So my nav system was having troubles and kept rebooting when it was warm out and I haven't been happy with the MediaBridge setup, so I decided it was time to put in a new head unit. Lots of research and back and forth over which one to install. Name-brand double-din unit gives me a well-sorted unit backed by a big company, but a smaller screen and I've never really liked the big frame you get when mounting these in the huge space we have. Dynavin I liked because it looks stock(-ish), but it's pricey and I read a post from Jeff @ J&T who mentioned that the company is looking to move away from Android units so I was worried about future support. Dynavin's cheaper cousin, Eonon? Thought about it for a few minutes, but did not get a good feel from their site and threads around other BMW blogs. Finally settled on Dynavin's other cousin, Avin. Though it looks to share the same basic architecture at the Dynavin, it has better internals, and it was on sale direct from Avin for the same as a Dynavin.
I chatted with Tommy, the company owner, M3 owner, and frequent poster on E46Fanatics, for a bit. He answered some questions and I ordered a unit, nav extension cable, and the bluetooth OBD2 connector for Torque. Submitted the order Tuesday night. It was at my house by Friday.
I'll start off for apologizing for the crummy iPhone pics. The lighting in my garage isn't that great so some might be a bit blurry.
Inside are all the goodies I need (starting on the upper left): steering wheel control module, cable to antenna, audio/video in & out connectors, main harness connector (steering wheel control module attaches to this), main harness adapter, some other main harness adapter (not sure what car or setup this fits), bag contains USB extension, iPod connector, mounting brackets, antenna adapter (I didn’t need this, not sure what it’s for), and GPS antenna, nav extension cable, head unit, OBD2 connector for Torque ($25 option), and WiFi adapter.
The main thing lacking was installation instructions. The manual tells you what all the connectors are, but just tells you to have a professional install it. Well I have yet to find a competent audio installer (I’m sure they’re out there, so no offense guys, I just can’t seem to find them) so I had to figure it out on my own, piecing together information on various threads and learning on my own. So I hope this write up helps anybody installing one in the future.
I’ll try and skip all my trial-and-error, but point out where I did things in the wrong order, or completely screwed up and had to redo. This is all based off my experience and limited car audio knowledge (I can build a race car from scratch, but can’t figure out a crossover) so feel free to correct anything, as I may be talking out of my arse. I’m also installing this on a 2003 M5 with MVIV nav and DSP (don’t we all have DSP?) so your experience may vary.
Since the Avin unit (and I believe any aftermarket head unit) does not play nice with the DSP amp I had to get a new amp as well. I went with the Alpine MRX-V70 5-channel amp.
So here’s the process I went through…
Tools needed:
8mm socket
8mm combination wrench (ratcheting is helpful)
13mm socket (I need to double-check this. Might be 14mm)
10mm socket
Some long extensions
Ratchet (I used a ⅜” drive and a ⅜-¼ adapter since I only had long ⅜ extensions)
Interior tab removal tool (or, like I used, a thin flathead screwdriver, though I had wished I had the proper tool)
#2 Philips Screwdriver
#1 Philips Screwdriver
Wire strippers
Razor blade or sharp knife (for stripping the big power cables)
Small wire cutters
Big wire cutters (also for the big 4AWG power cables)
Pliers
Dremel or hacksaw
Zip Ties
Wire form or just a wire clothes hanger
Masking tape
Tray or sorting bin for all the fasteners you’ll take out
The amp doesn’t come with all the stuff you need to hook it up (at least mine didn’t) so you’ll need a few extra things. I ended up buying two 5-meter Monster RCA cables and an “amp power kit,” which included the main power lines (4awg), in-line fuse (60amp), a cheap RCA cable (which I split in half and used for the sub channel), and some extra wire (for the amp power switch). A bit of warning: the negative power lead in my kit was way too short (it was about 3’) for how I wanted it mounted so I had to buy 6’ of cable from my local car stereo shop.
Walter (Valley Motorworks) had the good idea of finding a busted stock DSP amp and taking out the connectors so you can keep everything clean and not hack your harness up. I did not go this route because I was under a tight deadline to have a functioning stereo for a road trip with the kids, but you may want to look into it.
Another option (though some would debate this being an “option”) is the addition of crossovers between the amp and the speakers. I read setups both ways, and thought that the crossovers were really for the audiophiles, but I now understand their use. At least I think I do, so any car audio experts can feel free to correct me, as this is my understanding from a layperson's point of view. The amp spits out power/signal to five channels: front-left, front-right, rear-left, rear-right, & subwoofer. Your car has three speakers on each of the front channels, and two on each of the rear channels. Each speaker handles a different range (highs, mids, lows) so if you send the same power/signal to each one, you risk hurting them and you’re not giving them the frequencies they were designed for. Because I was in a hurry, I ended up ganging everything together, but now have some crossovers waiting to be installed. So far, it sounds “fine,” but I do worry about my speakers and haven’t cranked the volume up too much yet.
