There's a Hole in My Stereo

Not an actual hole but it sounded like there was a hole.
The two speakers in the driver's side door were dead when I bought the car. It's a nine speaker system so there was lots of sound in the car but with the door speakers out it sounded like there was a hole.

The car came with an after market head unit and an amp in the trunk. Stock wiring was used. The stock amp was removed.

I did a lot of research and read about the pains others have had with stereo installation in a Z3. I'm up for removing door panels, replacing head units and the like, but tearing into a system with the stock amp cut out and wiring hooked up to an aftermarket amp worried me. Were the door speakers not working because they were broken or because the wiring was messed up? I decided I'd talk to some experts. After asking around a place was recommended. I made an appointment for 10 AM.

The shop had several BMWs, a variety of M3s from a 98 to a 2004 so it was clear they had experience with BMW sound systems. John believed that the door speakers were broken. He recommended replacing all six of the speakers in the front of the car with four speakers - parts were $250. He also recommended running RCA connectors from the head unit to the amp. The whole job was $410 and he would get it done that day in two to three hours. I opted to wait at the shop since I had not arrainged for transportation - I'm pretty good at killing time.

By 6 PM that night John was still not finished. My wife swung by after work and took me home. They promised it would be ready for pickup at 8 AM the next day. It was done in the morning and sounds great.

John did some nice work adjusting the amp and balancing out the sound.

Lessons Learned

• Don't wait inthe shop on spur of the moment repairs unless you know for sure how long they will take. Schedule a date, arrange for transportation and leave the car.
• Experience with your specific model of car is important. Even though John had worked on many BMWs he had never tackled a Z3. Getting Monster cables to the trunk turned out to be the barrier to a three hour install.