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How To: Fit Alpine HiFi - Updated Version

33K views 27 replies 20 participants last post by  TAS 
#1 ·
How To Fit Alpine HiFi system.

Firstly I tried my best to record two 30 second music samples on my phone before and after the fitting to show the difference. You can sort of hear the bass lines more clearly and I would say it certainly worth the money for a decent upgrade.

These are .amr files (Nokia Multimedia Player apparently). Was going to convert to something more popular, but in all honesty, I couldn't be bothered!



I am in no way accepting responsibility for any errors along the way, and I am in no way affiliated with BMW and have zero idea how to do any work on BMW's! This was the first time I have explored a BMW internally so to speak!
I wouldn't say there is a set way/ order to do this but I have done it in the order I think worked well.
I would like to thank rock2605 for his how to, I used that along with the manual to work my way through the system with a good result - so far! Mine is a BMW 1 Series 3 Door 118d SE. 58 Plate with Business CD.


Step 1
Get acquainted with all the parts and make sure you have everything.

Step 2
Clear the boot out. Pull out the folding bottom layer and remove this completely. Then you will need to remove the large piece of plastic at the rear of the boot near the boot lid that holds down the carpet. This is removed by prizing off the two plastic parts. These are strange things, just use a flat screwdriver and gently work your way around the head pulling off the screws.


Next remove the two black clips on the boot lip which you can do with a small flathead screwdriver gently.


Under here are 2 screws which are crossheads. Lift this piece of plastic out and away.
Remove the first aid kit to the right of the boot and the flap covering the rear of the rear light cluster. You'll need this free for later.
You may find it easier to remove the small plastic surrounds of the bars that hold the backseats on. Pic below.


Step 3
Remove the backseat, this is done by just pulling hard on the front of the rear seat base. It will come straight up. There is a slit in the seat for the middle seat belt to come out of the seat base. And the buckles just drop out through the holes. Take this out completely. I found it easier but you may not - the inserts at the rear (the passenger armrests) I pulled these off by ONE clip at the bottom. This helps feed the wire harness through later. But leave it to you.





Step 4
Remove the 2 door sills (the plastic inner part). This is best done by sliding something slim in and then just prizing it upwards. Once you have enough room to do it by hand give it a good series of yanks and it will come free. Take this completely off.

Step 5
Remove the door cards. I took these off completely, others have left them on whilst doing bits apparently. Pull the door handle cover off (silver bit on mine that goes upwards from the underneath of the window closure unit towards the window). This came off with brute force so to speak. Just get a good grip and heave ho. Put these to one side then unscrew the two screws concealed in this handle. Then prize off the small square shaped cover which is located just at the top of the door pocket. Undo this screw as well.

Now the door card is only held on by clips. I tried to use a spatula but they were just too flimsy and the door is held on very well. I resorted to a flathead screwdriver weighing up the fact that the underneath isn't seen! Go slow, you want to prize near a clip to give you best chance of winning!

Now BEFORE yanking the top half of the door card off look between the card and the door itself from the opening end of the door. You should see the item pictured below. It is the door lock mechanism. Unclip this.



I have read you can put your hand up between the card and door and push the window closure units out of the door pockets. I couldn't do this on the driver's door but could on the passenger door. On the driver's door I had to use a screwdriver to prize the unit out from the top. Use a cloth under the screwdriver to stop marks etc. Go slow and work around the unit as opposed to just one point. For info the units have two SOLID clips at the end furthest from the front of the car. Do not prize this end as they will snap.



Once the unit is out unplug the electrical bit. Now work the door pin lock out of the top of the door card before pulling it off completely. Once out, let it hang. And yank the door card off.

Do this for both sides of the car obviously, they are virtually mirrored other than the unit on the driver's door as described, this needs prizing out from the top I found. (Others may have other ways!)


