e53 replacing radio with eonon GA5166 DVD/GPS/TV/Android4.2.2

[johnrichards]

No Prob. I will post a full detail with pic after I am 100% complete, but perhaps I can steer you in the right direction for now.

I am working with an 01 E53. Factory Nav with the wide screen display. Nav Drive and Changer in DS wheel well. Non DSP. Radio brains are under the spare, and the Alpine factory amp is in the well by the other devices. 10 speaker component configuration with varying opinions as to what is hi/mid/&low. No Factory Sub.

Frankly from what I have gathered in my process is that Creisa’s advise on the Dynavin is spot on!

My Alpine E53 AMP took on water at some point and was fried. The really bad news to this point was that all of the speaker crossover logic is contained within the function of the amp.

Since I was forced to replace the amp, whatever "plug n play" benefit would have been gained by using the A0569 BMW Extended Installation cable would still leave me with a pair of snips, and the task of wiring up crossovers.

As my talent level goes, I am perfectly comfortable in the 12V world, however the task of removing the cars body parts in order to run new cabling usually wont result in a perfect reassembly.

As I had the infamous dual 12 Pin plugs at the dash location (one blue, one white) I proceeded on the notion that I would just use these to get line signals from the front to the back.

It took a little bit of time to trace them and sort them all out, but they do indeed terminate in the back of the X5. One set to the radio brain box, and the other in the wheel well. (original destination... the NAV drive. )

They do however contain a few lines that draw need for caution.

• Cut them one at a time! - Like your defusing a bomb! They are hot 12V lines. …and perhaps most critical the yellow/white ibus line. You won’t want to cut through the whole mess and short something to ground.

• Find the 12 Lines ( and ibus ), on both ends cap them so they don’t find a ground some day while crossing some tracks.

It wound up being a pretty efficient way to get line signals from the front to back. You would think this would be an easy adapter to make as BMW and Audi(VW) have used these same style of connectors for some time.

I soldered RCA’s over 5 pair for Front, Back and Sub. There was a 12V / ACC / GRND both at the dash and in both back location. A canbus adapter can be hooked up to the white/yellow that is present in the dash. Just make sure you cap the other ends in the back. My steering controls worked perfectly.

The speakers were kind of a pain in the ass. I do not have a sub at this point so I just bought 2way crossovers. I omitted the dash speakers. Most agree these were the factory mids, but they are actually the same Hayes speakers that are in the doors. ( of course I am not the original owner and I can tell previous work has been done, so who knows if what I am seeing is stock.

Four passive crossovers off the 4 channel amp to feed the individual component speakers. I found a lot of variations in speaker wire colors. I wired up a temp line from my amp, plugged in the old ipod and did an audible trace of the speaker wires.

Make sure you use a low volume and if you can, dump everything under 1K so you don’t feed your 1in tweeter the bass intro to Rappers Delight!!

If you snip the 42pin plug that goes into the E53 Amp, keep in mind that there are also 12V lines present. There are also signal input lines that go between the brain and the amp. They all look like they could be speaker lines, but at least four are not.

I am left to just figuring out the antenna mess.

Feel free to reply if there is something more specific you need now. I have a great appreciation for these forums and the commitment to help a Beemer Brother out.

…can’t seem to find the forum when I am working on my daughters Corolla ☺

[we350z]

Hey John this is Brad I have chatted with you over email. You have the same situation as me except I didn't catch the first time around that your stock amp is fried.

I have everything working except the sound shuts off after a couple minutes unless I leave the 16:9 widescreen Alpine boardmonitor plugged in.

I think all I need to do now is connect the 12V AMP-CON wire (blue w/white stripe) to the white 12V ACC remote lead pin 4 (thicker white wire) on the 42-pin Harman Kardon harness (X?????) on the stock non-DSP Hifi Amp (Alpine 65.12-8 379 376) AND/OR to my Becker MB54 Radio Control Unit (RCU) old style 17-pin round pin harness (X18126) pin 16. There does NOT appear to be a remote 12V wire in either of the 12-pin connections behind the dash (12-pin blue X18801 or 12-pin white X18802).

These are my choices, I believe - in order of effort / difficulty:

1) Hijack an unused wire on X18801 (stereo functions - unlikely) or X18802 (NAV functions - more likely as I have disconnected Mark IV DVD) use it to connect AMP-CON to pin 4 on amp and/or pin 16 on RCU harness X18126).
2) Run a new remote wire to accoplish the same as above.
3) Relocate the Boardmonitor to the glove box (probably won't fit), will require extending X18801).
4) Relocate the Boardmonitor to the wheel well area

The only advantage I can think about #3/#4 is that since I am running the GA5166F Head Unit through my GROM Aux Input IBUS (CD Changer emulator) if the vehicle loses power I will have to plug the boardmonitor back in to select the AUX input again (as it will default to FM).

I have wired the line level inputs from the GA5166F to the TAPE L/R +/- but I haven't been able to verify if that actually works. Again I suppose I could possibly hijack the X18802 if I need to tap into some other leads on X18126.

Here are the threads I've written during this discovery phase:

Which radio tuner / harness is this?
Radio Control Unit and Non-DSP Amp ACC
Help With Eonon GA5166F Install w/Factory NAV no DSP
Boardmonitor pinouts to BM54 Radio Module

I hope that this helps anyone out there that is struggling with this install. I didn't necessarily think it would be "plug and play" but I thought it was be easier than this!

Originally Posted by johnrichards

No Prob. I will post a full detail with pic after I am 100% complete, but perhaps I can steer you in the right direction for now.

