CD43 unit into a Rover 75?
 

Hi All,

I have an aftermarket Sony head unit (an old one - it has a cassette slot) in my 75, along with a CD changer in the glovebox. All works fine and sound quality is OK. The only problem is that the steering wheel controls do not work. Now, obviously I don't expect them to, but was playing with the wiring in the centre console today and tested that the resistances on the two wires changes correctly when the steering wheel buttons are pressed, so... am thinking I would like to get a Rover head unit with a CD slot and reclaim the glovebox.

My brother has a Rover 45 parts car, with a CD43 head unit in it, which is working fine and has working steering wheel controls. Would this work in a 75? I have no doubt it would connect up and play music etc, but would the steering wheel controls work? are they the same in a 45?

Yes, there is obviously the try it and see, but I wont be going over there for a couple of weeks, so thought I would ask the guru's on here in the meantime.

I had the CD43 in my old mk2 ZT, I can't remember whether the swc worked straight off though.The CD43 uses ISO connections like the non-Highline mk2s so it'll be plug and play otherwise.

It must be special version of CD43 then with ISO connections.

All Blaupunkt CD43 I saw had BMW 17 pin plug. Further, CD43 uses K-line for steering wheel controls, so you would need to have special converter from resistance to k-line signals, used in Rover 45. This is from my experience with CD43 taken from MG-Rover cars.

Apologies - I've got my Blaupunkt units mixed up.

The CD43 is the earlier unit that uses the BMW connection, used primarily in the mk2 MGF and early 45s. They are a good quahttps://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABADlity unit and go for strong money, especially if the removal key slot covers are still present. These will fit straight into a 75 if you have the Highline Mav or Symphony head unit.

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxN...xeZjkt/$_1.JPG

I was thinking of the CD32 which was used on the 2003MY cars before being replaced by the Iovox units. These have standard ISO connections and look a little plain but work well.

https://www.dndservices.co.uk/images.../rovercd32.jpg

Yes, this is the one that is in his "parts" 45. It also has the key slot covers intact (had a look on eBay - mainly to see if there were any pictures of the back, and was surprised by how much they go for).

His has the Rover branding and the steering wheel controls do work in the 45 - so I am thinking it must have an adapter? As I say, I am not going to be over there for a couple of weeks, and am planning what I need to pillage from it :-)

As for my car, the Sony head unit is an old one I had knocking around. The car came with (what I assume to be) an aftermarket JVC head unit, which didn't work properly so I swapped it for the Sony. I have no idea what was in the car originally, but there is no evidence of a highline (or even lowline) unit in the boot, and it is a MK 2 so I assume unlikely to be a symphony originally.

A small part of me is very tempted to put the CD43 on eBay and put the money towards an Android double DIN!

You have to be careful with this swap. Rover 45 and Rover 75 does not have same resistance values on the steering wheel buttons, so just using adapter from Rover 45 most probably is not going to work.
I would wait to see if anybody else did this kind of swap to Rover 75 and which adapter was used for CD43 k-line system as otherwise it would need to be search for correct one.

Unfortunately did not get chance to do this when I was over there - was very limited on time due to idiots crashing on the M$ and massively increasing the journey time....

so this question rumbles on. Anyone have any other thoughts on adapters?