Step 6
Plug the harness into the amp in the boot. Now feed the leads that need to go to the left under the left hand boot liner on the side slightly and between the belt pillar and the rear seat as low to the bottom as possible. You basically want it to disappear and get an "invisible install". Do the same for the right hand leads. Then go to the backseat. Pull the wires through the relevant sides UNDER the seat belts! Then push the lead under the pillar holding the rear seatbelt to hide it.




I found a good tip was to wrap insulation tape around the loose wires from the harness to stop them getting caught when feeding them through the car. Wrap them tightly to the tip. Then under the rear window by the rear seat base you'll see a small gap. If you push your hand down you'll feel a thin piece of felt which you can lift, underneath you'll feel some wires already here. These wires route to the door sill where you're heading. Push the harness wires down this hole and aim it towards the front door sill. Push your hand up from the front of the door pillar from the door sill side. You should feel the wires eventually (this is tight!) pull the wire through and there you have it.


Your wires should now be invisible and through the door sill. Just push the visible bits under the rear seatbelt pillar and under the boot liner to achieve the invisible result.

The driver's side is exactly the same. As I earlier said, I found it easier to unclip (by yanking) the lowest clip on the door pillar by the doors to get my hands through towards the rear. But see how you find it.

Step 7
Pull the carpet back in the driver and passenger footwell by the door sill. Find the wires you'll be needing. I was really worried about this bit but seriously, it is pretty straightforward.

Passenger Side (LEFT) - Look down between the chassis and the carpet. You'll see a load of wires following them to the front. Just prior to the plastic bit of trim under the glove box you'll find a lump of wires wrapped in the felt wiring tape that BMW use. This big bulk (like there's a connector wrapped in there) this is what you want. Now, you need to expose these wires.

rock2605 tried using a blade but caused damage to the wires so resorted to using small scissors. I tried this but had no joy. I actually found decorators scissors being best. They are nice and sharp and you can use them to prize the tape away from the sires. Just be careful of damaging the wires underneath. GO SLOW! Open these up and you'll find two green connectors with 3 wires going into each.



I found the following helpful:
The 2 wires going towards the front of the car label them with a piece of paper and a bit of tape as FRONT SPEAKERS. Then trace the other wires towards the rear of the car. 2 will go towards the centre of the car and the other 2 to the sub woofer. I found the connector for the subwoofer so could trace the wires back to the connectors, although they do blend in to the vast amount of wires down the side (I cut these open as well to help trace the wires. Your call). Label the 2 that go to the sub woofer and label the two that go to the middle as RADIO.


Now cut all the wires where they meet the green connector. Bin the connectors. The wiring guide in the instruction manual is fairly easy to follow. The colours of the wires on the harness DO NOT match the colours of the cars wires generally so don't go thinking you have the wrong ones!

The kit comes with crimp connectors, didn't like these and seems most don't. I used block connectors as did rock2605 although others have used soldering for long lasting joints. Whatever you think is best really, it'll be covered anyway so won't show.


Join the wires together as described in the manual.
On the driver's side there is a significant amount of wires. There is a thick thread of wires going through and these got in the way as they go over your targeted wires. The location of the wires for this side are placed just under the bulk of wires you see (which contains a few thick red ones, power cables) I found it a lot easier to cut the front speaker wires just by its clip to the chassis as shown in the picture (you'll be cutting these anyway so don't worry) once cut pull the wires you want that are under the thick cables up and over so they are easier to work on. Again, there are 2 green connectors with 6 wires in, cut these off and wire as the manual says. I labelled these as well before cutting. You can see the sub woofer connector and trace the 2 wires back so all fairly easy.



Step 8
Once all wired in go to the door cards you've taken off. Replace the speakers as the manual says DO NOT BOLT BACK ON YET! Bolt the crossovers onto the bolts for the speakers as the manual describes. Plus the single end of the cross over into the door speaker. There are 3 other ends, one is not used (dependant on your vehicle which one), one connects to the tweeter (connect when the cards back on/ or going back on) and the third goes to the original connector hanging from inside the door chassis.

