radio wiring - can someone explain the BMW speaker wires?

[Cobra Jet]

Ok, I've been reading multiple threads, visiting multiple sites, scouring the web and I still have not come any closer to determining which wires in the radio hole go to which speakers....

Here is what I do know:

Red/Gray = Illumination

White = Pwr Antenna

Red/Green = 12 volt constant

Brown/Black = Ground

Purple/Gray = 12 volt accessory


Now, what I really need to know is what remaining wires are:

Rear Speakers - need L & R colorn combos & (+)/(-) ID

Front Speakers - need L & R color combos & (+)/(-) ID

Front Tweeters - need L & R color combos & (+)/(-) ID


The remaining wires I have:

Blue/Brown
Blue/Black

Blue/Red
Blue/Brown

Yellow/Red
Yellow/Brown

Yellow/Black
Yellow/Brown

If the above are speaker wires, which are L & R, front & rear - plus, it would seem as if there are only 4 speakers - where are the tweeter wires in the radio hole??  My vehicle does have the factory tweeters. so should'nt I see the wires in the hole?

I've hit so many sites and seen so many different wiring diagrams (including when searching on this very forum), I'm still not 100% sure on how to make heads or tails of the factory speaker wires....

The prior owner to the seller of this vehicle did not know how to install an aftermarket radio, so I'm only getting sound out of the right rear and left front speakers, no fade to front and no balance to the left... (go figure)... and I want to rewire everything correctly.

How did any of you wire up your aftermarket radios?

Thanks for any tips or help...

[Wise Old Dog]

Do you have the "premium" sound package? This matters because if you do, the wires out from your head unit go to an amp in the trunk. On the drivers side behind the cover.
If you have this system you must cut the wires and bypass the amp in order to use your factory wires. If you don't have the system, you're in luck. You can just hook up your new unit directly to the speaker wires without this extra step. You can find the wiring codes in the Bentley.

[txleadfoot]

Cut the wires?  How about an adapter from crutchfield.com?

[Cobra Jet]

Do you have the "premium" sound package? This matters because if you do, the wires out from your head unit go to an amp in the trunk. On the drivers side behind the cover.
If you have this system you must cut the wires and bypass the amp in order to use your factory wires. If you don't have the system, you're in luck. You can just hook up your new unit directly to the speaker wires without this extra step. You can find the wiring codes in the Bentley.

Yes, the vehicle seems to have had the "premium sound" package, as it has the factory tweeter pods w/ tweeters and when I looked in the trunk on the driver's side, the amp was already "removed" by the original owner of the vehicle - all that remains currently are the factory wires...

The factory head unit was already gone and the person had put in some kind of Panasonic head unit - but of course in the process just lopped off the original harness plugs and tried to tie in the factory wires to the aftermarket head unit...  A VERY POOR attempt I might add...

So - at the head unit end, in the hole all I have are the ends of the factory wires - of which I have identified some as noted above and in the trunk, the same thing - the ends of the wires...

I currently do not have a Bentley (just purchased the car less than a week ago).  I have been hitting different wiring diagrams on the net, but I'm trying to just figure out the speaker leads, if someone can just help with that, I'm good to go.  I had to wire up my previous E36 M3 with all aftermarket speakers, amps, sub, head unit, etc... and that was a piece of cake (in fact, I have a nice thread on bimmerforums under the same user ID from when I did it), plus I was the first to modify the system in the M3, so none of the wires in that vehicle were ever cut....

Any further help is appreciated and thanks in advance!

[Cobra Jet]

Cut the wires?  How about an adapter from crutchfield.com?

Based on every single thread I have read on many BMW sites (E30 specific too), both old & new threads, apparently the Crutchfield adapter everyone gets for an E30, they say it's "wrong" and they end up cutting the factory wires anyway...  Unless Crutchfield has updated the adapter, then I'm unaware of the revision...

??

[KenC]

You have to rewire if you're going to use an aftermarket deck.

[haledj]

The stock speaker wire sucks, I have run new wires on two e30's.  It is definitely worth it, new wire improves the sound quality noticeably, even with a stock deck.

[D. Clay]

I had the "Premium Sound" in mine and got a bunch of distorted and wierd stuff when I put in a Sony head unit and used the OEM wiring to the adapter for the Sony plug. I went to a stereo shop and the guy cut the wires at the amp in the trunk and soldered them together bypassing the amp. All's good. In retrospect, a complete rewire  might be good but I only paid $30 to the  stereo shop. A complete rewire would give you four separate channels. I think the OEM, even though it has fade and balance controls, starts as two channels out from the pre-amp in the dash.