dylann Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Currently attempting to install a stereo myself, and i know next to nothing about wiring I tried searching, but couldnt come up with much Old stereo - 3 plugs and 1 ground 1. White wire leading to speaker and nothing else 2. Blue wire with a black strip (assuming this is power) and a green wire (unsure of use) 3. Red, Black, White wires, not plugged into anything just chillin' So my questions are; What does 'auto antenna' and 'memory backup' do on the new stereo, and do i need them for it to operate correctly? What do the blue and green wires do on the old stereo? Should i use the red black and white to wire into the new stereo, im assuming red is power, black is ground and white is (ignition?)? Or, should i use blue and green as they were working in the first place? pic below of the wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KKtrips Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Antenna wire is for electric aerial if you have one. (or can be used to switch an amp on and off if you have an external amp) Memory backup is wired to constant power (ie battery) and maintains the memory for the clock and radio stations stored on the head unit. Also a test light would be the best way to figure out what the other wires do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylann Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 sweet, thanks! i would love a test light/multimeter etc but unfortunately i dont have one, just hoping someone on here may know from personal experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toucan Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Wouldn't assume which wires are which. Pull out a light bulb and some crocodile clips and test between the wire and your chassis with the key in various positions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylann Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 oh that makes things a bit easier, ill try the lightbulb thing, thanks for the advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowzer Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Best bet, when you're dealing with weird old factory wiring, is run all new stuff. Run a new main wire to the battery, 16awg or so, fused, from the battery into the (normally yellow) main power into the headunit. The black earth wire can be bolted to any metal object on the chassis / bodywork. Often the headunit will earth through its mounting points as well. The (normally red) acc wire on the heady should be hooked to a wire that is only on when the key is on. Acc wire etc. After that run some brand new speaker cable from the white, grey, purple and green out to your speakers. That pic that D posted up applies to the headunit colours, the car colours vary very greatly. I have yet to see a car that uses the same colour scheme as an aftermarket headunit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylann Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Best bet, when you're dealing with weird old factory wiring, is run all new stuff.Run a new main wire to the battery, 16awg or so, fused, from the battery into the (normally yellow) main power into the headunit. The black earth wire can be bolted to any metal object on the chassis / bodywork. Often the headunit will earth through its mounting points as well. The (normally red) acc wire on the heady should be hooked to a wire that is only on when the key is on. Acc wire etc. After that run some brand new speaker cable from the white, grey, purple and green out to your speakers. That pic that D posted up applies to the headunit colours, the car colours vary very greatly. I have yet to see a car that uses the same colour scheme as an aftermarket headunit. That sounds like a better option to rewiring the current stereo, thanks, 2 questions though; Is it fine if i hook the main wire to the battery terminal itself? And acc wire for example, into the cigarette lighter wires? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 If connecting to existng you really need a test light at the least. They cost all of about $10 and will come in handy forever more. $10 for a test light beats $150+ for a headunit when you pop it wiring it up wrong. Gaz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Also always put a fuse inline if running anything directly from the battery. Gaz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 yes its all good to run from the battery and from the lighter socket, just fun a fuse from the battery, on the battery end so as to keep as little live wire as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowzer Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Best bet, when you're dealing with weird old factory wiring, is run all new stuff.Run a new main wire to the battery, 16awg or so, fused, from the battery into the (normally yellow) main power into the headunit. The black earth wire can be bolted to any metal object on the chassis / bodywork. Often the headunit will earth through its mounting points as well. The (normally red) acc wire on the heady should be hooked to a wire that is only on when the key is on. Acc wire etc. After that run some brand new speaker cable from the white, grey, purple and green out to your speakers. That pic that D posted up applies to the headunit colours, the car colours vary very greatly. I have yet to see a car that uses the same colour scheme as an aftermarket headunit. That sounds like a better option to rewiring the current stereo, thanks, 2 questions though; Is it fine if i hook the main wire to the battery terminal itself? And acc wire for example, into the cigarette lighter wires? Cheers Yah do that. Mine is connected direct to the battery. Usually the headunit will have a fuse on its main input wire, but slap another as close to the batt as possible. 15A is good. Wire gets red hot very fast when it shorts out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylann Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Awesome thanks everyone, this pretty much answers all my questions, just have to find some el cheapo speakers and ill have some sounds in my car! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuT Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Just went thru same thing on my old thing with no experience 1st thing i di was a $10 test light from repco hooked the yellow up to light switch power red to cig lighter blk to any earth wire Good luck, Jaycar normally pretty cheap for speakers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
governorsam Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 http://www.bulldogsecurity.com/bdnew/vehiclewiringdiagrams.asp http://www.bulldogsecurity.com/diagrams/printpage.asp?ModelID=16328&MakeID=2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvoBilly Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 on some new headunits the auto antenna wire only powers up when you change it from cd to radio so no good to use as the amp remote wire the earth wire i find its best to just bolt it to the body somewhere even if there is a factory earth wire in the car thats just my 2c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 to add to the above, it is best to bolt the earth to the frame as on some more modern cars, when the car is not running, there's a wire that appears to be an earth but its actually part of the circuit that runs the gauge cluster and the rear lights, and if you earth the headunit to this wire, you blow the fuses for this circuit and loose everything (maybe alot worse if you have the wrong fuse in) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yammies Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 if the previous stereo wiring only used four wires they should be: ignition/accessory(positive from the acc position on the ignition switch) earth, left channel, and right channel. The speakers normally had one wire earthed on older stereos and the other one went back to the head unit. occasionally you would get a single speaker, in which case two wires may go to that. you can use the existing power and earth wires for your new head unit, and run new ones for the extra circuits. This way you will be utilising the existing fuse in the fuse panel, assuming there is one there. check to see if there is a fuse in the back of the head unit before installing an extra fuse on the Memory/main power wire (yellow normally). if you are running amps then the blue wire from the new head unit can be used to switch these on, otherwise it is not needed. the rest of the wiring should be pretty self explanatory. Don't do what a mate of mine did when wiring up his head unit - he managed to hook the earth wire up to the indicator power, which was earthed when not in use. every time he flicked the indicator on, the stereo went on and off with the indicators Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
governorsam Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 to add to the above, it is best to bolt the earth to the frame as on some more modern cars, when the car is not running, there's a wire that appears to be an earth but its actually part of the circuit that runs the gauge cluster and the rear lights, and if you earth the headunit to this wire, you blow the fuses for this circuit and loose everything (maybe alot worse if you have the wrong fuse in) Honda has black as power and green as earth. cars and motorbikes. fuckers. adds to the confusion that makes fire. have seen the results many times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownCorona Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 ^ thats so backwards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowzer Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 That's not that bad. You should try wiring a Citroen. They use a grand total of 5 wire colours for the entire loom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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