I purchased two 3-way crossovers for the fronts, and two 2-ways for the rears. I went with the passive type, which seemed good enough for me (I don’t have nice speakers and not an audiophile). They’re relatively cheap (I spend $50 on eBay for the set) so I’d recommend getting some.
Here we go:
Clean out your trunk and remove the panels over the battery and the two fold-down covers on each side. Also pop off fastener at the top of the panel next to the nav/audio section (above where they put those stupid little round tabs for the “Pre-Wired for Phone” and “Garage Door Opener” (or whatever option tabs your car has).
As with all electronic work, first disconnect the power. In this case, the negative battery terminal.
Now you can start removing all the stock nav/stereo components.
My car already had the CD changer out, with the line to the MediaBridge in its place, so I started with the nav computer up top. Three bolts/nuts and a couple plugs and it’s out. Unplug everything else and start taking out all the brackets and modules.
Save the bolts from the DSP amp and bracket, you might want these for mounting your new amp, unless you’re planning on making your own mounting bracket for everything.
Now you have a mess of cables left over. Most of which you won’t use. You can see in this pic I plugged in the adapter for the nav harness, which holds three plugs together (the top two aren’t even used, but the adapter harness holds them anyway). From here you will run the nav extension cable up to the dash (but not yet).
I first installed my new amp. I found that the Alpine unit I got would fit nicely on the stock mounting bracket by using the existing upper left hole, then adding two more (upper right and lower left). The lower right hole on the amp hangs over an open space so I zip-tied this around the bracket to keep everything snug.
I placed the power and speaker wires at the bottom so I had easy access to the adjustment knobs at the top. So before I mounted it in the car, I put all the wires in place and measured everything out.
The speaker wires I just measured out enough to get over to the speaker harnesses (there on the right of the amp), maybe about 18” to be safe, but you might need more depending on where (or if) you mount the crossovers. You can always cut off the extra after the amp is mounted and you’re ready to wire everything up. Speaker wire is cheap. Same with the amp switch lead (turns the amp off when the car is off) - just attach about 2’ to the amp and you can cut off the extra later.
For the power cables, the kit I bought included ring terminals, which I crimped on (pliers) to the positive lead and attached to the bolt on the positive battery terminal. I ran the wire along the other positive cables to the right of the trunk, over the rail and into the open space in the right-side pocket. There I mounted my fuse (it can be screwed in, but I used some serious 3M double-sided tape) and ran the rest of the line back over the rail and along the back of the trunk. I attached the ground wire where the battery ground attaches to the body. I had a spare mounting block that fit, so I used that instead of the ring terminal, but either way is fine. I ran that line along the rail and followed the positive cable along the back of the trunk.
On each side of the trunk floor you have the two carpeted trays that the cables need to go through so I cut a notch on each side so that the trays sit flat.
Now that everything at the bottom of the amp is connected, you can mount the amp bracket to the body: two 8mm bolts on the top/side, and one nut at the bottom.
The amp switch lead connects to the line labeled on the harness adapter. The harness adapter has a female plug, which you can go buy a male end for, or cut it off and use a butt crimp (or your preferred method) to attach them.
Now for the speakers. If you scavenged connectors off an old DSP amp and if you have crossovers, you’ll need to wire the connectors to the crossovers, then the crossovers to the amp. I’ve seen some installs mount the crossovers out in the little trays on the trunk floor, while others put everything together with the amp. I won’t be showing you what I did since I haven’t done it yet. Instead, I’ll show you the down and dirty method. Audiophiles: look away now.
Oh the horror! Walter @ Valley Motoroworks is now screaming at his computer screen (sorry Walter). This is what it looks like if you chop your stock harness (which I kept and can wire back with some butt crimps if need be) and gang each channel together. I grabbed a couple of these plates from Radio Shack to hold everything together, as I knew I’d be installing crossovers later and didn’t want to crimp everything. One 8-position plate for the main speakers, and one 2-position plate for the subs.
There are two harness that go into the stock amp that you’ll need to attach to: the big 15-pin connector, and the small 26-pin connector. Here are the pinouts for each:
For the rest of the speakers, everything is on the 26-pin connector except two of the rear speakers. For those you’ll want pins 3 (+) and 11 (-) for the left, 5 (+) and 12 (-) for the right. All of the speaker wires are colored yellow for the left side of the car and blue for the right, with brown for the ground leads.