Now pull the tweeter cover on the corner of the front windows off. Two clips, just yank. Replace these with the provided tweeter covers if required, FIT THE TWEETER into the cover FIRST!! Don't plug in just let the wire hang. The covers need to fit into the two holes AND there are two slots in the rubber trim that MUST meet the cover as well as a lip on the edge of the cover that needs to meet the other end of the rubber cover. This is tricky, just go slow and keep trying, eventually you'll get the bits all to meet up! Also don't forget like I did to put the old foam bit behind the corner piece behind the tweeter.



Now bring back the door cards. Plug in the tweeter and the speaker to the door. Done. Feed the wire for the windows/ mirrors through the relevant hole and leave it there for now. I pushed the door pin back through the door card and clipped the TOP of the card onto the door. I reached between the card and door and re-clipped the locking cable/ mechanism onto the small black latch. You hook the black bit on then pull the cable down until the white piece of plastic fits into the small rivet. Fiddly but easy enough.

Reconnect the electrical unit and then push this back into place being careful not to damage.
I didn't re-clip the card back on in case any problems! Do this for both sides, both the same.

Step 9
The Battery! I won't lie here, I s**t myself about doing this. I phoned BMW and asked the parts department which positive point to connect it too and where the earth point was! It was as I thought, and as the manual said! Anyway….

Firstly undo the small bolt holding the NEGATIVE terminal on (shown on pic). Make sure this is kept well out the way to avoid shorts etc. Now undo the bolt that is holding down the red cables on THE FURTHEST RIGHT by the battery (POSITIVE). Put the red cable from the amp onto this. Re-bolt.


Then feed the brown (EARTH) wire up under the boot liner to the right and up to the rear light cluster. Undo the bolt at the lower corner nearest you, place the earth terminal here and rebolt on.


Now put the NEGATIVE terminal back on. It WILL spark but this is normal, well a small spark is!
Plug the harness into the amp. Done. MAKE SURE THE KEY IS NOT IN THE IGNITION/ ENGINE ON while doing this and the battery work!

Once all terminals have been re-secured and earthed your good to go.

Turn the ignition on and…. Drum roll…… turn the stereo on. Mine takes a few seconds for the speakers to kick in. Ah well. Nothing wrong with that I don't think! Have read several people having this. Anyway, if all works its fine, you've done it, well done, saved yourself about £300 labour costs!

Test it properly. Fade music to left, right, rear and front to ensure all works ok. Different bass levels and trebles etc.

Once happy…..

Step 10
Clip the door cards back on fully. Replace screws. Replace handle cover and small clip above door pocket.

Replace boot parts. Back seat, Passenger armrest at rear if you took lower clip out, I then wrapped my wire connections well in black insulation tape to prevent any condensation, leaks etc etc. Your call. Then the door sills. These are the only bits that are a bit different.

Most clips will stay in the chassis. Use a screwdriver, flathead, to prize them out. I bent a few of mine on the underneath. MAKE SURE YOU FLATTEN THEM AGAIN BEFORE RE-INSTALLING otherwise they won't fit flush. Slide the clips back into the slides on the door sill.



Start from the clip that is slightly raised by the door pillar/ seatbelt bit. Line this up but don't push in. Push the little plastic clip at the top of the door sill into the rear passenger armrest bit. You'll see what I mean. Then line up the second clip, the third. Now push in the first one, so basically have 2 clips lined up but not clipped in between the one you're now lining up and the one you last clipped in. Hope that makes sense. Basically don't push them in as you want a bit of flexibility to get under the door sill. I used a flathead screwdriver to push the clips gently forward or backwards to line them up with the chassis holes. Once lined all up I just punched downwards on the sill and it clips back in.

Now just make sure everything is put back as it was, the wires are all insulated/ secure and that's it job done.

Any additions/ tips etc let me know and I will add them.

Thanks again to rock2605 for his initial how to!
 
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#4 ·
Ordered the kit yesterday and picked it up this afternoon. Paid 358 euro for it. Got 5% off, whohoo!

