install an aftermarket HU by myself (though if I absolutely must and I am desperate enough I very well could do this if necessary).

I had at one point an aftermarket HU installed into my 328i (installed by a third party, not myself). It was a Kenwood DDX9903S. It worked perfectly, it fit well into the car, had apple carplay, a back camera installed, and even (to my ears atleast) seem to improve the audio in general, no complaints, it had everything I needed.

However, there was a huge problem that eventually meant I was forced to take the Kenwood out and have the regular HU be put back in. See, this was all done without doing anything else like re-routing the regular HU to the trunk, like many people do. I was surprised because of the problem I was having was a slightly odd problem compared to what most people have (or atleast I think with the searching I have done). The chimes worked, I got no SOS messages. The problem was the dashboard would occasionally "reset" randomly. I am not sure if "reset" is the right word, but what would happen is the dashboard gauges would all reset back to default and then go back to where they were supposed to be (for instance, the speedometer would go to 0 briefly while driving, before going back to the proper speed)

After a couple times of this happening, it became clear it had to be dealt with, and the Kenwood being the likely culprit. The car went to the dealership, and was told the radio was the likely problem, and errors were being spit out on the computer. Kenwood was taken out, original went back in. This was about two years ago.

So that ended my first go on having an aftermarket HU in the car. However, I can't help but feel slightly frustrated, to this day about it. I think I would feel better if I knew for certain the problem was indeed not having the original HU routed to the trunk. If that were the case for certain, I would be okay with the outcome, as having it routed to the trunk is not something I'd do, and thus would just forget about it.

What I don't understand is the amount of people that HAVE had success. I see youtube videos, posts on this forum, posts on reddit, and perhaps it is just my lack of understanding to what they did, or bad searching on my part, but have THAT many people really truthfully rerouted the HU to the trunk? I have seen anything from "yes, you absolutely need it still installed", to "no, but you might have some minor issues that you can ignore", to "no, you dont need it installed" Are people having problems like my dashboard issue and just dealing with it? Maybe on my specific 328i it just doesnt work? Or was my Kenwood installed correctly (I have to believe the people that installed it for me knew what they were doing, but can I be certain?) Or was the Kenwood not compatible with the car, whereas others might have worked fine? Or was the Kenwood broken (little backstory on this, this radio was in a subaru prior, that had been totaled, the radio appeared to work fine after being gutted, but maybe it wasnt, or installing it in another vehicle afterwards caused problems).

The point is, I am posting this asking if the most likely reason is most definitely the lack of the original HU being installed still after the aftermarket was installed. Obviously I will be disappointed if this is indeed the most likely case, but I would like some opinions on this. I appreciate any replies, I know this type of stuff gets asked frequently. Thanks!

[ctuna]

Actually that problem sounds unrelated to the Head Unit.
Did you have the recall where they replace the power cable
to the Cabin Fuse Box?
Also do you have a strong battery?
Plenty of installs of all kinds of aftermarket head unit's here
with no problem like the one you describe.
They have trouble getting the cheap android ones going because
they don't get instructions mostly .
You may not have had SOS installed if won't give the error if it's not
installed.

Dealerships will always blame it on any aftermarket thing you installed.
The thing is you do need to install it correctly.

The only reason you need the old Head Unit in is the dumb software at the
dealerships won't do a complete pass without everything from the original
configuration in the car installed. And there are many way's around this.
So you need it in place for dealership diagnostics and software upgrades
if there are any. Some people would just route the wires to the trunk to install
it when visiting the dealership.

You need to know the details of how the Head Unit was installed and if any special
harness or device was installed in addition. Such as a device to make the steering
wheel buttons work.