I placed some electrical tape over the top of the terminals and called it good (until I install my crossovers).
Now that the amp is all wired up, time for the fun task of running the cables from the front to the back of the car. Here’s where I got bad about taking photos.
For the dash, carefully pull/pry off the wood/metal/CF trim pieces to the left and right of the head unit. The plastic trim around the head unit pops off with a little bit of effort. and gives you access to the three screws holding it in to the magnesium mounting bracket (fancy!). Unscrew it and slide the unit out, then disconnect the cables on the back. The cables that were attached are now worthless and can be tucked down out of the way.
I’m working on a LHD car, so I’ll be referring to the left/driver’s side of the car for running cables. Next you’ll need to take off the panel above the pedals, disconnecting the chime (that’s the chime speaker, right?) plugs. Then the panel below the dash can come off. Be sure to take out the screw on the plate on the bottom of the steering column. This piece of plastic is attached to the bottom dash panel so if you don’t do this first, you’ll have the dash panel hanging off the steering column. Be sure to unplug the OBDII port from the panel as it comes down (slide the retainer back and the plug comes out). You’ll also need to take off the kick panel where the hood latch is.
Then for the trim along the driver’s side doors. The plastic trim that covers the transition from carpet to door sill pulls up with a decent amount of force. The panel on the bottom of the b-pillar pulls out from the bottom, then slides down.
Back seat needs to come out as well. The seat base pulls up with a yank on each side. Remove the head rests and the two screws at the bottom sides of the seat back then pull the seat up and out.
You’ll need the nav extension cable (that you bought from Avin), your RCA cables (5 total leads), and your antennae cable (included with the Avin). I used a Sharpie and labeled the RCA cables FL, FR, RL, and RR, then matched them up on the other ends so I could tell what goes where on the amp and head unit (the sub was a different cable so I knew which one it was). Make sure the antenna cable is facing the right way so the end that plugs into the head unit (I think it’s the female end) is at that end of the car.
I temporarily zip-tied the bundle together every couple feet to keep it together and not get tangled up then laid the bundle out from the back seat, along the floor, past the driver’s seat, and under the dash. Stick the bundle up under the dash and into the head unit area. You only need about an inch or two sticking out the front of the dash for the RCA and nav extension cable, as you’ll be connecting these to the Avin harnesses, but give yourself another 6-8” of antenna cable.
This is also a fine time to take out the factory head unit mounting frame, since I’m showing a photo of it. There are two black screws on each side, plus you’ll need to take out the gold screws (one on each side) that are next to the head unit (under where the trim pieces mount). The frame has two tabs that come out from the sides and into the dash, so those gold screws let it come out. Keep the four black screws handy, as you’ll need those for the Avin mounting plates. Put back the two gold screws, as they help hold the dash together.
I ended up running the cable bundle through the side of the center dash (under the curved metal bar) and along the bottom of the driver’s side dash (above your legs). This became a bit tricky when putting back the lower dash panel as the cable interfered with the styrofoam on the panel and it took some work to try and get it by. I need to revisit this on my car since something under there is rubbing (maybe a zip tie against the styrofoam) and it sounds like I have one of those “rain sticks” under there some times. Whatever you do, just be careful the cable won’t get pinched by the steering column when it moves. Also be careful placing the cables against the metal plates under there, as some have sharp edges.
Zip tie your cable bundle up under the dash and run it down behind the hood latch handle. The first time I tried this, I thought I had to fit all those cables under the door trim, which no matter how hard I tried, never worked. I kept reading how others did it and they said under the carpet, but I couldn’t see how that would work either. I finally found that under the carpet, along the frame rail there is a nice little indentation where the cables fit nicely. Pull the carpet up a little and shove the cables down in there. It’s easier if you cut loose the zip ties around the bundle and do each one at a time. Work your way past the a-pillar and the rear door, then up the side of the back seat tray.
Once you have everything out of the way, replace all the door trim and panels under the dash. Now the really fun part. This might be different if you have fold-down seats (do any M5s have fold-down seats?). Where the existing cables head through the seat back, pull the foam plug from around them. Because the cables are limp, it’s not easy to shove them through the hole (please save all your sexual analogies until the end). I used a wire form tool to help me push through the cables, but a wire hanger might be good enough. If you don’t have one, a wire form is for exactly this task. It’s a big loop of metal bar that you can feed out and use to push cables through tough spots.