Fitting it is really straighforward. The hardest part is finding and uncovering the connectors on the existing wiring loom.

Started with figuring out how the system works.
The standard system feeds the audio signal direcly from the radio to the doorspeakers and subwoofer.
The alpine system picks up the audio signal from the radio, routes it through the amplifier and on different channels feeds the subwoofers and doorspeakers. In the door the signal is spit in a mid an high signal for the mid speaker and tweater.
Understanding that makes me much more confident in cutting up the wiring loom.

Started with removing the boot floor, plastic boot trim piece, plastic covers for the rear backrest hook.
Then the left and right boottrim pieces can be removed.

Disconnected the battery from the car. Important! Because resetting warning lights can cost alot of $$.

Then pulled up the rear seat. Removed the rear door trim piece. Pull out the center of the grey screw and then the whole thing can be pulled out. Its held by 3 clips.
Removed the front door trim piece. Just pull, its held by 4 clips.
Both left and right side.

The rearseat can be left in the car if the centre belt is holding it.

Pulled the carpet from under the B pillar trim.

How to remove the door boards:
remove the trim piece from the door handle by starting on the bottom. There is a slot in which you can put a screwdriver and it will pop op easy. remove the black thingy at the doorhandle, then undo 3 screws.

pulled out the window buttons, just pull. driver side, connector with a lever, other side, just pull of the connector.

used a barbeque spatula (yes) wrapped in cloth to get the doorboard off. Started at the bottom and popped of quite easy. About 10/12 clips.

When the doorboard came off, unclipped the doorhandle. Just unclip the white thing. Pulled of the speaker connector. Both sides the same.

The trimpiece with the grill for the tweeter was already installed, but no tweeter inside. Partly pulled of the trim piece. (2 clips), and got the foam piece out.

Now everything was pulled apart and the installation could begin:

Then routed the wiringloom through the car. Started at the amplifier, The the speaker wires can easily be routed under the left and right rear backrest pieces. If done carefully, it wil be an invisible installation.

route the cables to the front doors.
route the red and brown cable to the battery and the ground bolt and connected it.

Then the most "difficult" part. Finding the connectors in the wiring loom.
Pull up the carpet, undo the clips which hold the loom and find the connectors. Left side it it located where the trim piece for the a pillar begins. Right side it is under the thick loom. Cut the cloth tape with a pair of very sharp scissors and got the connectors out.

Then... well ... cut them off, connect the new loom to the loose wires as described in the bmw manual. I used the supplied crimp connectors.
6 wires on each side, 2 come from the radio, 2 go to the door and 2 go to the subwoofer. The new loom is labelled, so cannot be done wrong.
Well... wires from the radio and to the subwoofer are same color, so make sure you're not doing it wrong.

Both sides same thing.

Doorboards: take the old speakers of, put the new ones on, put the filter on and bolt on! (2x)

Clip the tweeters in the trim piece, put the foam over it and clip the whole thing back on the door.

Take the doorboards with the new speaker and filter in, clip the doorhandle connector on, route the wire for the windowcontrols through, connect the tweeter (use right connector, see bmw manual) connect speaker to the door, and put the doorboard back on. Start at the window. Align the white clips and bang it back in place. (You might want to do this later after testing ...)

Connect the amplifier to the 2 white connectors in the boot. Stick the amplifier to the floor with the velcro.
Reconnect the battery

(famous drumroll)

start the car, or just turn the ignition on. If everything is done ok, you will get music and no smoke.

Rebuild the whole thing in reverse order, and you're done!
When putting the door strips back in place, get the orange clips out, put the clips in the strips, and click them back in place. Other way around just won't work.

For me it was about 4.5 hours work.

I'm very pleased with the improved soundquality and can recommend this to anyone who wants an audio upgrade.

I also made some pictures which I put on my hyve site. Is linking alowed? see eddytoo.hyves.nl for pics.

ttfn!
 
