Installing a double Din Kenwood

[70-k5]

So, here I am with my new Kenwood receiver and the PA-12 talked about in an alternate thread.

2004 E53 premium sound with DSP.

MID going in the glove box, Cd player going in the glove box or the rear panel with the rest of the audio equipment. I have no adapter to connect to the Kenwood since the stock equipment is staying installed for the time being.

I had a hard time finding the fuse panel in the glove box, it was well hidden.....

I'm going this route now because I don't want to re engineer the audio system. The speakers and amp don't 'need' to be replaced, but a new user interface is necessary.

[70-k5]

I plugged in the PA-12 last week and confirmed that it will work well with 4v pre-outs by using an old Pioneer deck and a spare battery.




I had some issues because there was already an iPod adapter installed up front with the MID and I had to remove it before the CD/SAT input would be recognized by the MID.
If you don't have Sat or CD changer it is a little tricky finding the plugs. They are there but they are tied up tight to the harness with zipties.



Found them!



With the PA-12 you connect the smaller 3-pin connector regardless, the 6pin is connected in non-DSP systems and the digital cable is connected with the DSP systems.

[70-k5]

I've had the Kenwood DDX419 for a few days.



Yesterday I finally got my install kit and in the mail, I went with the METRA 95-9308B and was pleasantly surprised when it showed up. I have used install kits before and they typically look like junk, shiny plastic with weird texture.... The face plate has a decent texture and almost feels fuzzy. Still might get wrapped with something but for the initial install it isn't all that bad.

It also comes with two ears that screw onto the head unit. I'm not sure how they think it will attach to the dash, looks to me like they are relying on a compression fit. Not sure how I'm feeling about that.... We shall see...





For the double din you do need to trim out some of the plastic. honestly, that is a little scary. Originally I thought if something went wrong I could always go back to stock but once you cut... you're pretty much in balls deep....

Say good by to the sleek factory look....



I'll be cutting tonight or tomorrow and keep you all posted.

[70-k5]

I set out last night intending to just see how the Stereo would look in the hole and ended up going a little bit farther. BMW's go together very similar to old square body chevys.... just fit a little better.... Wife was rushing me so I missed pictures of running the RCA cables to the back. That was the biggest part of the job last night.

There is a minimal amount of trimming to get the double din stereo to fit. Basically two very small tabs on either side to remove a cross piece. Even after removal the factory setup still goes back in and is secure!







There is just enough room for the new unit to squeeze between what is left, actually, it fits perfectly and is very secure. I pushed it in and heard a click, and a click.... Like it was secure... Since I was only in the mock up stage I thought, crap, how did it just lock? Turns out there are tabs that do secure the mounting brackets to the edge of the dash, very slick and very secure....

Once you get the unit in all the way you need to use a screwdriver or similar prying tool on the outside edge to remove the unit. You can sort of see it here, I've got the screw driver inserted as it would be if the unit was installed.



Here's the Kenwood fully clicked in, the bezel isn't fully clicked in, didn't want to fight that till I was done. I'm surprised that it looks as good as it does.




After I did that I decided to run the RCA's to the back.... That was a chore! As I said, didn't take too many pictures....

1. Fold rear seat down and remove side bolster on the c-pillar.
2. Fold seat back up and pop seat bottom up, don't need to completely remove.
3. Starting at the rear pull up rear door sill plate, four retainers holding it in place.
4. Move seat forward and remove rear bolts, 16mm I think.
5. Remove front door sill and move seat back to the rear.
6. Remove caps from front seat nuts and remove nuts, let seat tilt back.
7. Remove foot rest by inserting screwdriver, or similar, into bottom and prying upwards.
8. Remove two smaller bolts from foot rest.
9. Remove hood latch lever using torx and other torx screw holding kick panel in place.
10. Remove twisting locking clips from shroud under steering column.
11. Remove three screws on forward edge of plastic cover.
12. Remove screw holding air vent plenum to the plastic cover.
13. Remove screw on front edge of upper console panel.
14. Pry from bottom of middle, the rear end has a tab that fits under the rear piece of trim.
15. Pick up front seat and move it forward so you have access to b-pillar.
16. Starting from the bottom pry b-pillar trim off.

That's the removal process so you can get the RCA's or anything for that matter from the center dash stack, under the steering column, down the front of the kick panel, in the door sill gutter, around the b-pillar, up the rear seat and through rear sail panel to the stereo door in the rear compartment.

The job should take you about 2-3 hours start to finish.

[70-k5]

Moving the CD unit to the back was a pita... Gulp... no turning back now...