A word of warning: make sure your cables go around the outside (under) the seat belt. I wasn’t paying attention and had to take the belt out to fix this. It’s not that hard to do (one bolt at the bottom), but it’s an easily avoidable annoyance. Take one cable at a time (I started with the nav extension since it was the biggest) and tape it to the end of the wire tool, trying to make it as low profile as possible. Wire forms have a hook at the end, which you can stick the cable through so it’s less likely to push back along the form as you shove it in. Once you get it through, go to the trunk and pull it through then take off the tape and pull your wire form back. Repeat until all the cables are through. Zip tie the cables to the existing cable trunk to keep them out of the way, replace the foam plug (it will still fit back in there), and replace your rear seats.
In the trunk the cables can run with the rest, along the top of the wheel well. Zip tie them up out of the way, but not too far forward as you’ll have extra cable that you’ll want to hide up there. Plug the RCA cables into the amp, then run the nav extension and antenna cable around the back of the amp and hook them up there. If later you don’t have a working antenna, you might have plugged it into the wrong plug, as there are three of them that are all the same. On my car, the antenna plug was in the back with the nav cables and not with the rest of the wires on the wheel well (those might be for GPS antenna and/or something else). Tie your excess cables up out of the way and button up the left-rear panel in the trunk.
Now back up to the front. Grab the Avin connectors for the USB and iPod and route them where you want. I put them in the glove box, removing the flashlight plug (my flashlight was missing anyway) and running the cables through the side of the dash. If you prefer a flush mount connector on the center console, you’ll need a kit for that and deal with taking out the center console.
I can’t get a consensus on the best location for the GPS antenna. Some say sticking it to one of the curved, metal bars behind the head unit is fine. Others stick it out on the corner of the dash and run the cable around and under the dash. Still others say they shove it way forward in the dash, which is what I did, but I’m not sure how it stacks up to the other locations. Mine is sitting between the air ducts and the dash top, as far forward as I could push it.
You’ll also need to hook up the illumination lead so the lights on the buttons work when the car’s lights are on. The nav harness adapter in the trunk has the illumination wire hanging off of it, but back there you can only hook into the tail light circuit. I snipped the wire at the front harness adapter (orange wire) and connected it to the dash lighting. This allows me to turn the brightness up and down with the rest of the dash lighting.
Plug the RCAs and the nav extension into their specific AVIN harnesses. You should now have all the cables for the AVIN unit hanging out of the hole in the dash.
Screw in the AVIN mounting plates to each side of the opening. The tab where the AVIN screws in should be up and forward. I had some trouble with these fitting right (the mounting hole for the AVIN was too far up and back) and Tommy @ AVIN was unable to help (though he was very responsive). I don’t know if I got the wrong mounting plates (X5 maybe?) or if the ones I had were made wrong. I ended up having to drill new holes (with lots of trial and error, so mine look like swiss cheese) to get them to fit, and they’re still not perfect.
The AVIN fits in the stock mounting frame, but you need to cut off the tabs at the bottom for it to clear. Don’t go doing this yet, as I haven’t put this in the car and I don’t know if the unit will stick out too far, and you might want to keep it. Also, magnesium fires are no joke (water makes it worse and regular fire extinguishers don’t do anything) so you need to be very careful not to heat up the metal. I had access to a milling machine at my parent’s house so I did it very carefully. I’ll report back if this works well or not.
Use a thin piece of wire or something thin to push out the two plastic screw covers from the back of the AVIN unit. You can get them from the side, but you risk scratching the plastic. Now you can plug everything into the AVIN (don’t forget the WiFi adapter, which plugs into one of the USB lines) and mount it in the dash. Use the two screws provided by AVIN, though before you do that, you’ll definitely want to test everything out if you haven’t already. Re-attach your battery ground and try everything out.
Overall, I’m happy with the unit, but I still haven’t had a chance to really play with it much. My biggest gripe (which I was made aware of before I bought the unit) is the lack of playlist access on my iPod. I also can’t get the phone system to sync with my iPhone’s phone book, so I can’t make calls from the unit (need to use the phone unless I’m entering the number) and it only shows the number on the screen when somebody calls, not their name. Also, the screen is very bright at night, even after I turned down the brightness all the way in the settings. All of this (except the iPod playlists) might be fixed with an email to Tommy or reading the manual, so some or all of it might be fixable.
Steering wheel controls work flawlessly. My wife’s 325iT has a PAC unit, which has a lot of lag between pushing the button and something happening. This works immediately.
When I finally have time, I’ll play around with it some more: downloading apps, customizing the interface, etc, etc. If you use the nav function a lot, I’d suggest buying a stand-alone nav software (iGo, etc) so you’re not dependent on a cell signal, which I don’t even get since my iPhone doesn’t allow tethering (work phone), so the Google Maps nav doesn’t work unless I have a Wifi signal. I’ll post an update once I’ve lived with it for a bit longer.
