| jameslondon |
Posted
Tuesday, Jan 16th 1:19pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Junior Member
Post nr. 1
bmw e21 1977 |
Hi, i'm new here and have joined in the hope that somebody will be able to offer me advice on which radio's will work in my 1977 BMW E21. I purchsed it recently and would like to buy a radio for it. It has all the connection wires but I am unsure as to which to buy. I want one that fits in with the age of the car.
Can anybody help? |
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| chupchup |
Posted
Tuesday, Jan 16th 2:36pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 152
Singapore
320m20 |
radio connections are pretty standard. The only thing u probably need to look out for is the size. Most are DIN standards.
Go down to your local sound man and I m sure he can help you.
Unless of course u want the original radio that originally came with your car. |
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| Boost_me |
Posted
Tuesday, Jan 16th 4:46pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 76
Victoria, Australia
1981 BMW 323i |
Hey man if you want a stock radio I have one here I can ship to you.......lol, Perfect condition....But there a bit shite, you can put any sterio in your car as long it's a 1 DIN unit (Standard size headunit) They fit in without a worry..... |
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| jdench |
Posted
Tuesday, Jan 16th 10:18pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 146
Sussex, UK
1979 E21 323i, 1998 E36 323i touring |
I have one of these fitted http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/woodstock_dab54.asp
It doesn't look out of place, and being Blaupunkt, it is from the correct country!
And I have my ipod in the glovebox hooked up to it, you control your ipod through the head unit, so no more carrying CD's around! |
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| chupchup |
Posted
Tuesday, Jan 16th 11:23pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 153
Singapore
320m20 |
I think it is a wee bit too modern. Esp the blue lights |
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| jameslondon |
Posted
Wednesday, Jan 17th 3:53pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Junior Member
Post nr. 2
bmw e21 1977 |
Many thanks for the info guys - it's a great help to me as someone with very little knowledge of these things!
Would be great if I could get hold of an older radio though, so it would fit in with the age of the car. Does anyone know where I could get one? |
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| realcrouton |
Posted
Wednesday, Jan 17th 8:44pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 97
Washington, USA
1977 320i, 1981 323i, 1991 325ic, 2000 328i |
Ebay has them quite often, or Criagslist. I think you guys have Craigslist over there... |
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| pjs323i |
Posted
Thursday, Jan 18th 9:21am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 51
Canberra, Australia
'81 323i |
Okay, just installed one of these things myself, with no previous knowledge of how they work. Its a piece of cake 
You'll have 3 wires for power on the head deck: 1 is constant 12v, 1 is Earth or Negative and one is Ignition. (check users guide of the headdeck for colours of wires etc)
On the E21 you'll have 3 power wires:
1) Red and Yellow which is illumination (dont worry about that, you dont need it)
2) Purple and Grey which is ignition
3) Brown which is of course Earth or Negative
So, in order for the headeck to function correctly i.e. security and saving of settings etc you will need to find a constant 12v (as the e21 does not have one, instead it has the illumination wire). You will be able to find this in the glove box in the torch charger, so wire that up for your constant 12v.
Connect the Purple and Grey wire on the E21 to the Ignition wire on the headdeck, connect the Brown wire on the e21 to the Earth on the Headeck and connect the constant 12v you've found in the glovebox torch charger to the constant 12v on the head deck
IF YOU STUFF THIS UP AND BLOW UP YOUR HEADECK THIS IS NOT MY FAULT, A GOOD TOOL IS A MULTIMETRE!! GET ONE THEY ARE ONLY $10US AND CHECK THE WIRES FOR YOURSELF IF YOU ARE UNSURE!!
When it stops storming here i'll go out and take some photo's |
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| jdench |
Posted
Thursday, Jan 18th 9:34am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 148
Sussex, UK
1979 E21 323i, 1998 E36 323i touring |
You can change the background colour on it, I have mine set to the same orange as the dashboard lights! |
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| pjs323i |
Posted
Thursday, Jan 18th 10:23am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 51
Canberra, Australia
'81 323i |
i've got a pananasonic and you can customise the colour like how much red, blue and green you want in it. i got a perfect match to the bmw dash |
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| chupchup |
Posted
Thursday, Jan 18th 11:30am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 157
Singapore
320m20 |
| jdench wrote: | | You can change the background colour on it, I have mine set to the same orange as the dashboard lights! |
Ohhh???? but the silver dials......... sorry.... i m not a big fan of having "great" sounding HiFi in cars.
Now this is what I would like to have....... a new Blaupunkt or Becker head unit with radio, MP3 enable cd player, radio phone, built in volt meter with knob volume control, black colour with a small/med red/orange display.
sadly this does not exist.................sigh....
JamesLondon If u are really keen I have a few period units stored up somewhere........ mostlyy Blaupunkts and a Becker and Sony(?) |
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| Oldmanwillie |
Posted
Tuesday, Jan 23rd 6:27am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car] |
Member
Post nr. 15
South Australia
1982 323i motorsport |
i recently instaled a jvc head deck in mine. went in easy and looks fairly good in the dash. (alot better than my broken and frankly useless original tape radio deck). I also got all new speakers all around. it was a huge job finding anything that would fit in the fronts given the lack of room behind for the magnets. so i ended up buying exactly the same size as the originals for the front and in the back i bought some spacers and put in 6 inch round speakers on my parcel shelf. all of this was finally achieved withough having to cut up my lovely little car. and now i can finally have sound to match the profile of my car. (most important when cruising down the main street) |
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