# Installed aftermarket head unit, amp and sub in a 2004 530i



## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

Hey everybody, first post and thought I'd share.

So my mom-in-law has an 04 530i. The CD player hasn't worked for years and she's desperately wanted to have something other than the radio to listen to. I did some checking a while ago with the dealer, a local BMW shop and bavsound but didn't get me anywhere. Nobody seemed to have any options for her so I finally jumped in head first and took on the job of getting her out of the audio stone ages.

It's still a work in progress but I have managed to install a Kenwood KDC-BT955HD and still have a functional iDrive system, sans radio control. The Kenwood powers the door and deck mids and highs and I replaced the puny factory amp with a big-ol monoblock amp to power the factory 8' subs under the seats and added a DVC 10' in the trunk. The install was a lot easier than I expected but I do have some problems to deal with. I modified the Kenwood's DIN bracket to fit where the factory head unit was but without the factory head unit plugged in, the iDrive won't power up. At the moment I actually have both head units installed, one on top of the other. If I can't find a way to bypass the fiber optics and data lines I'm probably going to have to "hide" the factory head unit in the dash under the new radio to keep the iDrive working. Truthfully it's not that big of a deal, there's room and she never used that storage space anyway.

So if anybody is in the same situation I'd be more than happy to go over wiring or other ideas. It wasn't that difficult. I'm actually most impressed in the factory subs. With more power going to them they sound absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend upgrading the factory amp as a start. All the wiring is already there.

cheers
Pierre


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

This is what it looked like when I first installed it, functional but not pretty.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

An inside view of how the two head units fit.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

This it what's necessary to keep the factory head unit powered up. The top left white wire is ground. The other white wire is constant power. The other three wires are not necessary for the Kenwood so I left them in place. The other plugs are for the fiber optics and data lines. They also must be connected for the iDrive to power up.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

These are the wires I robbed from the factory harness to wire up the Kenwood. Speaker level outputs going directly to the door and deck speakers. Brown is ground, red w/stripe is constant 12v. Remote amp turn on wire also. I borrowed acc power from the cig lighter to go to the red wire on the Kenwood plug. The other 4 are what I used for the RCA's to the amp.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

Took the brackets from the factory head unit and attached them to the DIN bracket for the Kenwood.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

Made a cover out of black plastic to cover up the big hole in the dash and ended up being a perfect place to mount the bass boost control.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

Filled the holes with bondo and a few coats of paint later.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

I saw the inner me!


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

A little test fitting and the finished product.


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## Locksmith (Oct 12, 2013)

There were quite a lot of mistakes made along the way, like cutting the power and ground wires off of the factory plug at first. Had I known, I would have left them intact and just tapped into them for the Kenwood. I ended up having to solder new wires directly onto the pins and run them through the factory plug but it worked so I'm happy. Just in case you're wondering what that little hole was to the right of the radio... years ago I purchased, from BMW, what was supposed to be a aux input that was supposed to plug into the factory radio. It didn't. But, unfortunately, I drilled a mounting hole before I found that out. Another mistake I really hate to admit but when I was installing the amp... I was upside down, in the trunk, mounting it to the back deck and apparently there's this condition that when you look at something while on your back you can get switched around when you stand up. I checked what + and - were while lying on my back but when I hooked them up I was standing up and hooked em up wrong... way wrong. When I was all done and ready to fire it up for it's first test run I dropped the negative post on the battery and got a pretty sizable spark. Heard some funny noises and saw a little spark and flame coming from the top of the sub. Blew two 70 amp fuses in the amp frying the power circuit and fried the sub. There goes a few hundred bucks. All's well though, got a new amp and sub and got my s**t straight.


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