I just bought an R53, and there was a 7” monitor connected to the mounting point for the cup holder. I figured I’d take it out when I brought the car home. On picking it up I saw it was wired to a Mac computer in the glove box and had a wireless keyboard in the seat back.

I can’t figure out how to power it on…or the stereo which must be connected to it. All I wanted was a grom unit so I could play music through the stock head unit on an hk system! Now I need to figure this out or how to undo it. Any idea where to start?

it seems to have extra lighter plugs wired in and a toggle switch n the glove box. Again, no idea if this is connected to the battery or what but the Mac doesn’t turn on.

 

Good grief, what is all that? Was the previous owner an independent contractor for the SETI institute, haha.

Doesn't look to hard to take it all out and start fresh.

 

It’s pretty wild. Previous owner was an AV guy but had a lot of cars. Why this one is a rolling office I can’t answer. I’m not sure if I should be delicate in pulling it out, I don’t know what it’s wired to. Curious what’s on that computer…

 

There has to be a power wire and adapter somewhere. I would start following wires.

Alternately, pull the Mac mini and see if it will power up outside the car?

 

The power adapter was there but it’s hard wired. I don’t have that Mac adaptor but I’ll look in my parts bin at work. It’s a good idea.

There is the monitor plugged into the vga slot, and what looks to be something with a micro connector into the mic slot, and a litany of usbs.

The computer is a 2006 Mac mini, ancient but for its times must have been intense for this application. I feel like it might be best to tear it out and start from fresh.

I’m ok on basic mechanics, but electronics definitely not. It’s wired through the back of the current radio. I’m not sure if I need to have the whole Center stack taken apart to remove all the wires? I’m confident I can get to the back of the radio, I guess I need to keep digging or take it to a shop.

 

We went deep to empty the glovebox and extract whatever wires there were. It was wild, I must have pulled out 8 lbs of stuff. There are still a bunch of random wires that I need to pull out the stereo to see where they are going.

I looked under the steering column and have no idea what’s in there. It’s frightening. Can anyone tell me what the black one is (maybe a old garmin) and what the cut red and blue wires may be??

I can already see I need to go to an audio shop
or the dealer (who probably has no idea but would love to charge me to explore)

 

Probably an audio shop, usually a dealer will only look at factory installed options.

Anything aftermarket they won't touch cause they don't want to be liable if removing it, then something else goes wrong.

 

Thought so. The techs at the dealers are like 6-10 years older than the car anyways. I think I’ll take a peak behind the stereo seeing as it’s probably all back there and plugged into a hub of sorts. Maybe more straightforward to remove than to have installed… but I’ll wait till after my mechanical inspection on Friday, and pick up a Bluetooth receiver if there isn’t one.

 

I wonder if this is the post about your car: https://www.mini2.com/threads/my-mac...arputer.87434/
Images are gone unfortunately, so hard to tell for sure.

 

Wild, it’s not the same guy but sounds really similar…down to the same display. The Mac was dated 2006 so maybe this was the inspiration. My car is Canadian and this guy has a US cabrio. Great find though!

I pulled out 4 long usb cables, a giant antenna, huge garmin plug…it’s crazy the bag of stuff that was in there and still is. Some things are more obscure than others and well done so hard to tell what’s oem. Either way, it’s really dated and I’d love it gone. I just don’t want to cut anything unless I know exactly what it is.

Update - I took some time at lunch…. The red light in the box with the car off might be a culprit for the battery suck. I got all but 3 cables out. Red line is connected to the battery. Orange is ?? And some cut black line..: there are 2 that drape down from the radio but presumably one is interrupting the stock connection which is why the radio doesn’t power on. I’ll get back there when the BlueMusic arrives to be installed. I kept the mic that’s wired. That’s something. The Unichip piggy back is the next thing to figure out. 2 switches and both off. Maybe one is to turn on the CEL and the other is go faster.