Bought an old BMW M3, filled with regret...

With the soft top, is the sound difference really going to be that noticeable? I would have thought you'd lose sound quality just because of road noise etc, assuming there is road noise (I know how quiet it is inside my car, but it's got a solid roof).
 
With the roof down you obviously get more outside noise, but with roof down you're unlkely to be ever pumping music for all to hear anyway, that's just a bit ASBO.

Roof up it's like a car with solid roof in most regards since it's very well insulated. And you can't tell from the inside that you're in a convertible until you look at the C pillars and notice the roof lining meeting the sill.

I never play music at loud volumes with roof down :cool:

The convertible also has a different speaker configuration at the back, with the speakers firing from the armrest areas whereas on the coupe they fire upwards from the parcel shelf. The convertible also has dedicated rear tweeters.
 
Hah, I always used to play music at loud volume with my roof down in the MX-5. People need to hear the blues!

I was thinking more about the roof up scenario, but it does sound like they've got it covered. Fair enough!
 
Thank you!

Amp in the boot? I thought you had a non hk system?

My rainbow speakers came, they sent the wrong ones so I'm having to send them back :o
I went through all the door card removal and didn't notice until I was going to fit them. Back to stock now but I added sound deadining to both door cards.

Road noise is quite noticeable in mine. Specially on the motorway, but it's mainly the engine/exhaust. City driving road noise is noticeable only if you look for it
 
The main audio amp is in the boot for them all though isn't it, the hk audio options just adds another box there too.

What tyres do you have? Road noise has been considerably reduced switching to CSC6 here. But yes, you hear the exhaust and engine over any Road noise anyway.
 
Yay!!! Finally have as silent a car as I think I can expect!

The issue was down to using gummi-pflege / silicon lubricant which cured groans and creaks that are normally cured with this, but as suspected, it was causing more of the rubber joints to move around slightly, such as the top roof seals, which then are moving more freely against the glass, and in my case a few high pitched squeaks..

The cure was 'Rejex', which is a paint sealant, but you can apply to glass, this is a non-silicone based top coat that forms a high release surface (i.e. slippy).. I just put a small stripe of it around the edge of the windows (2").. which are now 100% silent..

I then tried some on the little black plastic trim the rear of the roof sits on when its up, as that slightly creaks over larger bumps, and that has quietened right down too!

In fact, only the roughest surfaces cause any creaks and they are very minor, it actually feels very well screwed together!

Will have to start looking at the Head unit, loving your setup Mrk.
 
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Rejex added to the shopping list then thanks :D

ADT, here are the settings I use for both Viper and the built in Amplifier settings (they both need to be tuned to work together). My music player app's EQ is totally disabled and the audio passthrough is set to external decoder in the app too.


My free 3G data sim card has arrived, but the 3G dongle has not. I imagine it's still in UK customs since it comes from China. NO biggie, I can wait.

I'm now looking for an app that applies a lockscreen to the head unit, so that when it's at a garage being serviced or MOTd, nobody can muck about with it. I'll also be adding Cerberus to it, so along with the 3G dongle tucked behind the glovebox, this serves as a car tracker with logging.

So much potential to do neat things :cool:
 
Much appreciated Robbie, I had a play with it during my lunch break today and it's amazing how much an app can improve the quality of sound. The bass is amazing for paper speakers! :D

Sound deadining my door has removed that "hollow" sound when the bass kicks in. My dongle is now playing up though. It picks up signal as normal but I have no internet for some reason. Initially unplugging then re-plugging it would fix the issue but now that does nothing. Going to try another sim card and if that doesn't solve it then it's claim time.

Cerberus is a good call! I always sit there and watch my car when work is being done on it though :D
 
And like clockwork, the replacement (used) parking sensors are playing up now. This time a constant tone when punching into reverse. All 4 sensors tick, so sounds like a failed sensor or two elsewhere. Diagnostics does not flag anything. This is the same issue I had with my old E46,t hen months later it fixed itself. I think it's the sensor surface where the paint bubbles under the surface making the sensors think you're <30cm from an object.

