Any car stereo buffs here?

[termis]

Well, I'm not much of one, but the head unit on my crappy commuter just died.  I'd rather not commute in total silence, and and as I like to tinker around a bit, I thought I could probably try my hand at installing a car stereo unit.  I managed to get the old unit out fine, and got hold of a el cheapo unit for $10 from some random dude.

Problem is, the unit didn't come with any connectors of any sort in the back to connect to a wires/harness to the car.  From looking around, there seems to be manufacturer (and model) specific connectors, but I couldn't get this info, even from the manufacturer's website.  The connector opening is approximately 2.5cm x 1.5cm.

Are there a few standards out there, or anyone in the know where I can get this info?  I'm waiting for verification email from car audio forums, but I thought I'd try here to see if any of you knew...

[roflmao]

I haven't used them in ages, but you could try checking out Crutchfield.com.  You enter your car's year, make and model and it will tell you what head units fit in your car.  If you buy a unit from them, they'll throw in any extras needed, such as a wiring harness and dash kit.  They'll also include instructions specific to your car (in most cases).  I replaced a head unit a looong time ago from them and I was pretty happy with how painless it was.

Best Buy also sells wiring harnesses, so you could take the head unit you picked up to them and see if they have something that will work.  If you buy a head unit from them, they'll often install it for free. (or at least they used to)

[termis]

I haven't used them in ages, but you could try checking out Crutchfield.com.  You enter your car's year, make and model and it will tell you what head units fit in your car.  If you buy a unit from them, they'll throw in any extras needed, such as a wiring harness and dash kit.  They'll also include instructions specific to your car (in most cases).  I replaced a head unit a looong time ago from them and I was pretty happy with how painless it was.

Best Buy also sells wiring harnesses, so you could take the head unit you picked up to them and see if they have something that will work.  If you buy a head unit from them, they'll often install it for free. (or at least they used to)

Yeah, the unit already "fits" in the opening okay, it's just the matter of the missing wiring connectors in the back from the head unit side.  I might have to just take it in to a stereo place and see what they have.  I was trying to avoid this as anything car-related here Australia, you tend to get raped (This is the land of $99 "buget" oil changes -- I didn't change my own oil for a good 10 years before I landed here, and even if I do it myself, it still costs me $25-$30 for parts).

[BlueBMW]

Most radios come with a proprietary harness that plugs in the back.  You can probably order just that harness directly from the manufacturer.  Then you'd wire that harness into the wires in the car.

[BlackandBlue]

It kinda looks like this one: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Fujitsu-Ten-Eclipse-CD-Radio-16-Pin-Wire-Harness-New-/140676297003?pt=Car_Audio_Video&hash=item20c0f5f12b#ht_500wt_682

I do not know if it will fit for sure, but it looks like a generic style plug.  Other manufacturers like Jensen and Audiovox use one that look like that too.  Maybe they can measure it for you and see if the the spacing between pins is correct?  You may need to pull some pins and rewire it to properly match the outputs on the deck.

[jperryss]

Typically the radio harness (what you are missing) is manufacturer specific and  will not be the same across different brands or even different models within the same brand. If you are able to order it, between shipping costs and the possibility of the unit not even working, it may not be worth the hassle.

[termis]

Yeah, the manufacturer site hasn't been much help...

I know what wires should go where on my car's harness, and so I might just try soldering some wires directly on the pins of the connectors, and see how that goes. 

That said, how the hell do you read the diagram below?  I see 16 pins on the connector side, but on the drawing, there's only 14 points... Which are connectors aren't used?  And also on the drawing, the wires are lined in a single row, whereas the connector has 2 rows, so I'm not sure how to read that.

Can anyone tell me how to read the below -- I labeled it points A- P on the connectors, and wires 1-14.  For example, does wire 1 (yellow) go to connector A, I, or somewhere else?  And also for rest of the wires...

If my intuition is right, I'll only need 3 wires for battery, ignition, ground, and + 8 wires for all 4 speakers' +/-.  I've no auto antenna, so need for the connector for blue wire. 

And digging in a bit more, what the heck do I connect the parking line and reversal line wires?  These are two separate wires separate from the 16-pin connectors.  Do I just leave them alone?  (From some research, some say ground the parking line to permanently enable DVD... not that I intend to even use DVD on this unit).

