Installing car stereos..........

[greektony]

Hi everyone, I have a bit of a problem. I have an old blaupunkt cassette player in my car. Anyways i killed the battery a while back by leaving my lights on overnight and when prompted to put in the code by the stereo i got it wrong too many times (yes, i know i'm a idiot!) So now the screen just displays 'wait' but nothing ever happens. i.e. no screen reappears for me to enter a code.

So i thought i upgrade to a cd/mp3 player. The only problem is that my car is about 16 years old, and i think the tape deck is the original one which came with car so all the connections don't look like anything on the modern stereos! Can anyone help me on how I would go about rigging my car to accept a new stereo?

Here is a pic of the back of the radio i currently have:

[BenW]

What car is it?

You probably need an OEM to aftermarket cable adapter.

Oh and before you get a new one, try leaving the battery disconnected for a while and see if it resets the stereo

[Flibb]

Halfords have a range of the adaptors, theres usually a book near them which tells you what connector to get, they are listed by car make / model.

[greektony]

BenW, do you mean to disconnect the radio completely from the car? I'll try that. And thanks Flibb i'll have to nip down Halfords after work tomorrow then and see if theres any joy with them.

I refuse to buy a radio from them tho, as they are so overpriced and the fittings seems ludicrously expensive too.

And BenW, its a 1990 BMW 3 series

[5cupa]

just completely disconnect it and wait for a while to see if that helps reset it properly as for a code theres loads of freeware that will tell u what the code should be especially with something like a blaupunkt

[filbert]

If the radio says "wait" you have to leave it switched on, not disconect the battery, it's a countdown first time will be about 10mins, then 30, ect.

[villarule]

I recently bought a Sony CDX-S22 MP3 CD player for my 1994 Punto to replace the old tape player, and it came with an adaptor to plug the player straight into the old connecetion. Dunno if this is common though.

[joca]

If the radio says "wait" you have to leave it switched on, not disconect the battery, it's a countdown first time will be about 10mins, then 30, ect.

I'll second that. This can take up to 2 hours although usually is 1 hour max.
IF after 2 hours it fails to ask for a code, you can then disconnect unit from power for at least 1 hour and then start again.

Good luck

[kalniel]

Yup - tis the same for my astra's blaupunkt, you have to wait progressively longer for each fail.

[greektony]

problem is i inputted the code incorrectly quite a few times. I left it plugged in for easily 2 months or more and it still says wait, so i'm fed up with having no music in the car so need a new stereo!

As BenW suggested i have now left it unplugged for a couple of days. Do car stereos have an internal battery that can be removed and then put back in again to reset the stereos memory? Similar to what happens with the bios if you remove the motherboard battery

[filbert]

No it's not that easy, if that's all you have to do it wouldn't be much of a deterrent.
You have to leave it switched on, not just connected.

[greektony]

and it will eventually ask for the code again? The thing is I now know the code, as i found it after all of this happened, so if i can get it to allow me to enter it again i'll be sorted. Is there no way to reset the thing to factory settings then?

[5lab]

and it will eventually ask for the code again? The thing is I now know the code, as i found it after all of this happened, so if i can get it to allow me to enter it again i'll be sorted. Is there no way to reset the thing to factory settings then?

take it to your dealer..

[greektony]

problem is 5lab, i dont think a bmw dealership are going to do anything as mine is a 1990 3 series!

[5lab]

you'd be surprised. phone them up, at least they'll tell you if its forever-dead or just needs a certain thing to happen..