Radio wiring harness delete

[silaciM3]

How hard is it to remove the HK wiring harness on a full front interior car? I presume the dash has to come out, anything else?
I believe the harness connects to the CAN bus somewhere and fuse box, so just trying to estimate how much effort/time that requires, and whether there is an easy easier way to do it.

[foolio]

Man, that’s a tough one. I actually removed my entire harness but I did have my dash out. It’s worth noting that the HK harness is completely separate from the body harness in the car. I feel like it could be removed in one piece without taking the dash out. The thing is, you do have to pretty much take out the rest of the interior of the car. So, at that point, taking out the dash is not that difficult. It’s only held in by like 6 Bolts. Of course, you have to take everything else out before the dash like the gauge cluster, the steering wheel, etc. I sent you were posting this in the track form I assume this is for a weight reduction. I would recommend you take the dash out because there’s a lot of things you can remove behind there as well as the HK wiring harness. For example, all of the airbag wiring. Also all the plastic around the front of the dash.

[bigjae46]

The front carpet needs to come up since it runs over the transmission tunnel. You MIGHT be able to get it out without picking up the carpet but it will probably just be easier and less painful removing the dash to lift up the front carpet. I think you might need to remove the heater core too.

I just cut the harness where it passed over the trans tunnel. The car was never going back to stock and not sure who would want a radio harness.

[eacmen]

The front carpet needs to come up since it runs over the transmission tunnel. You MIGHT be able to get it out without picking up the carpet but it will probably just be easier and less painful removing the dash to lift up the front carpet. I think you might need to remove the heater core too.

I just cut the harness where it passed over the trans tunnel. The car was never going back to stock and not sure who would want a radio harness.

When you cut the harness did you cap off the individual wires or just pull the fuse and call it good?

[sc_tr0jan_m3]

Funny, I was just wondering this myself. I'm about to do a custom dash and wanted to start removing unnecessary wiring like the radio harness. Does anyone have a diagram or picture of where those connectors are?

[bigjae46]

When you cut the harness did you cap off the individual wires or just pull the fuse and call it good?

I insulated the ends with electric tape. I wasn’t sure where they went.


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[bigjae46]

Funny, I was just wondering this myself. I'm about to do a custom dash and wanted to start removing unnecessary wiring like the radio harness. Does anyone have a diagram or picture of where those connectors are?

Which ones?

I started at the module that I was planning to delete and then pulled the wires

My opinion...the first step is the radio harness. 2nd step is anything in the roof/headliner. 3rd is the airbags.

You won’t be able to pull out a lot of wiring until you delete the GM5 module. You’ll lose HVAC, locks, windows, wipers and anything automatic. So if you’re going to pull that stuff out anyway then just start at the GM5 module and go from there.

I re-wired the wipers to a simple relay. It’s a negative trigger from the wiper stalk.

Can’t delete the LCM...or at least it’s a PIA. The LCM is tied to the ECU and the Hall effect switch which controls the brake lights AND the solenoid on the brake booster.

The only electrical modules I have left are the ECU, ECU fan, ABS, instrument cluster and LCM.

Make sure you do all of the wire harness thinning and test everything BEFORE welding in a cage. It’s not fun working around the tubes.

Here’s my most wiring harness. I wired my own fuse box which isn’t shown here.




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[silaciM3]

I think you might need to remove the heater core too.

I'm hoping it doesn't come to this though.

I guess I'll remove the dash anyway and get rid of that big sound insulation underneath it while I'm at it. I'm sure you guys removed that right?

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-01_2000_E46_BMW_M3&diagId=51_3261#51487072597

[foolio]

When you cut the harness did you cap off the individual wires or just pull the fuse and call it good?

In my case, the HK harness was completely self contained as was the NAV harness. There was a large connector right behind the radio opening that detached basically just the power from the fuse box. I have not traced wires back to the fuse box for removal yet. For harnesses in the cabin that did not have connectors and direct runs to the fuse box, I pulled as many fuses as I could that I thought related to the devices, cut them off, and then heat shrank the ends. Then, I went back and added fuses back in so my car would actually start

[CrookedCommie]

Same here. My car was already gutted so I didn't have to remove the whole dash - start at the radio and keep pulling until the whole thing comes out. It'll spread out across both seats and the doors. I think it was around ~10 lbs.

[bigjae46]

Then, I went back and added fuses back in so my car would actually start

I remember when I removed the EWS and the car wouldn’t start. Learned a lot...there’s a loop between the EWS and the ECU that runs through the fuse box. If you pull the fuse...car won’t start. I think it’s fuse # 14.


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