[jperryss]

You are correct that you should only need 11 wires total: 2 for each of 4 speakers, one constant power (battery), one ground, one ignition/switched power. No idea on the parking/reversal line wires but they are probably related to rear-camera and DVD functions on the unit.

Unfortunately it looks like that diagram on the bottom identifies the wires assuming you have the harness and therefore know the colors and that two wires are not in use (the harness likely leaves those two slots blank and only has 14 wires coming out of it). Unfortunately I'm not sure how to determine which wires aren't in use.

[BlackandBlue]

If I would have to take a guess, I = constant (yellow) A = Ground (black) J= Switched (red) B = Blue (ant) and so on.

If you look at the back of the radio, you will see that the two far left pins are further away from the others.  Usually they do this so you can have a thicker gauge wire for those wires (constant would be a 10-15amp, so needs to thicker to carry the additional current).

You can test this theory if you have a multimeter.  There should be no resistance between pin A and the chassis of the radio.  If so, then that is ground.  Once you get the radio to turn on, (supply 12v to const and switched, ground to ground), then finding the rest are easy.  Of course if you give voltage to the wrong wires, you could fry it....

Or, you can try to open the unit and see which pin goes to an internal fuse (there may be one).  Typically the constant will have a thicker tracing on the board, to supply the higher current.  Ground will be just as thick, but probably go to a circuit that goes around the board.  Again, touching anything metal and the supposed ground pin will be resistance free.

As for the parking break, ground it to get video.  The reverse will switch the screen to the rear camera input (usually 12v to this wire will cause it to trigger).

Of course, I will say again, I am not positive, these are just suggestions, please dont blame me if the radio fries...

[BlackandBlue]

oh, and the woofer line out and RCA line out will be 4 wires.  They will all share a common ground, but left/right/sub will all have their own positive leads, so they will use pins 13-16, not 13-14.

[termis]

Ah, yeah.  I see.  Great stuff BlackandBlue.  That definitely sheds some light.  I'll wait till the weekend till tinkering around a bit more and see how it goes.  If I end up blowing the unit or a fuse, meh... No huge loss.

[GohanX]

Don't feel too bad, we all learn the "never buy a head unit without the harness" lesson at least once!

I'm not really up on current car audio, but my awesome Soundstream Tarantula amp (which was made back when Tarantulas kicked ass) has given up the ghost. Are there any great amps at a decent price out there right now? My car has two Polk momo 6 1/2 speakers with a matching 8" sealed sub. The speakers are pretty power hungry and need about 100 watts RMS to sound good. My 50 watt Alpine backup amp just can't cut it.

[SNKNostalgia]

I have been fooling around with car audio stuff for 11 years now. I haven't gotten around to doing much with it in the past 5 years though.

At first, I went to car audio shops to have them install everything. After removing everything out of my truck and my car years ago, I realized there is nothing to it with doing things yourself. For head units, I went with the solder to the harness wires using tube insulators method. Car shops would use the crimping method, which sucks. Definitely buy a head unit that has a built in full band EQ, digital cross-over filter adjustment and pushes mid sounds the best. Don't go with an Alpine CD player designed to only make rap music with tweeters and subs to sound good. Go with just a nice JVC, Pioneer, Kenwood or Sony (if you want to spend less).

Another thing I would suggest is to get rid of factory speakers since they only can push like 15-20 watts, when almost all head units can push 40-50 watts on average. You are destroying your factory speakers with any aftermarket amp actually. Even better, buy an external 4-way amp and you can push 150-200 watts (roughly 60-80 watts RMS) to get all the sound out of new installed speakers. Only slight annoyance to an external amp is that you have to run new wires through the vehicle that uses RCA jacks. You do get much more clear audio with a lot of power.

When it comes to subwoofers, I found that using two big 12" subs is unnecessary and overkill. You are better off using one 12" with full powered amplification or two 8" subs pushed all the way as well. I like a nice punchy mid bass and just use one 10" sub pushed to its limit.

If you really get into car audio, trial by error so to speak is the best way to learn with what sound you are going for.