Help with head unit wiring

[Henryojw77]

Hi, I’ve recently purchased a z3 and always loved having a CarPlay unit. I recently bought this cheap one of Amazon, but have no clue how to wire it. It had an aftermarket stereo installed on it already and has a wiring harness for the old one. What do I need to get to be able to use this? Might be a case of returning it.
Thanks!

 

[NZ00Z3]

This PDF may help with the original wiring.

 

[Pond]

Your existing head unit should have a legend of what colour wires do what somewhere on it. If not type the make and model into google and you will find a manual somewhere to find the wiring.
Then I would chop the connectors from the existing head unit, leaving the big BMW connector, and wire your new connector to those.
So all you are doing is replacing the connector for your new one.

One tip: check the earth wire (brown on the BMW side and usually black on the other) is OK, as mine was loose in the main connector and was causing all sorts of issues with the stereo. It was taking it's earth from the aerial coax so was working but was all a bit weird!

 

[Henryojw77]

Your existing head unit should have a legend of what colour wires do what somewhere on it. If not type the make and model into google and you will find a manual somewhere to find the wiring.
Then I would chop the connectors from the existing head unit, leaving the big BMW connector, and wire your new connector to those.
So all you are doing is replacing the connector for your new one.

One tip: check the earth wire (brown on the BMW side and usually black on the other) is OK, as mine was loose in the main connector and was causing all sorts of issues with the stereo. It was taking it's earth from the aerial coax so was working but was all a bit weird!

Thanks very much managed to get it installed and working!! It was a pain.