Matt 944S

My stereo came into today WOOHOOOO!!!

In removing the old stereo, i found that that PO cut the wiring harness. Can someone tell me what each of the wires are for?

I've looked at the stereo FAQs online, and they just list wires by harness pin number, not by color.

I know which ones are for the speakers, just need to know the which ones (By Color) are the switched power, constant power etc.

THANKS!!!!!

MHT

typically red or black wires are constant power, red or black with tracers are switched power and brown are grounds, brown with tracers are switched grounds. Sorry, I don't have a wiring diagram in front of me, but I hope this is of some help.

Matt 944S

i see there are 2 solid red wires. one fat one skinny. im assuming that the fat one is for direct connection to the battery?

there are 3 brown wires. i think i know which one is the ground

there are a 2 or 3 other red wires with stripes. not sure what these are.

there is also something coming off of the antenna. a wire with a plug on the end.

there is a 4th darker brown wire that im assuming is the dimmer.

Can anyone else shed more light?

Matt 944S

double post

pete944

The wire off the antenna is a power wire for the antenna booster. Connect that to a 12V switched. Without that the radio reception is crap.

Ag951

I just did mine two weeks ago, so it's fresh in my mind.
There are three important wires for the HU. Red, Yellow, Black.
Red should be 12V switched (comes on when the key is in position 2). Yellow is 12V continuous. Black is ground. If you have different colored wires, find a decent ground, and use a DMM to find a 12V constant and switched feed. I'd check them anyway, just to be sure.
If you're using an external amp, don't use those speaker wires. Run quality monster cable (or equivalent) from the amp straight to the speaker. If you're using rear speakers for fill, the stock speaker wiring is fine.

Matt 944S

i borrowed a friends voltage meter and figured it all out. stereo sounds great!!! I just need to finish installing the rear speakers. Thanks for everyones help

i couldnt find a dimmer/illumination lead, but i guess i dont really need it

Pete.... That power to the antenna made a world of difference. THANKS!!!!!!

JJ951

if the old one was aftermarket then just match color for color from the old one, that is what i did, my car had a cut harness, and an alpine cd player, i switched to a pioneer and just did one wire at a time, the colors are the same for all aftermarket radios. i think.

-John

Matt 944S

the old stereo was a phillips tape deck, probably from the early 90s. it was a german model. The tape deck was not installed properly. It was only attatched to the constant power, no accessories. It also seemed like PO or someone ran MORE wires than factory. I think that the voltage meter was the best way to go.