Tweeter wires?

[eko]

I have fitted a set of Infinity tweeters to the mirror panels and connected them upto the original wiring thats already there!
Problem is theyre not working so can only assume i need to connect them to the back of the stereo(i though they were junctioned into the fronts already?)
So can someone tell me which wires go to the headunit please?

PS got a spare set of Infinity cross overs if anyones interested

[eko]

BUMP

come on guys someone must know,want to get out there in the morning and sort it out!

Please

[Incitatus]

Connect them to the terminals of the bass/mid speaker in the footwell.

Did the crossovers come with the tweeters, or are they an unrelated item? If it is part of the tweeter package make sure you use that to split the output from the head unit to the bass/mid and tweeter. Some aftermarket tweeters come with a resistor built in so you can connect them direct, but I'm not sure about which type yours are.

[eko]

thanks for the reply.

I did think about running new wires to feed them,but there are already wires near the mirrors for them but when connected they dont work so i assumed that there would be extra wires behind the stereo to connect?

They were part of a component set yes and did come with the cro9ss overs.

Infinity reference!

Does this mean the cross overs have to be fitted?

[fowler]

yes as you will just blow the tweeters
crossover filters the frequency passed to each speaker
tweeter can only hanle 6Khz upto 20Khz

[Cloggy Saint]

Same problem here! Do i access the footwell speakers by just removing the surrounding trim? Do i have to remove the bonnet release mechanism?

[E30Mark]

Same problem here! Do i access the footwell speakers by just removing the surrounding trim? Do i have to remove the bonnet release mechanism?

Yes you need to remove the bonnet release mech'. Two 8mm bolts holding it in place, then each speaker cover has one pozidrive screw holding it on. You will need to pull back the door seal rubber to release the edge of the speaker cover.

[Cloggy Saint]

no messing around with bonnet cables?

[E30Mark]

no messing around with bonnet cables?

You need to release the bonnet pull handle from the side of the car, but the cable stays attached to it. Easy job.

You might want to empty the glove-box, and release the check straps to allow the glove-box to fall wide open, this will make access easier to the 8mm bolts.

[Cloggy Saint]

Thanks Mark, i'll tackle that tomorrow.

[Brianmoooore]

The OE wires for the tweeters will either be already behind the mirror access panel or tucked inside the doors by two of the three red plastic clips that hold the loom at the upper front of the door.
Other end of the wires are behind the footwell speakers. IIRC the OE footwell speakers intended to be used with seperate tweeters had a simple crossover built onto the speakers tagstrip.

[Brianmoooore]

Just been fitting a couple of tweeter pods this afternoon! The wires in the door were strapped down by the red plastic clips as I said in my post above. The wires behind the speaker panels were both lightly bound into the loom and had to be cut free. They are the same colours as the wires you find inside the door and one has a 6mm spade connector on the end with a white plastic cover, while the other has a blue plastic connector on it.

[E30Mark]

might have to get outside soon and fit mine!

[eko]

Good info Brian,now i can do mine!

Thanks

[tourer-dan]

Brian, these wires taped to the loom near the footwell speakers are the wires which terminate by the tweeters, yes? So is there somewhere to plug these to make them 'live' or do I cut off the plugs and wire them into the footwell speaker circuit? Do the OEM tweeters (which I've got, but not wired up) need a separate crossover too, or would this have been part of a little wiring set I presume ran from the speaker terminals in the footwell to the nearby plastic connectors on the wire running up to the tweeter?

(I hope all this ,makes sense to you!)

[Brianmoooore]

Brian, these wires taped to the loom near the footwell speakers are the wires which terminate by the tweeters, yes? So is there somewhere to plug these to make them 'live' or do I cut off the plugs and wire them into the footwell speaker circuit? Do the OEM tweeters (which I've got, but not wired up) need a separate crossover too, or would this have been part of a little wiring set I presume ran from the speaker terminals in the footwell to the nearby plastic connectors on the wire running up to the tweeter?

(I hope all this ,makes sense to you!)

Yes, the wires taped in the footwell are the wires that go to the mirror tweeter pods, via the door plug and socket, of course.
The OE tweeters need a crossover unit of some kind to be fitted by the footwell speakers. Presumably there is/was a BMW OE unit available, which fitted the blue connector.
The only E30 I have ever had with the OE pods is my wife's touring. The tweeters in this had been connected straight across the terminals of the footwell speakers, and were consequentialy blown.

[Cloggy Saint]

Re-cap for an idiot, i can't wire my tweeters straight through the footwell speakers?? And what's a crossover unit ?

