Disconnected Radio still works

[Bmwtvboy]

Anyone know why my X5 2001/3.0 with business radio, not DSP. after being disconnected from the single wire plug in the back of the radio still plays music through the system? I can use the steering wheel to adjust vol and channels.
BUT the head unit is off with no power. What's this about?

[sockethead]

Ever see the movie Christine?

[jgold47]

What's in the dash is just a display. The real radio brain is in the trunk.

[TerminatorX5]

if the wire that was disconnected is a power wire, the system is getting power from elsewhere (especially, if the pulled wire is a ground - then you might have a "floating ground"). nothing to worry about...

why did you pull ONE wire off?

[TerminatorX5]

Let me stand corrected - the system is not designed to operate with a floating ground... What i meant, nothing to worry, is that it is not critical mistake where the car is going to explode - just make sure that you rectify the problem within a resonable period of time...

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by jgold47

What's in the dash is just a display. The real radio brain is in the trunk.

This depends on how the BMW is set-up...if you have the MID or IRIS...then the radio is actually incorporated into the in-dash cassette or in-dash CD player.

Only the Nav set-up has the radio component that is located in the trunk/cargo area.

Originally Posted by bmwtvboy

Anyone know why my X5 2001/3.0 with business radio, not DSP. after being disconnected from the single wire plug in the back of the radio still plays music through the system?

Since it's not really clear what you're trying to describe (can't tell if you're referring to the MID or the actual in-dash radio/cass or radio/CD unit)...and pulling ONE wire on the back of ??? doesn't make since either because the only thing that is one wire is for either the main antenna or diversity antenna?

The wiring harness for the MID (or even the Nav and IRIS) contains multiple wires running in & out of several connectors...some large some mid sized....so pulling one wire and still getting "sound" from the system...probably means that you haven't really disconnected what you thought you were disconnecting.

For example, this is the in-dash CD/radio that is used with the MID...and all of the audio stuff is plugged into the large black connector (seen on the right) which is obviously NOT a "single" wire. If you pulled the wire from the connector seen on the far left in the 1st pic below...that was the main antenna wire...and if you pulled a small wire from the pin that is almost in the middle (along the bottom) that is the wire for the DIVERSITY antenna:

This is the front view of the in-dash Business CD/radio which is what you see in the dash just above the MID:



Below is the in-dash CD radio & the MID working together


Below is info about the MID

[jgold47]

on the mid, there was single harness (not the normal radio one). I didnt remove the cd player, but I Thought the radio tuner was in the trunk. When I had my mid out, the radio would come on and play for a few minutes then shut off.

[Bmwtvboy]

Sorry for the huge delay. Besides moving everything west to east I also had to spend 6 months in France. When I returned I hooked up the radio/CD player and everything works great, even the Dice Ipod connector. The car sat for 6 months with a drip charger and even though the little orange P light on the black plastic center console auto trans shifter location is always on the car can sit for days and start fine. Strange.

[nigwhyrito]

im tracing out wires now on main harness myself. And it crazy on the kkb connector there is like 3 different pins that supply power throughout the beamer to the electric components. For example the one pin only sends 12v to radio and amp, the other pin sends 12 volts to tv and nav unit and then another sends it nav radio(bm53) and some other components so yeah just because you unplug 1 harness doesnt mean the germans didnt set it up to still send power from somewhere else.