Build and install your own AUX Cable!

Post by sk93 Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:05 pm

By now, you may realise I don't fancy paying a lot of money to dealers, for things you can do yourself for
next to nothing.

The much-discussed AUX cable is one of these! The Z4 Specific one is around 40 from a stealer, the E46
one that fits is cheaper, at around 25.

The MINI one also works, and I believe the price for this is still over 20.

Well, what this howto does is show how to create your own AUX cable, and install it, for a mere 5.84,
in about 15 minutes!

Most of the information used to create this guide was taken from the official BMW installation
instructions for the offical Z4 aux cable, however I had to work out the pin layouts myself, after
searching google for hours without any luck.

Anyways - here we go:

Requirements

1x BMW Z4 (any model)

2x Thin flathead screwdrivers (watchmakers / electricians / kitchen knife).

1x Medium sized Posidrive screwdriver

1x Soldering Iron

1x Length of Solder

1x Torch (it's hard to see the catches at the top of the vents!)

1x 6.5mm Drill bit

1x Drill

1x 3.5mm Stereo chassis socket - Maplin Part No: FK03D - 1.49

1x 300k 0.6W Resistor - Maplin Part No: M300K - 0.16

2x 0.22uf Capacitors - Maplin Part No: WW56L - 1.12

1x 10m Single-core wire - Maplin Part No: BL85G - 1.79

1x 20m Insulation Tape - Maplin Part No: N07AN - 0.99

1x Computer Connector Pins - Found in Maplins Computer connectors section - 0.29

Step 1

This is the hardest step - Removing the blasted central vent! It took me the best part of ten minutes the
first time to remove the ruddy thing, despite watching videos and reading loads of guides. I won't
pretend it's easy, but trust me that these instructions ARE right, it's just that it's a right bugger!

To remove the vents, point the vertical vent slats on both sides at about 3/4 of the way down.

Looking into the vents, you should see two small, square holes in the top of the vent (one either side of
the center bar), just behind the vents.

I've circled them in this picture:

Image

Inside each hole, there is a small metal tab, the top of which you can see in THIS picture:

Image

Using one of the small flathead screwdrivers, carefully probe into one of the holes until the tip of the
screwdriver catches the front of the metal tab. Once caught, pull the tab down and with the second
screwdriver, gently prise it between the vent and the dashboard.

You should feel the vent move slightly forward.

Once it has, repeat the process on the other side (it's advisable to use the second screwdriver to
"wedge" the side you've already freed.) and the vent should now wiggle free.

It can be a little tight. I found tilting the front of the airvent unit upwards whilst pulling helped free it.

Step 2

With the airvents removed (finally), you can set to removing the actual headunit.

Using the posidrive screwdriver, undo the two screws that hold the headunit in place.

There is one plastic washer on each screw - be careful not to loose these behind the dash
Image

Once the screws have been removed, simply pull the stereo forward carefully and you should be able to
get it all the way out without disconnecting any of the connections.

Image

Step 3

Remove the plastic panel from the underside of the dashboard.

This can be done very easily by pushing it gently from within the dashboard, as shown in the following
picture:

Image

Step 4

With the plastic trim removed, decide where you wish to mount the 3.5mm socket.

Mark it and then drill it at a medium-slow speed.

Image

Step 5

Now we have the stereo and panel ready, we need to construct our AUX cable.

Starting with the 3.5mm socket, we need to solder one wire onto each of the three connection points.

Looking at the socket, we'll number them as follows:

1: The brass coloured connector

2: The "loop" connector at the end of the socket.

3: The silver coloured connector

Wires #1 and #3 should be about 45cm long, wire #2 should be 1m long.

At the ends of wires #1 and #3, solder one of the capacitors. After each capacitor, solder the resistor so
that it joins both capacitors.

Now, attach an additional 10cm of wire to the end of both wires #1 and #3.

Finally, attach one of the "computer pins" to the end of each of the three wires.

you should now have a cable circuit similar to this:

Image

Step 6

Wrap all the wiring with the insulating tape, ensuring there is no contact between any of the three wires
with each other, or the metal framework behind the dash.

Step 7

With the cable now constructed, feed it through the hole the headunit occupies, and down to the back
of the framework, following the existing stereo wiring harness.

Then, via the bottom trim panel hole, find and feed the cable back through into the cockpit.

Step 8

Attach the socket to the trim panel and then replace the trim panel in the dash.

Step 9

The final step before reassembly!

Looking at the rear of the stereo unit, you should see three seperate "plug sockets":

Image

If you haven't removed the clip from the back of the stereo, you'll have a big, multi-wire plug connected
to the top, larger, pins shown in the above.

I thought the bottom left plug socket was for the CD changer, but I have a changer, and nothing plugged
in here...
The plug we're interested in is the bottom right plug, as shown in this pic:

Image

We now need to connect our AUX cable to three of the pins within this plug socket, namely pin numbers
4, 8 & 9.

Looking at the stereo in the same way as the image below, the pins we're interested are highlighted
below:

Image

RED PIN - #3

GREEN PIN - #4

BLUE PIN - #10

Refering back to the schematic we worked against earlier, we can see which wire needs to connect to
which pin:

Image

Step 10

At this point, you should be able to turn the stereo on, and by pressing the "MODE" button a few times,
find "AUX" now shows up on the list!

If it doesn't show, check that you've attached the AUX cable to the right pins (and that they've not fallen
out - as this happened to me!)

Also, check that your soldering of the resistor and capacitors is still good.

If it all looks well, try removing the main wire harness from the stereo, so that is looses all power, then
reconnect and see if it now shows.

If it shows up - all is well! If not, post and we'll take a look!

Step 11
Carefully replace the stereo, making sure you don't accidently unplug any of the AUX cable pins from the
back of the stereo.

It can be quite a pig to get the headunit back in and flat against the facia - if you're struggling, use the
hole from the removed trim panel and fiddle with the stereo wiring harness until the stereo slides in
fully.

Once it's in it's slot, screw it back in with the posidrive screws.

Step 12

Final check! Before putting the vents back in, check that AUX still appears on the stereo.

You can also hook up your MP3 player to the 3.5mm socket and check you're getting audio.

If not, remove the stereo and check the pins are still plugged in - maneuvering the stereo has a good
ability of unplugging them!

Step 13

Replace the airvents by simply lining it up and pushing it in snuggly.

Step 14

Replace the bottom trim panel.