I hope this was helpful and feel free to ask questions or post your own methods for getting this in.
- Marc
I chatted with Tommy, the company owner, M3 owner, and frequent poster on E46Fanatics, for a bit. He answered some questions and I ordered a unit, nav extension cable, and the bluetooth OBD2 connector for Torque. Submitted the order Tuesday night. It was at my house by Friday.
I'll start off for apologizing for the crummy iPhone pics. The lighting in my garage isn't that great so some might be a bit blurry.
Inside are all the goodies I need (starting on the upper left): steering wheel control module, cable to antenna, audio/video in & out connectors, main harness connector (steering wheel control module attaches to this), main harness adapter, some other main harness adapter (not sure what car or setup this fits), bag contains USB extension, iPod connector, mounting brackets, antenna adapter (I didn’t need this, not sure what it’s for), and GPS antenna, nav extension cable, head unit, OBD2 connector for Torque ($25 option), and WiFi adapter.
The main thing lacking was installation instructions. The manual tells you what all the connectors are, but just tells you to have a professional install it. Well I have yet to find a competent audio installer (I’m sure they’re out there, so no offense guys, I just can’t seem to find them) so I had to figure it out on my own, piecing together information on various threads and learning on my own. So I hope this write up helps anybody installing one in the future.
I’ll try and skip all my trial-and-error, but point out where I did things in the wrong order, or completely screwed up and had to redo. This is all based off my experience and limited car audio knowledge (I can build a race car from scratch, but can’t figure out a crossover) so feel free to correct anything, as I may be talking out of my arse. I’m also installing this on a 2003 M5 with MVIV nav and DSP (don’t we all have DSP?) so your experience may vary.
Since the Avin unit (and I believe any aftermarket head unit) does not play nice with the DSP amp I had to get a new amp as well. I went with the Alpine MRX-V70 5-channel amp.
So here’s the process I went through…
Tools needed:
8mm socket
8mm combination wrench (ratcheting is helpful)
13mm socket (I need to double-check this. Might be 14mm)
10mm socket
Some long extensions
Ratchet (I used a ⅜” drive and a ⅜-¼ adapter since I only had long ⅜ extensions)
Interior tab removal tool (or, like I used, a thin flathead screwdriver, though I had wished I had the proper tool)
#2 Philips Screwdriver
#1 Philips Screwdriver
Wire strippers
Razor blade or sharp knife (for stripping the big power cables)
Small wire cutters
Big wire cutters (also for the big 4AWG power cables)
Pliers
Dremel or hacksaw
Zip Ties
Wire form or just a wire clothes hanger
Masking tape
Tray or sorting bin for all the fasteners you’ll take out
The amp doesn’t come with all the stuff you need to hook it up (at least mine didn’t) so you’ll need a few extra things. I ended up buying two 5-meter Monster RCA cables and an “amp power kit,” which included the main power lines (4awg), in-line fuse (60amp), a cheap RCA cable (which I split in half and used for the sub channel), and some extra wire (for the amp power switch). A bit of warning: the negative power lead in my kit was way too short (it was about 3’) for how I wanted it mounted so I had to buy 6’ of cable from my local car stereo shop.
Walter (Valley Motorworks) had the good idea of finding a busted stock DSP amp and taking out the connectors so you can keep everything clean and not hack your harness up. I did not go this route because I was under a tight deadline to have a functioning stereo for a road trip with the kids, but you may want to look into it.
Another option (though some would debate this being an “option”) is the addition of crossovers between the amp and the speakers. I read setups both ways, and thought that the crossovers were really for the audiophiles, but I now understand their use. At least I think I do, so any car audio experts can feel free to correct me, as this is my understanding from a layperson's point of view. The amp spits out power/signal to five channels: front-left, front-right, rear-left, rear-right, & subwoofer. Your car has three speakers on each of the front channels, and two on each of the rear channels. Each speaker handles a different range (highs, mids, lows) so if you send the same power/signal to each one, you risk hurting them and you’re not giving them the frequencies they were designed for. Because I was in a hurry, I ended up ganging everything together, but now have some crossovers waiting to be installed. So far, it sounds “fine,” but I do worry about my speakers and haven’t cranked the volume up too much yet.
I purchased two 3-way crossovers for the fronts, and two 2-ways for the rears. I went with the passive type, which seemed good enough for me (I don’t have nice speakers and not an audiophile). They’re relatively cheap (I spend $50 on eBay for the set) so I’d recommend getting some.