#8 ·
and yet another question lol ,
is this in our opinion a better option than going down the blaupunkt route ?
how much did the dealer charge you to reprogramme your stereo ?
and does this kit make it easier to fit say a 12" sub in the boot ?
thats 3 questions isn't it ?
oh no ! that's 4 lol
thanks a lot , :sterb:
 
#10 ·
so in theory , this setup means the back speakers aren't amped , so they are full range signal which could mean they could be used to feed an amp to run a sub ???, it's been a long time since i did anything with car audio , it's coming back to me now i think , it just seems a bit baffling at first
:D
 
#12 ·
Hi Chaps,

First off, thanks to Rock2605 and MarineObserver for their excellent Alpine installation guides.

I ordered my Alpine upgrade from Nine Elms BMW last week (£275). They estimated an installation of 6 hours labour at £160 per hour!

Thanks to this site, I managed to do all this myself (with help from a mate as an extra pair of hands).

Total installation time took about three hours, and sounds awesome.

The only things I could add are as follows (116i MSport 2006, Business HU, 5 door)
1. There are only 2 size 15 torx screw on the front doors, I understand from the the above guides that some models may have three screws.

2. Deciphering the wiring under the front doors was the hardest bit of the whole install.

3. Removing the door panels was easier than I anticipated, using a soft plastic fish-slice!

Once again, thanks to all who posted information on this, very impressive upgrade: even my wife noticed the difference on her first post installation trip to the supermarket!

Ben
 
#13 ·
This is quite important, the Alpine is a Class D amp, and its harmonics that it radiates are the same frequncy as the FM on our radios, you have to be very careful where you rout the cables as they act as aerials sending out this interference.

I have not seen these install images before on here, so sorry if they have been posted before, but pay attention to where the wires should be routed as it will make a difference to your radio reception.





 
#15 ·
Just to add to the advice....

Check and double check the wiring to the speakers - mine were labelled up wrongly which caused a hell of a lot of confusion and an awful lot of faffing taking door cards off etc.

The harness comes labelled so you know where to connect the free ends. Due to a labelling f*%k up I ended up wiring the sub feed to the head unit and all sorts of nasty other stuff....

Best thing to rely on is the manual, it says exactly which colour wire goes to which, do it carefully and thoroughly.

What an upgrade though!!!! I had a Bose sound system in my last car and this is much much better than that.
 
#16 ·
Funny you should say that Dunders,

I've fitted my alpine kit today and found exactly the same issue with the wiring look they provided.

Mine was fine on the drivers side, but on the passenger side, they had switched the label for the Mids and Radio output. V Bad i think as this could have potentially caused an issue. Lukily we'd spotted somethin wasn't right before connecting it all up.
 
#17 ·
Glen123d said:
Funny you should say that Dunders,

I've fitted my alpine kit today and found exactly the same issue with the wiring look they provided.

Mine was fine on the drivers side, but on the passenger side, they had switched the label for the Mids and Radio output. V Bad i think as this could have potentially caused an issue. Lukily we'd spotted somethin wasn't right before connecting it all up.
Well I actually missed this and powered it up all wired in wrongly!! I used the labels rather than the installation manual!

I got some horrible tones coming out the tweeters and mids. Luckily it doesn't seem to have affected them or anything else which shows a certain robustness I suppose but like you say it isn't good.

I would rather not have shoved a load of signal down the copper tubes the wrong way!!
 
#18 ·
Hi First post here and of course i need help :)
I just had the Alpine upgrade and the ipod thing fitted by my dealer.
For reference sake i thought that the standard audio was ok for what it was, but since everyone said that the Alpine upgrade was so nice i figured that i should have it fitted.
Now when it is fitted i can not believe how bad it sounds, it´s almost like the midrange is gone and the bass is way way to powerful for the rest of the speakers.
I did try to change the switch under the Amplifer and it hot better, not good but at least it got better, the switch was in the correct position for my equipment from the start, so now it is in the wrong position and it got better?

