Head Unit Illumination...

[Royalratch]

Hi all.

Anyone know how I can get my head unit buttons to stay illuminated when I switch it off / to standby? I'm guessing it's wired up wrong and I need to find the pin on the back that this would correspond to.

It's a Blaupunkt E1. The lights I'm talking about are all the red switches.


Cheers.

[J_Mac]

I wouldn't have thought the lights on the stereo would stay on after turning it off except the on/off switch it's self, the lit buttons are normaly wired to your car lights but to dim them down if anything, mine's all lit up, with no car headlights on but dim when my lights go on, and all turn off when i turn the power off, other then that, i don't no sorry

[Royalratch]

The exact same Head Unit in my other car, when I switch it off, the buttons in red stay illuminated as if part of the dash.

This one, whether my headlights are on or off, has all lights off which is annoying in the dark.

[ShineOn]

I just wired my pioneer in, including the illumination so that when turned off the background and button lights come on with the rest of the dash.

I have a feeling it was a red or lilac coloured wire coming from the car. On ISO plugs, its the orange with white tracer you need to connect it to. Does that help?

[Royalratch]

That is exactly what I'm talking about bud - cheers.

Thing is, I had another look and it's a real botch of an ISO conversion - real tangled mess with no solid connections.

So I may as well redo it properly. Is there a one piece loom that I can get that is ISO on one end and plugs into a 'stereo socket' somwhere in the car? Perhaps in the accessories panel?

Does all E30 stereo wiring originate from one place or is do the speaker and power wires come from all over and ned up at the head unit?

[ShineOn]

Glad to be able to offer some help!

Mine was and still is a rats nest of wiring. After not wanting to spend £60+ for a local stereo shop to fit my cd player, I thought I'd try and knacker it all first before paying double for someone to sort it out. I never learn.

So I bought a multimeter (which I took back afterwards ), printed off the relevant bit from the guide here and took the old stereo out. The wires the guide suggested should be connected (i.e. live, switched live and earth) were all there but taoed up - a whole different set of wires were connected to the existing head unit which worked properly.

So I just sat and checked each wire in turn, making tape labels on each wire in turn and sorted out what I could. Works fine now! Strangely though, all 4 speakers worked before, but now I can't get the rears to work at all. But until I do something a little more permanent, I won't worry. I still have loads of wires in the dash that are not connected so I just insulated each one and poked it back in.

I soldered the wires I needed onto an ISO plug I bought in Halfrauds, so should I need to change head units it should be a 5 minute job.

[Royalratch]

Brianmooooore just said that you can get a loom from BMW that starts at your accessories panel (socket panel behind glovebox) and ends in an ISO plug - a simple, neat plug and play solution.

You'll need to wire in the speakers and aerial into the ISO end to have a complete 1 plug solution for your head unit but it's way simpler than splicing and dicing.

The part was only installed on Late Tourings (92 onward) so you'll have to reference that if you want the dealer to track the part down.

[ShineOn]

Mine's a '90, so thats put an end to that one!

A friend of mine in Cambridge used to install custom ICE for a living, so whatever bits I do will be left to him. I just couldn't cope with a non-RDS radio/cassette player. It was driving me nuts chasing Radio 1 around the frequencies!

[Royalratch]

Mine's a '90, so thats put an end to that one!

But that's the point mate - you can install the part into your car you just have to get it from the dealer by mentioning the part was for late Tourings only - it should still totally fit and work in your car.

I'm going to order it today, I'll get the part number and pix when it arrives.

[dazleeds]

orange wire to permanent live????

most of my old stereos have had orange as illumination constant wire

[miniblob]

Mine's a '90, so thats put an end to that one!

But that's the point mate - you can install the part into your car you just have to get it from the dealer by mentioning the part was for late Tourings only - it should still totally fit and work in your car.

I'm going to order it today, I'll get the part number and pix when it arrives.

Part number would be handy when you get it!! Could've done with one of those when i fitted mine!!!


Yeah, the orange wire (from the h/u) should be for the illuminations.
They should connect to somewhere that is switched with the other dash lights (i.e headlights). I couldn't find a lead for it, but i did get bored of trying all the connectors in the accessories panel!!
Someone suggested to me, taking a feed off the illumination lead on the clock!!
If you put it to a permanent live, they will, obviously, be lit the whole time - day or night and even with the ignition off!! May be ok if you always take the face panel out with you i s'pose!!

[Royalratch]

This thread has everything we need in it:

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 794#599794

Brinamoooore to the rescue.