I am working with an 01 E53. Factory Nav with the wide screen display. Nav Drive and Changer in DS wheel well. Non DSP. Radio brains are under the spare, and the Alpine factory amp is in the well by the other devices. 10 speaker component configuration with varying opinions as to what is hi/mid/&low. No Factory Sub.

Frankly from what I have gathered in my process is that Creisa’s advise on the Dynavin is spot on!

My Alpine E53 AMP took on water at some point and was fried. The really bad news to this point was that all of the speaker crossover logic is contained within the function of the amp.

Since I was forced to replace the amp, whatever "plug n play" benefit would have been gained by using the A0569 BMW Extended Installation cable would still leave me with a pair of snips, and the task of wiring up crossovers.

As my talent level goes, I am perfectly comfortable in the 12V world, however the task of removing the cars body parts in order to run new cabling usually wont result in a perfect reassembly.

As I had the infamous dual 12 Pin plugs at the dash location (one blue, one white) I proceeded on the notion that I would just use these to get line signals from the front to the back.

It took a little bit of time to trace them and sort them all out, but they do indeed terminate in the back of the X5. One set to the radio brain box, and the other in the wheel well. (original destination... the NAV drive. )

They do however contain a few lines that draw need for caution.

• Cut them one at a time! - Like your defusing a bomb! They are hot 12V lines. …and perhaps most critical the yellow/white ibus line. You won’t want to cut through the whole mess and short something to ground.

• Find the 12 Lines ( and ibus ), on both ends cap them so they don’t find a ground some day while crossing some tracks.

It wound up being a pretty efficient way to get line signals from the front to back. You would think this would be an easy adapter to make as BMW and Audi(VW) have used these same style of connectors for some time.

I soldered RCA’s over 5 pair for Front, Back and Sub. There was a 12V / ACC / GRND both at the dash and in both back location. A canbus adapter can be hooked up to the white/yellow that is present in the dash. Just make sure you cap the other ends in the back. My steering controls worked perfectly.

The speakers were kind of a pain in the ass. I do not have a sub at this point so I just bought 2way crossovers. I omitted the dash speakers. Most agree these were the factory mids, but they are actually the same Hayes speakers that are in the doors. ( of course I am not the original owner and I can tell previous work has been done, so who knows if what I am seeing is stock.

Four passive crossovers off the 4 channel amp to feed the individual component speakers. I found a lot of variations in speaker wire colors. I wired up a temp line from my amp, plugged in the old ipod and did an audible trace of the speaker wires.

Make sure you use a low volume and if you can, dump everything under 1K so you don’t feed your 1in tweeter the bass intro to Rappers Delight!!

If you snip the 42pin plug that goes into the E53 Amp, keep in mind that there are also 12V lines present. There are also signal input lines that go between the brain and the amp. They all look like they could be speaker lines, but at least four are not.

I am left to just figuring out the antenna mess.

Feel free to reply if there is something more specific you need now. I have a great appreciation for these forums and the commitment to help a Beemer Brother out.

…can’t seem to find the forum when I am working on my daughters Corolla ☺

[swissfrank]

Johnrichards what head unit did you get? And do you have pics during your install ? Interested about the stuff under the spare tire by the battery as well.

[Ryan Sweeney]

I'm interested in how you actually fit the head unit into the dash. I had an EONON unit but it didn't fit at all. Sent it back...gonna buy a Dynavin, but do I have to modify the "cage" that the factory radio sets in?

[swissfrank]

bump?

[semcoinc]

I would like to hear more from any folks that have installed the Eonon E53 offering into their vehicle. The cost is very compelling. Their latest offering is the D5166Z.

In early 2014 I installed the Eonon Gm5150 into my factory nav E46 330Xi. A little quirky at first but they were clearly developing and debugging on the fly. Subsequent firmware upgrades settled it down to a decent unit for the sub $400 price. Yes the FAKRA cable to the trunk area was necessary and will also be needed for the E53 install.

I just recently got my iGo8 settled down with a sys.txt file that is working awesome. Q2/2014 NORTH America maps can be found at this torrent link

iGO8 R3 HERE (Navteq) 2014.Q2 North America (United States, Canada & Mexico) - torrent - iGO GPS Systems - Android Zone

The Dynavin N6 seems to be the top performer from what I've read here of folks who have installed it (works even WITH DSP), but at nearly 2X the price of Eonon offering, I'm having difficulty seeing that much premium over the Eonon unit, so I'm interested in hearing anything folks have to say about D5166Z operating experiences.

To be clear, I would pay some premium for the N6 over the Eonon pricing but not nearly 2X.

Thanks,

Mike

[Bakuba]

Those who are having installation problems with the GA5166, I cut the packaging styrofoam to give unit support, since I took out plastic bracket. Also, I removed the two bottom connectors out of the connector assembly so it can plug up to the unit plug and play connector. I just need to figure out what to do with those two plugs and the plug that come off of the mid unit. Any ideas.

[Bakuba]

I was told that the owners manual can be found in the unit. If that is so, what screen do I open?

[Bakuba]

If I can get radio to work I would be a satisfied customer with the GA5166. The plug that came off the mid section unit what do one do with it.

[swissfrank]

Originally Posted by Bakuba

If I can get radio to work I would be a satisfied customer with the GA5166. The plug that came off the mid section unit what do one do with it.

I don't have first hand experience but from what I read you need to plug in the original mid to turn on the factory amp still... unless you completely bypass the factory wiring.... try it because I am still curious about this head unit. I read that some people relocate the mid to the glove box to continue using the factory amp and wiring...