I can sand down and respray the sensors, but that's a bumper off job.

I've since pulled the PDC fuse as I cba undoing the bumper and all that faff, so will wait until the next service and get the indy to do it. I'm tempted to just buy new sensors, because that will then sort any PDC issues out for another 10yrs :o
 
mrk said:
And like clockwork, the replacement (used) parking sensors are playing up now. This time a constant tone when punching into reverse. All 4 sensors tick, so sounds like a failed sensor or two elsewhere. Diagnostics does not flag anything. This is the same issue I had with my old E46,t hen months later it fixed itself. I think it's the sensor surface where the paint bubbles under the surface making the sensors think you're <30cm from an object.

I can sand down and respray the sensors, but that's a bumper off job.

I've since pulled the PDC fuse as I cba undoing the bumper and all that faff, so will wait until the next service and get the indy to do it. I'm tempted to just buy new sensors, because that will then sort any PDC issues out for another 10yrs :o
Click to expand...

I have one sensor doing the same, occasionally thinks something is <30cm (Checked with INPA when it happened).. since it's ticking, I'm sure it's the paint surface since the laquer has dulled/peeled slightly.

BMW prices are £120-£150 and come pre-painted, so circa £500 a set of 4..

I was going to replace mine with the OEM Land Rover parts (YDB500301PMA ), these are of equivalent quality (ensure they are Valeo), and about £30-£40 each, and will have them resprayed when I get the front bumper done. Any aftermarket jobs don't tend to last judging by forum evidence. The Land Rover ones do need a clip removing, but do fit.
I found this place doing OEM LR parts: http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/parking-sensor-ydb500301pma-p-6776.html

Although to be honest, I want to just get a reverse camera, that's 10 times more useful, and will deffo get one when I upgrade the head unit.
 
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Where would you wire in the reverse trigger wire so the head unit auto switches to the camera when in reverse? I haven't looked into this, but the alternative would be just to launch the camera app when reversing and you need to use the camera I guess which is a simple tap rather than piggying into the wiring of the car.

I'm tempted to keep fuse 24 removed (PDC) and just buy the reverse camera now :o
 
Ah yes, reverse light circuit in the boot lid for power, the video feed in is just a yellow RCA cable (cable 3):

gz4qJ0Y.jpg


But what do I do with wires 18 and 11, the pinky purple ones in the above diagram? I'm assuming either can tap into the reverse wire on the E46 loom to detect when reverse is engaged, or do both wires simply crimp together to complete the circuit and the CANBUS decoder sends the necessary trigger to the head unit?

Since the CANBUS decoder gets all its info from the car, I'm guessing 18 crimps to 11 so the head unit receives the reverse signal from the car via it.
 
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The wiring 18 to 11 sounds plausible.. I'd just use a DVM to check if 18 does what you think it does.. it would save getting a reverse signal from the boot to 11..

On googling, that indeed looks correct, the various CANBus decoders do have a reverse lead which is supposed to be used as an input to the headunit..


Of course, if poorly selected, sometimes the CANBus reverse signal is not able to drive the head unit input, but that's relatively easily sorted using a small solid state relay or similar to get over that issue.
 
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Hmm interesting, now just trying to find the correct camera to get, Sure someone linked to it earlier but can't find it.
 
If I remember correctly, when I installed the reverse camera in my e39 there was a red wire running up the length of the RCA cable that I had to connect to the pink wire in the back of the headunit, then separate power wires that I tapped into the rear cluster.
 
You could get a camera as they are very cheap and just store it until one day you feel like doing it, I am sure you will get around to it as you like to tinker with the car and you have a compatible head unit so you are already half way there. :)
 
Surely 18 is for CANBus-equipped cars and 11 is for those without? That's how I would read it based on that sparse information and nothing else.
 
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