[Project_E30]

As DATOURER say's do you have an idiots guide to whats needed to fit the genuine tweeters to a car that didn't have them fitted as standard?

What needs to be bought and fitted.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[E30Mark]

Brian, help!

I'm assuming here all we need to do is make a simple capacitor/inductor high-pass crossover.

Anyone know what the standard frequency range of the BMW OEM tweeters are? I'll pop into maplins tonight and pick up a few parts and knock up a couple of crossovers for my car, if they work OK I'll be able to make up some extras for anyone else who might be interested.

Right I'm off outside to pull my tweeters out of my car (they are fitted in place so they look nice, never actually worked!!!)

[tourer-dan]

All we need to do is connect wires from the footwell speaker terminals to the plastic connectors taped to the loom near by. We need a simple crossover in line to stop them blowing up. I'll try and speak to BMW tomorrow to see if there is some OEM wiring which just plugs in keeping it all nice and neat

[Brianmoooore]

I replaced the blown tweeters in my wifes car and connected them through some kind of crossover four years ago, and they've worked properly ever since, but I've no idea now exactly what I did.
The ones I did yesterday just seemed to have a bipolar capacitor in one of the leads, and were then connected straight across the footwell speakers.

[E30Mark]

OK, i picked up a couple of bits from maplins last night, will get them in the car asap and report back...

[Project_E30]

OK, i picked up a couple of bits from maplins last night, will get them in the car asap and report back...

Excellent! We await your expert knowledge.

[Brianmoooore]

The correct circuit is in the Haynes manual.
Shows footwell speakers with built in crossovers, with a socket out to the tweeters.

[Cloggy Saint]

Sorry, i don't know what crossovers are, or bipolar capacitors come to that. Can you put this into basic terms?

[Brianmoooore]

Sorry, i don't know what crossovers are, or bipolar capacitors come to that. Can you put this into basic terms?

The output from your ICE contains a full range of audio frequencies.
These have to be split by a "crossover" into low frequencies for the woofers and high frequencies for the tweeters.
Bipolar capacitor is a type of highish value capacitor of the electrolytic type, that doesn't need to have a DC polarising voltage across it like most electrolytics. Capacitors like these pass the high frequencies and block the low ones.

[Dan318-is]

as much as i understand most of that brian
i think u confused the poor soul moooore! (get it)?

[Cloggy Saint]

Cheers Brian, at least i understand the theory behind it. It's a real pain that BMW go to the lengths of providing the wires for the tweeters but it still aint ready to plug and play Are these crossovers readily available?

[Brianmoooore]

Cheers Brian, at least i understand the theory behind it. It's a real pain that BMW go to the lengths of providing the wires for the tweeters but it still aint ready to plug and play Are these crossovers readily available?

Genuine BMW E30 ones appear to be part of the footwell speakers, but crossovers are available from the likes of Maolins or CPC, or, as I said further up the post, the car I was sorting at the weekend didn't bother with any filtering to the footwell speakers, but just had a capacitor in series with each tweeter to take out the lower frequencies.

[DaveD]

I am looking at some for mine so when the experts(BM et al ) have come to a conclusion can you put a section in technical help for us poor non electrical types

[Project_E30]

OK, i picked up a couple of bits from maplins last night, will get them in the car asap and report back...

Let wait for E30Mark to do his and then he can tell us all whats needed and where to fit it.

[E30Mark]

OK, i picked up a couple of bits from maplins last night, will get them in the car asap and report back...

Let wait for E30Mark to do his and then he can tell us all whats needed and where to fit it.

I'm no expert! using my basic elementary electronics theory i reckon a 2.2uf capacitor wired in series with the tweeter supply and a 470uH inductor wired in parallel with the tweeter will cut off any frequencies below approx 5.5KHz. Assuming the tweeters are 8 Ohm's.

Off course my maths could be completely wrong, do we have any electronic whizz kids here? Ian332isport??

I'll have a play with my car on Friday night hopefully...

[tourer-dan]

I know absoutely nothing about electronics, but was under the impression that car speakers were 4 ohms?

[E30Mark]

I know absoutely nothing about electronics, but was under the impression that car speakers were 4 ohms?

Normally they are, but the OEM tweeters i have here have 8Ohm written on them!

[Project_E30]

E30Mark: Let us know how you get on.

Would it be possible for you to include item numbers from Maplin or whoever you used so we know exactly what to buy. Also pics would be great if poss.

Cheers