bruceda

Hi Just going through the same thing myself at the moment, mine is a 99 328 sedan but I believe they are the same (or at least close). I have 3 speakers in each front door, one in each rear door and 2 in the rear parcel tray. The bad news is the speakers are non standard sizes, and low depth. I believe the speakers in the lower part of the doow skins are approximately 5 1/2" as are the ones in the parcel tray. There are tweeters in the frint corner of the doors but I read that the mounting is a little odd, and not very welcoming to aftermarket parts. The options I know of are: 1, shell out for Bavarian soundwerks direct replacements from the states, this will be expensive but will work without any modifications, plug and play. 2, make adapter rings for 5 1/4" speakers but shop around for similar depth speakers. I believe Alpine and a couple of others even come standard with adapters that might suit. 3, custom work, I don't think it's worth it depending on what you are wanting. Good luck, read around a lot, there is quite a lot of info on line. Bruceda

Hi Well, I can confirm that the problem was as described and the new headunit is now in and working. I guess it's something new I have learned and hopefully this thread might stop someone else striking the same problem I did. Thanks Jochen for your reply. Damian

Hi people I have just replaced the really average E46 business cassette head unit with a clarion single cd head unit. The problem I am having is a bit weird (well to me anyway). The radio works fine, all 4 speakers are confirmed as working using the balance and fader but cd and aux won't work. At first I thought the headunit might be shagged but to confirm it was working I have touched the -ve and +ve of one speaker output from the headunit to the appropriate parts of a headphone jack and I was able to head the cd audio. So basically for some reason what ever happens between the output of the headunit and the speakers does not like the what the headunit is spitting out. I have used an adapter loom spliced into the OEM loom that came with the head unit. Any help would be much appreciated. Damian Update --> I think I might have it sorted out, well at least what I am reading makes sense that is. I checked out e46fanatics and found a post about a similar topic. What had happened was the person had wired the power antenna output to the amp remote trigger (both use a blue wire in standardised looms), so... radio on, powers "antenna" but actually powers factory amp, speakers work, change to cd, power no longer supplied to antenna, amp goes dead, so do speakers. I had no idea the car had a factory amp so I would not have thought ot this. The worst part is the adapter loom is labelled "Power Antenna" on the wire in question as well. I did think it was odd supplying power to an aerial that does not retract but the whole audio system in the E46 is weird so I went with it. I am way to shitty to pull the car to bits again today so I will do it tomorrow and post the results, maybe I'll save someone else from the same problems.