BSW Knowledgebase

Invariably you’ll come across one or two things in your install that didn’t quite match up or weren’t perfectly clear to you. We’ve put together several common things that may come up during an install, and how to isolate and troubleshoot them if they do. It is very advantageous to have a digital multi-meter on hand to troubleshoot anything electrical in your BMW. They can be found at any hardware store for around $20-$30.

No Sound from subwoofer(s):

·          The fuse wasn’t installed inline on the red 8 gauge power wire at the battery. This is very often overlooked. Pop in the fuse, and you’ll be good to go.

·          There isn’t a connection between the amplifier and the subwoofer. Did you route the included speaker wire from the amplifier to the subwoofer enclosure?

·          Amplifier isn’t turning on properly. See next section.

Amplifier isn’t Powering Up:

·          The fuse wasn’t installed inline on the red 8 gauge power wire at the battery. This is very often overlooked. Pop in the fuse, and you’ll be good to go.

·          Check to make sure you’ve found the correct remote turn-on wire. This is a very common oversight. Set your DMM to direct current and place one lead on the ground terminal of your amplifier and one on the remote turn on terminal. Turn the car and the radio on. If you don’t have 12-14 volts on the remote turn on terminal, your connection may be the issue.

·          Make sure your power and ground connections are correct. Using your DMM, again check each terminal to make sure that a connection has been established.

-Ground Connection: Set the DMM to its continuity section. Place one lead of the DMM on the amplifiers ground location where you screwed into the chassis, and the other lead on the negative battery terminal. If you don’t see any continuity, move your ground wire until you do.

-Power Connection: Set the DMM to direct current again, and place one lead on the amplifiers power terminal and the other on the amplifiers ground terminal. You should see 12-14 volts. If not, check your inline fuse.

Subwoofer sounds muffled or quiet:

·          Check to make sure your phasing is correct between the amplifier and the subwoofer. Positive should go to positive, and negative to negative.

·          Your input signals are out of phase. Check to make sure that your input connections are exactly as outlined in the guide. An easy test is to simply cut one of the input wires and see if the sound output increases exponentially.