Z4-forum.com

tonlaan wrote:Tried all night to install mine but didn't get is working .I installed it as shown in the picture where yellow is the ground. Now I did not use the capacitor and I only used a 220kohm resistor. I though the capacitors were only for the sound quality or are they need to fool the Z4 system. Let me know If it makes sense to try it in the exact same setup as explained here or if I made some other stupid mistake. Oh well at least I learned how to disassemble the dashboard.

Hi Tonlaan,

You need to use the correct resistor, I was given a under powered one which stopped my cable from working, got the right one and boom, all working.

I have tried with a few different value caps but not had much difference, haven't tried without thought. ..

forgive my ignorance in electronics, but why do you need the capacitors?

Built mine very easy and cheap solution but as others have said devoid of bass...sadly looks like refitting an aftermarket head unit is your best bet if you want decent sound quality and flexibility.

Thanks for all the info guys.

I found an easy way to pop the air vents out after messing around with screwdrivers, I'll do a writeup when I can. I couldn't see the clips. Just need a paperclip!

My wire doesn't make the stereo register aux on the mode button. Everything looks OK. Continuity checks out. I'm out of time now but theoretically, for testing, if I wired a resistor across pins 3 and 4 would that be enough to register the aux on the head unit just for peace of mind?

Cheers all.

Oops, 4 years late to the party!

Not at all mate I was looking at the tread today having taken the facia off on in search of rattles this weekend (unsuccessfully). I managed to scratch the trim on the way out too. I think the first time is always the worst.
I found an unconnected red and black cable and was trying to figure out what it was.

If you find out I'd love to know....

Shame all the original pics aren't hosted now.

casualbob, no problem, we get thread resurrections all the time. Proves you've done some searching instead of firing off a question that's been answered 100 times already.

Anyway, adding the resistor should cause the cable to register, but several have not had any luck doing so. There's probably many more where it has worked fine, but those types tend not to report their successes as often as failures. YMMV.

a340driver wrote:Shame all the original pics aren't hosted now.

I shall be looking to sort them out in the coming weeks - I believe I still have them someplace!

I've no affiliation whatsoever to this but I ordered one of these at the weekend with a female socket on the end to mount under the dash as per the OEM cable. Very good communication from the Seller and a perfectly working cable first time, worth thinking about for £14.99:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300941240982

well ... i tried and it worked )))) thanks so much for this awesome post.

Jut to add my part and thanks...
I bought an aux from eBay and fitted it but nothing read the thread and popped to maplins for the resistor and capacitors (they were chuffed to have the part numbers ready too! Thanks!) wired them in as to the instructions and it works a treat!
Aux didn't show up on the source options but with the new bits in place...


Thanks sk93!

I'm very late to the party, as not have my Z for long now. But I followed the initial procedure and all works great.
Thanks all for your posts

I bought the much cheaper AUX cable that is available on ebay (AUX Audio BMW E39 Z4 E85 X3 E83 E60 E61 Adaptor Cable) which you can find for about $10. This is actually the Z4 cable for radios without the CD player. It has the plug that fits back of radio and the female 3.5mm jack on the other end for the phone to plug in to. You can find this with a male end if you want with a little searching on ebay. It is missing the resistor and capacitors though so the radio does not recognize it being attached. I went to Radio Shack and bought a 2 pack of .22uf capacitors ($1.99) and a 5 pack of 100K Ohm resistors ($1.49) (They did not have the 300K Ohm in stock). I cut the cable about midpoint and soldered in the components, covered everything with tape and TADAAAAA!! My radio now has 3 modes (Radio, CD, Aux) I did not experience the lower volume other people have mentioned. I didn't like mounting the jack in the ashtray so I popped the plastic panel right above the ashtray under the radio and drilled a small hole, mounted the jack there and it is only visible if you bend down a little and look for it. And everyone is right, that vent is a real pain in the A** !!! I had to use a dental pick with a curved end to reach into the hole and pull the catch down a little so I could get a small screwdriver on it.

Im no good at soldering, will this fit?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CD-PLAYER-RAD ... 2341378374

Does anyone or the OP have the original images from the guide still as the seem not to be hosted anymore. Alternately is there a PDF complete with pics available anywhere?