X5 E53 missing audio components?
 

Hi everybody,
I've just bought a 2005 E53 X5 3.0D Sport.

All good so far, but I have no sound from my high sat nav / radio. The navigation works fine, I have upgraded to v32 with 2017 maps, just no sound.

It looks like the 6 disc changer has been removed and the wires cut, I've bought a new changer and a piece of cable with the connectors so that I can wire it in, but I'm not sure what else may be missing to cause the lack of sound.

There is also another wire that had been cut, looks like thick speaker cable, but I'm not sure.

I have an iPod cable that was wired in my glovebox, and when I push the radio button this is the only source found, so I guess that this is plugged into the aux instead of the changer.

I haven't looked under the dome yet to see what else may be wrong, but I'm not seeing an amp, should there be one?

Pics attached.

Thanks for any help or guidance

Where's your amp and your radio?

The amp (if still there) would be mounted in bracket in the rear left compartment. Several audio/nav components are all packed in there together...but in their own brackets. See A18 in pic below...that's where the amp should be:


If you have the nav screen up front...the radio (BM53 or BM54) is in the rear next to the battery (in the same compartment):

Thanks for your reply. I don't see an amp in that location, but I also don't see any spare cables or sockets other than the 2 cut wires in the picture I posted.

I'll have a look under the dome for the radio tomorrow.

Yep looks like an amp-ectomy and radio-ectomy was performed. I bet they had an aftermarket radio in there and put it back to sell or something and didn't have the other parts.

I have most of those components if you are looking for them. No wiring however


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From my fading recollection, some European cars don't have an external Amp depending on stereo option. European have a stereo option that is less than our US 10-speakers base system. More likely, an aftermarket Amp (for an aftermarket subwoofer) was removed from those pictures.

Totally agree - This is true of my UK 2005 e53 which never had an amp, had navigation. Before I installed new head unit/amp/sub/door speakers/speaker wiring/crosssovers etc it had 6 speakers: 1 in each door and 2 on the dash. No tweeters in A pillars. If yours is the same the radio module will be next to the battery as shown in the photo above. Yet there should also be a loom containing the speaker wire harness and connectors on the right of the battery - which is not present in the photo.

The thick black cable in your photo which looks like it contains 8 wires and runs parallel with what looks like the subwoofer cable may have been spliced into the original speaker harness (which has 8 wires : front right +/- front left +/- rear right +/- rear left +/- ) to run the door speakers from an aftermarket amp. This could have been chopped if the amp was removed hence no sound from door speakers... unless it's a chopped trailer module/ tow bar cable ? Where does that black cable run to?

Thanks for your help on this, I've finally managed to find time & decent weather to get in the boot and have a look.

I have a BM54 tuner (not showing as a source in the head unit), TV module (working on head unit but no sound), and 2 other modules, one of which I believe is for the air suspension, this was on the right of the battery, reference on the label is 110 187, 37.14-1092396. The other module I couldn't get out, but I'd on the other side of the tuner from the battery.

There is one spare connector, everything else seems connected.

Please see the attached photos, any guidance welcome as to why I have no sound.

Thanks!

The last picture shows the connector for a trailer module. That will not be the issue.

Cool, thanks for the reply, something else to rule out! Potential for it to be a failed BM54, since I don't see it as a source at all?

I've connected an iPod to the aux cable in my glove box, and it detects it, shows the currently playing track, but no controls work for the track control or volume.

AUX IN is just for sound, not control. Also, the AUX in gets processed through the BM53.

Need to confirm OEM speaker wires are intact, which you can do by removing plug from BM54, then using an AA battery, apply 1.5v to each speaker wire pair in turn. You should hear a small click from the speaker as you apply (and remove) the 1.5v.

Or use a multi-meter.. :-)

BM54 pin-out is...

https://www.bmwslo.com/uploads/month...1466425700.jpg

The spare connector could be for the tow bar module.

In my opinion - potential for failed bm54 is very low especially considering the fact that those chopped cables are definitely aftermarket and 99.9% likely to have been speaker related. As I said before, the black cable containing 8 wires looks highly suspect to me.

It sounds silly but first I would check you actually have speakers in the door pods. If aftermarket speakers were fitted they may have been stripped out before selling like it seems an aftermarket amp has been removed.

Also, if you know for sure there are speakers then work back you know you can get them working again. All the troubleshooting in the world wont make speakers work if there are non there in the first place!

A quick and easy way to check is holding a bright torch up to the speaker grille on a door panel- you should see a speaker cone behind the grille.

If your X has speakers, you can get them working again - you just need to investigate the wiring. My guess is the original factory speaker wiring has been modded on your X and not put back to original when the aftermarket amp was removed.