Here we go:
Clean out your trunk and remove the panels over the battery and the two fold-down covers on each side. Also pop off fastener at the top of the panel next to the nav/audio section (above where they put those stupid little round tabs for the “Pre-Wired for Phone” and “Garage Door Opener” (or whatever option tabs your car has).
As with all electronic work, first disconnect the power. In this case, the negative battery terminal.
Now you can start removing all the stock nav/stereo components.
My car already had the CD changer out, with the line to the MediaBridge in its place, so I started with the nav computer up top. Three bolts/nuts and a couple plugs and it’s out. Unplug everything else and start taking out all the brackets and modules.
Save the bolts from the DSP amp and bracket, you might want these for mounting your new amp, unless you’re planning on making your own mounting bracket for everything.
Now you have a mess of cables left over. Most of which you won’t use. You can see in this pic I plugged in the adapter for the nav harness, which holds three plugs together (the top two aren’t even used, but the adapter harness holds them anyway). From here you will run the nav extension cable up to the dash (but not yet).
I first installed my new amp. I found that the Alpine unit I got would fit nicely on the stock mounting bracket by using the existing upper left hole, then adding two more (upper right and lower left). The lower right hole on the amp hangs over an open space so I zip-tied this around the bracket to keep everything snug.
I placed the power and speaker wires at the bottom so I had easy access to the adjustment knobs at the top. So before I mounted it in the car, I put all the wires in place and measured everything out.
The speaker wires I just measured out enough to get over to the speaker harnesses (there on the right of the amp), maybe about 18” to be safe, but you might need more depending on where (or if) you mount the crossovers. You can always cut off the extra after the amp is mounted and you’re ready to wire everything up. Speaker wire is cheap. Same with the amp switch lead (turns the amp off when the car is off) - just attach about 2’ to the amp and you can cut off the extra later.
For the power cables, the kit I bought included ring terminals, which I crimped on (pliers) to the positive lead and attached to the bolt on the positive battery terminal. I ran the wire along the other positive cables to the right of the trunk, over the rail and into the open space in the right-side pocket. There I mounted my fuse (it can be screwed in, but I used some serious 3M double-sided tape) and ran the rest of the line back over the rail and along the back of the trunk. I attached the ground wire where the battery ground attaches to the body. I had a spare mounting block that fit, so I used that instead of the ring terminal, but either way is fine. I ran that line along the rail and followed the positive cable along the back of the trunk.
On each side of the trunk floor you have the two carpeted trays that the cables need to go through so I cut a notch on each side so that the trays sit flat.
Now that everything at the bottom of the amp is connected, you can mount the amp bracket to the body: two 8mm bolts on the top/side, and one nut at the bottom.
The amp switch lead connects to the line labeled on the harness adapter. The harness adapter has a female plug, which you can go buy a male end for, or cut it off and use a butt crimp (or your preferred method) to attach them.
Now for the speakers. If you scavenged connectors off an old DSP amp and if you have crossovers, you’ll need to wire the connectors to the crossovers, then the crossovers to the amp. I’ve seen some installs mount the crossovers out in the little trays on the trunk floor, while others put everything together with the amp. I won’t be showing you what I did since I haven’t done it yet. Instead, I’ll show you the down and dirty method. Audiophiles: look away now.
Oh the horror! Walter @ Valley Motoroworks is now screaming at his computer screen (sorry Walter). This is what it looks like if you chop your stock harness (which I kept and can wire back with some butt crimps if need be) and gang each channel together. I grabbed a couple of these plates from Radio Shack to hold everything together, as I knew I’d be installing crossovers later and didn’t want to crimp everything. One 8-position plate for the main speakers, and one 2-position plate for the subs.
There are two harness that go into the stock amp that you’ll need to attach to: the big 15-pin connector, and the small 26-pin connector. Here are the pinouts for each:
For the subwoofers, take the lines from pins 1,2,13 & 14 (all the positive lines) and connect them together with your positive sub channel from the amp. Pins 6,7,9 & 10 are to the negative. That’s all you need to do for the stock subs. If you take those out and go with an aftermarket box, just wire that straight to the amp.
For the rest of the speakers, everything is on the 26-pin connector except two of the rear speakers. For those you’ll want pins 3 (+) and 11 (-) for the left, 5 (+) and 12 (-) for the right. All of the speaker wires are colored yellow for the left side of the car and blue for the right, with brown for the ground leads.
I placed some electrical tape over the top of the terminals and called it good (until I install my crossovers).
Now that the amp is all wired up, time for the fun task of running the cables from the front to the back of the car. Here’s where I got bad about taking photos.