I traced the wires and ended up cutting them in front of the rear seat. I then doubled them back into the driver side rear compartment.







I have a microphone for the Kenwood, the recommended location is on top of the steering column, that sounds like a bad idea so I made a better location. I popped out one of the blanks in the upper console and routed the wire along the headliner, down the a-pillar and under the dash, concealed it perfectly. I'll have completed pictures coming up.





I pulled out my multi-meter and found that there are some unused slots in the glove box fuse panel. I found one switched ignition and one constant 12v source free! I have the wires all ready, 10amp inline fuses ready for tomorrow.

Besides the power I need to find a suitable ground. Last option is to splice a little more wire onto the MID plug so I can move it to the glove box. almost to the finish line!

So far I'm into this project:

$250 kenwood head unit
$19 Metra install kit
$85 PA-12DSP

I'm gaining bluetooth, aux inputs for devices other than Apple products, potential to upgrade to rear view camera and rear seat DVD entertainment. I still have the use of all 10 speakers, the DSP sound settings.

[70-k5]

I got the Kenwood all setup and wired in.

I moved the MID to the glove box and when I checked the operation the face was blank, no power whatsoever. I fear that when I chopped the CD harness in the middle I severed more connections than I should have. the wires match up 1-1 but there could have been more integration that I was not aware of.

I see two options moving forward.

A. Remove interior and repair the work that I've done.
B. Move forward and remove more of the BMW system.

Here's quick pick of the microphone, at least something made me happy today.

[70-k5]

Lets see where we left off...

Oh, yea, I f^ked it all up..... I don't know exactly what happened but the MID has no function any longer, that happened after I cut the wires and tried to relocate it to the glove box. Long story short instead of trying to integrate into the factory amp and DSP mumbo-jumbo I'm jumping off the deep end.

Finally arrived today:

KENWOOD EXCELON XR-5S

Nothing fancy, I don't want to blow up the world, just keep the wife happy, opted for the 5-channel just in case I need to add a little bass in the future.

But I think to myself, I've got 10 speakers and only four outputs... I found a little about passive crossovers, should let me listen to all the speakers and have the appropriate sounds come out of each of them....

I opted for a four pack of three way crossovers. There are three different types of speakers in the front: midbass, midrange and tweeters. Seemed simple to use a three-way here. In the rear there are only midbass and midrange speakers and I didn't want to use a two way crossover so I will use the same 3-way as in the front. Without knowing much about the factory speaker specs I assume this will work and I can balance out the sound with either the deck or amplifier eq.

[70-k5]

Over the weekend I got everything buttoned up. Found a problem and had to do it all over again... not everything but most everything.

Once I powered up the system and turned the engine on there was a horrid alternator whine, ($@)DFVM) So I realize that the main power wire runs along the same path, drivers door sill, as the RCAs did. So I tear out the interior again, pull the RCA's from behind the dash and run them from the rear panel, along the front edge of the rear seat, down the center to the drivers side of the console and then through the console up behind the dash.

If the RCA's are even remotely near the main power wire you will get a whine. I got it all back together and even they only cross at one place I still get faint noise. I'm going to try to shield the specific area where they cross. More on that later.

The other "WTF" moment is when I realized that the amplifier has a dead channel... The Right Rear channel has nothing. Crap. Ordered a replacement amp and will return the first one.

I am pleased with the crossovers and have all 6 front speakers working in unison. I spent a few minutes tuning, got them sounding better, they have a little bit to go but all in all not too shabby.

They do lack the bass punch that I require in a vehicle, I'm happy I went with the 5-channel amp as I will be adding a sub in the next phase. It will be as simple as running a wire across the back, RCA's are already run.

[TheRipster]

hey! sounds great... i'm about to do all of that plus do my surround speakers.

so you say that you ran the RCAs down the center along the center console? and then what? under the rear seat and out the tire well and into the spot where your amp is?

i just don't want to have to re-wire anything!

[70-k5]

Sorry for taking so long to log back in.... I followed the stock wiring from the center console along the floor to the edge of the door then up the c-pillar and back through the channel below the rear window.

I'm thinking I might need to do just a tiny bit more since there is a faint alternator whine that is audible when the sound is very low.

I'm happy with the setup and would probably do it again.


And an update on the Kenwood. I did get advice that the 519 wasn't that great and the call quality of the blue tooth was pretty bad. I can say that it was, I got all sorts of feedback when on calls but after performing an update via flash drive the call quality is 50x better, still not like a 2013 BMW but good enough to make it usable.