<E28, all> fearless/brainless Sony CD-head mods...

["Aaron Bohnen" <bohnen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Well the other day I finally got fed up with the factory (Alpine) stereo in 
my 533i. Crackly volume knob that never really worked well - even after 
repeated contact cleaner, intermittent right channel, only 5 presets, no 
CD's, etc. etc. 

So I check out a few websites and find BMW UK selling a reasonably basic 
Sony CD head unit, the CDX-3140. Looks kind of bland, but fine to me and I 
can get one here in Canada for a pretty good deal. I think they're about 
$US 229 or so - an inexpensive but decent unit. Because BMW UK is selling 
it I *assume* the Sony unit will have illumination that matches the 
amber/red dashlights and instruments of the car. Or it will have switchable 
illumination...

So I buy it and install the thing - I get all finnicky with it - nice 
connectors, shrinkwrap everywhere (I love the stuff, use it all the time), 
fabricated little harness adaptors so that nothing changes in the car, etc. 
etc. I even kickpanel-mounted L-pads to control the relative levels of the 
dash/door tweeters, etc. etc. I really go whole hog on the installation. 

The moment of truth - I turn it on. Sounds fine, but...

What the hell are these GREEN lights? Where's the illumination switch over 
to amber/red? Read the manual. Read it again. No mention of such a feature 
or a switch... Damn! Green lights... Bright ones. Right in the middle of my 
nice amber-illuminated dash.

Since I've done such a fancy-pants job of the installation I decide to get 
fearless and do something about the problem of green LED's. I get out the 
soldering station with the finest needle tip in my collection, fine 
soldering wick, magnifying lamp, etc. and open up the removeable 
faceplate. There are 19 little LT1 series 3 mm diameter LED's in there, 
so I change them all to red ones. That was a fussy job.

Anyway, now the unit looks great in the dash - amber/red controls and 
grey/green display. Matches the decor of the car almost perfectly and the 
green/grey display kind of picks up the colour of the illuminated hazard 
lights switch. Not too bad.

So... if you have a removeable faceplate stereo that you haven't installed 
because you know it's green instead of red, and you're fearless(like me!)
about things like this, crack open the faceplate and suss out what gives in 
there. Likely the LT1 series LED's are the ones - inexpensive to buy but 
fussy to install, they're available in all kinds of colours and I suppose 
if you really wanted you do things like make the volume controls orange and 
rest red, or any other combination of your choice...

Aaron

p.s. - a bunch of people have emailed me asking for the SI reset system 
plans and scans. If you've emailed me asking for them and haven't received 
them yet I am making an effort to send them out in batches - lessens my 
"online" time. Tx, A.
___________________________________________________________
Aaron Bohnen                     email: bohnen@domain.elided
- -Ph.D. Candidate, Civil Engineering Department, U.B.C.
- -Technicraft Engineering Services

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