For the dash, carefully pull/pry off the wood/metal/CF trim pieces to the left and right of the head unit. The plastic trim around the head unit pops off with a little bit of effort. and gives you access to the three screws holding it in to the magnesium mounting bracket (fancy!). Unscrew it and slide the unit out, then disconnect the cables on the back. The cables that were attached are now worthless and can be tucked down out of the way.
I’m working on a LHD car, so I’ll be referring to the left/driver’s side of the car for running cables. Next you’ll need to take off the panel above the pedals, disconnecting the chime (that’s the chime speaker, right?) plugs. Then the panel below the dash can come off. Be sure to take out the screw on the plate on the bottom of the steering column. This piece of plastic is attached to the bottom dash panel so if you don’t do this first, you’ll have the dash panel hanging off the steering column. Be sure to unplug the OBDII port from the panel as it comes down (slide the retainer back and the plug comes out). You’ll also need to take off the kick panel where the hood latch is.
Then for the trim along the driver’s side doors. The plastic trim that covers the transition from carpet to door sill pulls up with a decent amount of force. The panel on the bottom of the b-pillar pulls out from the bottom, then slides down.
Back seat needs to come out as well. The seat base pulls up with a yank on each side. Remove the head rests and the two screws at the bottom sides of the seat back then pull the seat up and out.
You’ll need the nav extension cable (that you bought from Avin), your RCA cables (5 total leads), and your antennae cable (included with the Avin). I used a Sharpie and labeled the RCA cables FL, FR, RL, and RR, then matched them up on the other ends so I could tell what goes where on the amp and head unit (the sub was a different cable so I knew which one it was). Make sure the antenna cable is facing the right way so the end that plugs into the head unit (I think it’s the female end) is at that end of the car.
I temporarily zip-tied the bundle together every couple feet to keep it together and not get tangled up then laid the bundle out from the back seat, along the floor, past the driver’s seat, and under the dash. Stick the bundle up under the dash and into the head unit area. You only need about an inch or two sticking out the front of the dash for the RCA and nav extension cable, as you’ll be connecting these to the Avin harnesses, but give yourself another 6-8” of antenna cable.
This is also a fine time to take out the factory head unit mounting frame, since I’m showing a photo of it. There are two black screws on each side, plus you’ll need to take out the gold screws (one on each side) that are next to the head unit (under where the trim pieces mount). The frame has two tabs that come out from the sides and into the dash, so those gold screws let it come out. Keep the four black screws handy, as you’ll need those for the Avin mounting plates. Put back the two gold screws, as they help hold the dash together.
I ended up running the cable bundle through the side of the center dash (under the curved metal bar) and along the bottom of the driver’s side dash (above your legs). This became a bit tricky when putting back the lower dash panel as the cable interfered with the styrofoam on the panel and it took some work to try and get it by. I need to revisit this on my car since something under there is rubbing (maybe a zip tie against the styrofoam) and it sounds like I have one of those “rain sticks” under there some times. Whatever you do, just be careful the cable won’t get pinched by the steering column when it moves. Also be careful placing the cables against the metal plates under there, as some have sharp edges.
Zip tie your cable bundle up under the dash and run it down behind the hood latch handle. The first time I tried this, I thought I had to fit all those cables under the door trim, which no matter how hard I tried, never worked. I kept reading how others did it and they said under the carpet, but I couldn’t see how that would work either. I finally found that under the carpet, along the frame rail there is a nice little indentation where the cables fit nicely. Pull the carpet up a little and shove the cables down in there. It’s easier if you cut loose the zip ties around the bundle and do each one at a time. Work your way past the a-pillar and the rear door, then up the side of the back seat tray.
Once you have everything out of the way, replace all the door trim and panels under the dash. Now the really fun part. This might be different if you have fold-down seats (do any M5s have fold-down seats?). Where the existing cables head through the seat back, pull the foam plug from around them. Because the cables are limp, it’s not easy to shove them through the hole (please save all your sexual analogies until the end). I used a wire form tool to help me push through the cables, but a wire hanger might be good enough. If you don’t have one, a wire form is for exactly this task. It’s a big loop of metal bar that you can feed out and use to push cables through tough spots.
A word of warning: make sure your cables go around the outside (under) the seat belt. I wasn’t paying attention and had to take the belt out to fix this. It’s not that hard to do (one bolt at the bottom), but it’s an easily avoidable annoyance. Take one cable at a time (I started with the nav extension since it was the biggest) and tape it to the end of the wire tool, trying to make it as low profile as possible. Wire forms have a hook at the end, which you can stick the cable through so it’s less likely to push back along the form as you shove it in. Once you get it through, go to the trunk and pull it through then take off the tape and pull your wire form back. Repeat until all the cables are through. Zip tie the cables to the existing cable trunk to keep them out of the way, replace the foam plug (it will still fit back in there), and replace your rear seats.
