Replacing an ancient car radio :)

[greektony]

Hi all, i killed the battery on my car over the summer which reset the code on the car cassette/radio. Me being stupid, I decided that I 'knew' what the code was from memory and began to merrily start entering it in. After about the 10th time of getting it wrong, the radio locked up with a message displayed saying 'WAIT'. Six months later it is still displaying this, so i can't see it ever letting me re-enter the code again (as I now have found the REAL code).

My query is simply this: I went into Halfords over the weekend and they said that as it was such an old radio model (I think it came factory fitted when the car was manufactured - I have a 1990 BMW 3 Series), they will need to rewire all the speakers and amplifier before a new 'modern' radio with the ISO? attachments at the back will work. Costing me about £100+. Is this true? I dont know much about electronics but I got the impression the bloke there was stringing me along a bit. If it makes any difference it is a Blaupunkt radio/cassette player.

(I spoke to Blaupunkt about a way of resetting it, and i am waiting for them to phone me back - before anyone suggests that )

So the question is are Halfords BSing me about the rewiring?

[BenW]

Try disconnecting the battery again and leaving it over night. Could possibly reset the radio.

It shouldn't cost anything like £100 to fit a new radio, they're probably charging £90 fitting or something silly.

What car is it?

[joshwa]

The adapter kit we needed to convert a Skoda/VW radio to a new Sony unit was only around £12/15 or something like that and is simply an adapter to convert the connections plus some kind of aeriel booster / amplifier / de-amplifier or something. So £100 sounds way out.

Speakers are just speakers (with 2 wires), there shouldn't be anything special about BMW speakers.

Could you get a replacement unit from ebay for cheap?

[Rack]

Rip off. There is nothing complicated about car stereo - an adaptor for the connectors should be about it really.

They might have to cut the connector off and re-crimp the wires - which I might charge £100 for because it's a bit of a pain, but then if you did it yourself shouldn't be difficult.

Just remember if you buy the Stereo Removal kit... don't leave it in your car!

[BenW]

Missed the bit saying its a 1990 3-series. A google for BMW e30 iso adapter shows nothing. are you sure its not already ISO?

[dave87]

I think the problem with BMW radios, if anything like the one in the parents volvo (or a mates z3) the amp isn't built into the headunit, its somewhere else in the car, hence the proprietry connections.

The above may be wrong, however, if it is, then what people are saying above is correct

[greektony]

thanks for the replies guys. You are right Dave, the amp is in the boot of the car. I got a call back from Blaupunkt and for £40 they will 're-code' the radio for me.

A friend has given me a new cd unit for free, so I am now undecided whether to get my old one fixed as I would like to try and keep the car as original as possible, or install a new one! TBH, i have wireless FM transmitter for my mp3 player so as long as I have a radio I'm not too bothered about having a cd player I think I may have just answered my question!

You guys seem to know what you are talking about so if i posted some pics of the connections on the back of my old radio and some of the new one, maybe some of you could explain how difficult it would be to do, and what parts I need?

Thanks for the help everyone, it is greatly appreciated! 6 months driving without music is HELL!

EDIT: So the spiel Halfords gave me about replacing all the wires to the amp and speakers was BS then? Why do all these crappy shops (Halfords, Currys, PCWorld etc) always try and rip you off by getting you to pay for things that you don't need (OR WANT). If it is BS then I am never buying anything from them again.

[Rack]

Well, as a professional shop, they may feel they need to make sure everything is wired correctly - so they re-wire the whole thing.

If the amp is in the back, then you just need a head unit with an output connection - unamplified - to connect to the amplifier. My cheap sony did a couple of years ago, but maybe things are even cheaper these days.

[unrealrocks]

Even if Halfords quote you £100 todo it 'properly' DON'T let them touch your headunit, lol.

A friend of mine bought a HU from there and it came with free fitting, an hour and iso convertor later they'd wired it in - on later inspection they'd wired the ignition live to main live on the HU, so every time you switched the ignition off it lost all its presets, this had also all been done with electrical tape - NOT crimps! I'm sure if you get a good guy it'll be fine but whoever wired that in was a total muppet!

[dave87]

EDIT: So the spiel Halfords gave me about replacing all the wires to the amp and speakers was BS then? Why do all these crappy shops (Halfords, Currys, PCWorld etc) always try and rip you off by getting you to pay for things that you don't need (OR WANT). If it is BS then I am never buying anything from them again.

Not all BS, some of its right, some not.

The problem is that the amp in your boot will be proprietry, and will need the old headunit to instruct it to turn on, how loud to go etc. The other bit is the location - the boot. Unless you are having a separate amp/headunit, then the speaker connections will need to run to the headunit instead of the boot - so its easier for them to replace the speaker cables and run them to the correct location.

Dave

[greektony]

I understand now, thanks dave. The way the bloke at halfords described it, I thought he meant that he would be replacing the cables from the amp to the speakers, but if the speakers are now running directly off the head, obviously they would need to be re-wired

(Presumably this means that if i use a new head, the exisiting amp in the boot will be redundant?)

[dave87]

Yup, the amp in the boot would be redundant

[Augustus]

greektony, what the bloke in halfords told you was spot-on and would be a lot of work as he would be essentially re-wiring all the speakers in your car.

[Worthy]

It should still be easy enough to do yourself though. Just run some speakers from the door cards through the door and to the back of the HU. How many speakers are in the car?