# Simple BMW E39 install



## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

The sound system in my car has slowly been evolving:

The car is a 98 528i 5 speed, it came with i standard bmw hifi system; a tape deck, oem amp mounted in the trunk, tweeter mid and woofers mounted on the front doors, tweeters in the rear doors, and two woofers on the decklid.

I first added an old subwoofer from a previous car (dual Sony Xplod XS-L101P5 10s mounted in a large sealed box) and Crossfire VR404 amp.

The next thing i did was to get a DICE silverline pro adapter to control/play my ipod via the radio.

After that i wanted to change out the speakers in the car so i got a pair of MB Quart PVF 213s for the front and RVF 213s for the rear. I had them running off the stock amp, along with the stock tweeters.








Installed in the front door pods








Stock speakers


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## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

The car only stayed like this for about a week, it was just way to bright with the mb quarts and the stock tweeters, i tried disconnecting the tweeters but since the stock amp has built in crossovers you could hear the hole in the sound. So i got a California Profile Ap1040 amp to run the mbquarts, and replaced the sub amp with a Kenwood KAC-8103D, along with those i got a 5 farad cap and 0 gauge wiring. I removed the factory amp and created a board to mount the mb quart crossovers to, i also removed the spare tire and created a shelf to mount my amps to.
















































test fitting








factory amp removed
























Wiring up the amp and crossovers


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## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

Next i wanted to retrofit the bmw in dash cd player, My old tape player used round pins to connect to the car, but bmw switched the newer radios to a flat pin, so i ended up buying a male connector used to install a aftermarket radio to the stock wiring and created an adapter from that and the (newer) connector (which i was able to chop out of a 03 bmw from the junk yard). Up to now i had the dice unit plugged into the cd changer wiring in the trunk, but this was problematic since i would sometimes have to disconnect and reconnect my ipod for it to work?? so i decided to integrate the dice unit's wiring to this little adapter i was creating. 
















New style pins








Old style pins
















ID3 text from the ipod








Now i get RDS!!


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## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

Next i got my cousin's old audio setup:
PPI PC4400
PPI PC250
PPI PC225
Sound Stream SVX-4
Image Dynamics IDQ12-20svc in a ported box

















I ended up creating a 1.6 ft^3 sealed box for the sub, which was being pushed via the kenwood mono amp. The pc4400 is running my 4 mb quart woofers, and the pc225 is running all 4 tweeters.
The bos is approximately 5"/10"x16"x32" and fits the back of the trunk perfectly, while still leaving a lot of trunk space usable.

























created a new shelf out of the remainder mdf from the box.
















finally bought a plunge router, kinda went over board








I really didn't like the cap because it has two BRIGHT neon lights on the sides and the voltage readout was in this nasty purple color so i ended up removing the electronics from the top of the cap and then mounting the cap under the shelf.








checking fitment of all the components








wired up the amp with a master power switch, decided i wanted to build in a charging circuit.


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## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

back side of the charging switch and connections to the resistors (2 10watt 2k ohms)








wired and bolted down all the amps, you can see the switch and resistors in the bottom left corner, the switch is also a light which dims as the difference in voltage between the cap and the car's battery decreases.








all wired up and installed in the car








added a voltage meter which shows the cap's voltage whenever the trunk is opened.

I created the sub's box based on the modeling i did in winisd but i wasn't that happy with the bass response, someone recommended adding some polyfill, but it didn't help that much.
so after two weeks of the new system i decided to scrap the sub, so i replaced it with a kicker 08ts10l52 10" ported solobaric and replaced the kenwood with a kicker zx400.1. I wired the remote sub control knob inside the ashtray below the shifter.
[sorry slr was dead, had to use my cell]








































added some ratcheting tie down straps


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## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

So thats it for now, here are some links to the full albums if anyone cares to see them:

General car pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Alida#
-> 545 ssk install: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/545iSskInstall#
-> new shift boots: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Boots#
-> had to swap my motor after 228k (hydrolocked): http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/M52RR#

On to the sound!
Revision 1: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Audio10
Revision 2: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Audio20
Revision 2.5: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Audio25CD53Retrofit
Revision 3: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Audio30
Revision 3.5: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/Audio35SoloBaric


Extra goodies:
my 01 e38 740 sport (sold): http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/2001BMW740iSport
some pretty (san diego) bmws: http://picasaweb.google.com/auxlife/CleanCarShow52310#


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## bimmerman11 (Aug 27, 2009)

I wonder how the sub sounds in that location.


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Do you think you can help me out with speaker wire color coding? Working on e39 here as well.

Thanks in advance!


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Do you think you can help me out with speaker wire color coding? Working on e39 here as well.

Thanks in advance!


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## el_chupo_ (May 27, 2007)

Mless5 said:


> Do you think you can help me out with speaker wire color coding? Working on e39 here as well.
> 
> Thanks in advance!



Dsp?


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

el_chupo_ said:


> Dsp?


Unfortunately . Just need speaker info.

Thanks.


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## ganesht (Oct 13, 2008)

bimmerman11 said:


> I wonder how the sub sounds in that location.


it sounds better with it at the back of the trunk but that was just for theory's sake. im actually thinking of going back to the idq12 and firing it via the [yet to be cut] skipass and sealing the sub box to the trunk.


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