2000 BMW 528i

My friend Ian and I flew to San Francisco to install two empegs in one weekend. Needless to say, the weekend was non-stop work and the 117ºF weather wasn't helping. The first vehicle was a 2004 Fleetwood Storm. That went pretty well, but I don't think we had time to take photos of that.

The second vehicle was a 2000 BMW 528i. This was a total pain in the ass. BMW people seem content with the stock stereo, and even those that want something better usually get talked out of it or just add a sub via speaker-level inputs. Due to this, there was a very small amount of info to go on. Armed with only a cryptic description of the wires on the stock amp harness, it took us about 20 hours straight to get to the point you see below. Sadly, this was not the end.

As we approached the entrance to Oakland airport to catch a flight back to NY, the Infinity Basslink II decided to die. I hopped a flight back to SF to swap Basslinks last week and everything has been peachy since.

Moral of the story: Scheduling two installs in one weekend while 3000 miles from your house is a bad idea.


The Bimmer


empeg installed


A closer look


Using an Infinity Basslink II with optional 4sc 4-channel amp module. This makes for a pretty compact amp and sub combo.


Rats nest of wires required for the install. The black box toward the top of this image is the factory amp that was disconnected. Instead of cutting the BMW amp connector, we tapped-in to the factory speaker wiring back here. This was so we could return the car to stock if it were sold. I'm not sure if it's worth it to return to stock at this point. We will probably just stick in a cheap aftermarket head unit when the car is sold.

Bigger pics available here.

Wow!
You really were busy!
Next time I hope you've got some more time for a visit.

Kudos for the hard work and congratulations on the successes.

Yup, looks great! First aftermarket stereo I've seen in a BMW of that type.

Rob, you are one wacky mofo.

Considering the cost of the flights and the flights themselves, that has to be the most expensive and environmentally unfriendly empeg install I've ever seen. I suppose you had "fun" working on the car and all, but damn dude. You're like the Tom Sawyer of empeg installers, insanely complicated and unnecessary, but fun and interesting just the same.

Quote:
Rob, you are one wacky mofo.

Thanks!

Actually, it wasn't fun the first weekend when the Basslink died. There was just too much going on between the BMW and RV install. We hardly had time to breathe. Then, the music just stopped right as we were pulling up to the airport terminal. It couldn't have been a more perfectly disappointing end to a weekend full of constant work and oppressive heat.

I went out alone the 2nd weekend and paid for the flight with my miles because I felt obligated to fix the install. I assumed the Basslink died, so there was already a replacement from Infinity waiting for me when I got back out there. Swapping that thing took about an hour including some time to clean up some of the install that there was no time for during the previous week. Then I spent some time hacking Tivos and setting up wireless networking in my friend's house. That wasn't nearly as stressful as the previous week, plus we had time to actually sit down for a meal or two.

Everything is still working for almost 2 weeks now, so I can take a break from flying to SF for a while.