Now im hoping that the dealer has mixed up the wires and that this is a easy fix, where have you guys found the labeling beeing wrong?
On the connectors coming out from the filter or somewhere else?

Bringing it back to the dealer at this time is really not an option since they are located in Germany and im in Sweden getting ready for vacation.

Thank you.

/ Best wishes from Sweden.

Dunders said:
Just to add to the advice....

Check and double check the wiring to the speakers - mine were labelled up wrongly which caused a hell of a lot of confusion and an awful lot of faffing taking door cards off etc.

The harness comes labelled so you know where to connect the free ends. Due to a labelling f*%k up I ended up wiring the sub feed to the head unit and all sorts of nasty other stuff....

Best thing to rely on is the manual, it says exactly which colour wire goes to which, do it carefully and thoroughly.

What an upgrade though!!!! I had a Bose sound system in my last car and this is much much better than that.
 
#19 ·
Just want to say thankyou to Marineobserver for this updated guide. Perfect for me considering we have the same model. This was really helpful and cleared up some grey areas when I was installing mine today. It took a while, 4 hours of checking, re-checking, battling with the door trim and giving the car a good vacuum along the way ended in success! (And some aching / slightly blistered fingers)

This kit has an awesome sound and anyone considering doing it should go ahead, it's leagues ahead of the standard stereo setup. I was a little nervous about crimping the wires to the sub, radio and door speakers but it really isn't that difficult. All the wires in the kit come labelled ready (the ends are neatly stripped too) and as long as you can read and are able to match up colours it's very straight forward.

Thanks again!
 
#20 ·
Hi All,
Just installed the speakers only yesterday, will do the amp this weekend. But have ran into an issue. i did notice the doors were slightly harder to clip in, but they seemed to clip in ok..

Now this afternoon i noticed my drivers (right) door skin was pressed against the dash and it made a small indent in the skin (softish vinyl material)

i have a feeling my the frequency switch isn't mounted correctly. The other side seems ok. It seemed a little hard to press the door back on, but it did click.
How has everyone mounted it? across the two bolts that are closer together? as pointed to by the install instructions. Or another two bolts?

if i install it on the closer together ones the frequency switch seems to hang out of the perimeter of the speaker, i think if i were to go the longer bolts, it would at least sit inside the perimeter of the speaker, giving better clearance (but interrupt the sound back wave?) .

Anyway just wondering if anyone else had this issue?

edit: all fixed, took it off again flipped the crossover around, moved it a little so it sits flat rather than sideways, put the door back on, fit a lot easier, and clicks in easily.. used the same two bolts, i dont think you can use any other bolts as other things block it. hope this helps someone.
 
#22 ·
I am installing an amp and sub and want to do that the easiest way possible. I found this wire in the boot and I wonder if that is the speakercable to the left speaker in the boot. Can it be used as a high level input to the amp.
The cable is visible in this picture. The thin blue one that goes across the hole picture:
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reply soon please :)
 
#23 ·
GifBMW said:
If its a twisted blue pair then yes I believe it is the rear speaker cable connect. From memory, the speaker input to the rears is crap so this may impact the input signal. The amp draws its inputs from the front channels.

That Alpine box in your boot is an Amp. The front channels are fed into it already so you have all channels in the boot already.
Actually I stole that picture from the guy who created this thread. I do not have an amp in my boot. Only that blue twisted blue cable. Is it still a bad cable to use as input?
 
#24 ·
Ok, yes I know the rear speaker sounds bad, but isn´t that because the speakers are really bad, or is it not a full range signal? I have a standard 4 or 6 speaker system.
Maybe if I don't use the rear speakers I can fade on the HU to put more power to the rear channel. Of course this is not the perfect way, but it might work ok. I guess I have to try it out, seems like nobody has connected an amp+sub in the the trunk without doing any cabeling outside of it?
 
#25 ·
Stupid question, but how is the amp held down to stop it sliding around the place? Not looking to fit the alpine amp, but i will be fitting an amp there, so any tips would be welcome. My last resort is velcro :lol2:
 
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