In the trunk the cables can run with the rest, along the top of the wheel well. Zip tie them up out of the way, but not too far forward as you’ll have extra cable that you’ll want to hide up there. Plug the RCA cables into the amp, then run the nav extension and antenna cable around the back of the amp and hook them up there. If later you don’t have a working antenna, you might have plugged it into the wrong plug, as there are three of them that are all the same. On my car, the antenna plug was in the back with the nav cables and not with the rest of the wires on the wheel well (those might be for GPS antenna and/or something else). Tie your excess cables up out of the way and button up the left-rear panel in the trunk.
Now back up to the front. Grab the Avin connectors for the USB and iPod and route them where you want. I put them in the glove box, removing the flashlight plug (my flashlight was missing anyway) and running the cables through the side of the dash. If you prefer a flush mount connector on the center console, you’ll need a kit for that and deal with taking out the center console.
I can’t get a consensus on the best location for the GPS antenna. Some say sticking it to one of the curved, metal bars behind the head unit is fine. Others stick it out on the corner of the dash and run the cable around and under the dash. Still others say they shove it way forward in the dash, which is what I did, but I’m not sure how it stacks up to the other locations. Mine is sitting between the air ducts and the dash top, as far forward as I could push it.
You’ll also need to hook up the illumination lead so the lights on the buttons work when the car’s lights are on. The nav harness adapter in the trunk has the illumination wire hanging off of it, but back there you can only hook into the tail light circuit. I snipped the wire at the front harness adapter (orange wire) and connected it to the dash lighting. This allows me to turn the brightness up and down with the rest of the dash lighting.
Plug the RCAs and the nav extension into their specific AVIN harnesses. You should now have all the cables for the AVIN unit hanging out of the hole in the dash.
Screw in the AVIN mounting plates to each side of the opening. The tab where the AVIN screws in should be up and forward. I had some trouble with these fitting right (the mounting hole for the AVIN was too far up and back) and Tommy @ AVIN was unable to help (though he was very responsive). I don’t know if I got the wrong mounting plates (X5 maybe?) or if the ones I had were made wrong. I ended up having to drill new holes (with lots of trial and error, so mine look like swiss cheese) to get them to fit, and they’re still not perfect.
The AVIN fits in the stock mounting frame, but you need to cut off the tabs at the bottom for it to clear. Don’t go doing this yet, as I haven’t put this in the car and I don’t know if the unit will stick out too far, and you might want to keep it. Also, magnesium fires are no joke (water makes it worse and regular fire extinguishers don’t do anything) so you need to be very careful not to heat up the metal. I had access to a milling machine at my parent’s house so I did it very carefully. I’ll report back if this works well or not.
Use a thin piece of wire or something thin to push out the two plastic screw covers from the back of the AVIN unit. You can get them from the side, but you risk scratching the plastic. Now you can plug everything into the AVIN (don’t forget the WiFi adapter, which plugs into one of the USB lines) and mount it in the dash. Use the two screws provided by AVIN, though before you do that, you’ll definitely want to test everything out if you haven’t already. Re-attach your battery ground and try everything out.
Overall, I’m happy with the unit, but I still haven’t had a chance to really play with it much. My biggest gripe (which I was made aware of before I bought the unit) is the lack of playlist access on my iPod. I also can’t get the phone system to sync with my iPhone’s phone book, so I can’t make calls from the unit (need to use the phone unless I’m entering the number) and it only shows the number on the screen when somebody calls, not their name. Also, the screen is very bright at night, even after I turned down the brightness all the way in the settings. All of this (except the iPod playlists) might be fixed with an email to Tommy or reading the manual, so some or all of it might be fixable.
Steering wheel controls work flawlessly. My wife’s 325iT has a PAC unit, which has a lot of lag between pushing the button and something happening. This works immediately.
When I finally have time, I’ll play around with it some more: downloading apps, customizing the interface, etc, etc. If you use the nav function a lot, I’d suggest buying a stand-alone nav software (iGo, etc) so you’re not dependent on a cell signal, which I don’t even get since my iPhone doesn’t allow tethering (work phone), so the Google Maps nav doesn’t work unless I have a Wifi signal. I’ll post an update once I’ve lived with it for a bit longer.
I hope this was helpful and feel free to ask questions or post your own methods for getting this in.
- Marc
