Wiring a stereo in

[pictonroad]

The speaker strip on the loom is labelled with I+• does that mean anything?

Any knowledge guys - trying to figure out speaker polarity.

I have these electrical symbols on the stereo loom - 'I' & '•' for each speaker feed and I need to know which one goes to the wide tab and the narrow tab on the speakers.

Much appreciated y'all.

Chances are your speakers will have a tiny label near the tabs, convention is for the 'dot' or '+' to positive. Don't forget that it doesn't really matter as long as you wire up all your speakers the same way.

[Royalratch]

I thought wrong polairty can blow all kinds of things?

[pictonroad]

Nah, you could, if you so desired mount your speakers (cones only) backwards and as long as you reversed the polarity it would work ok.

I can't guarantee it mate but the '.' is probably positive, just trial it on your speaker, it wont harm them if it's the wrong way round.

Put some Leftfield on, you should quickly hear which is the correct polarity....

I don't have any speakers to hand, usually in the box they have a short length of wire with the correct spades on, if you've still got this, the spade with the stripe is positive, wire this up to the '.' on the speaker terminal.

OR

wait til, you've got an amp and do it properly old chap

[pictonroad]

I've done this too, but it's a bit of a c*nt if you don't really understand it:

First, shame on whomever put the wiring in without marking it. There are a variety of small (and not so small) commercially available devices that do a great job of testing speaker polarity among other things. Many use a very fast "click" input to the signal path and then measure the results from the speakers. There is, however, a very workable "poor-man's" solution. Disconnect the speaker cables from the amplifier(s) and connect a small battery to the end of the cables. The DC voltage from the battery will cause the woofers to jump forward or backwards depending upon the polarity of the battery with respect to the cables and speakers. The DC voltage is handy because once the speaker moves it will stay in that fixed position until the voltage is removed. This is usually best done with the help of an assistant who can apply and remove the battery voltage while you watch the direction of cone movement. Basically you just have to get everything wired so that all the drivers move in the same direction, then decide which is positive and connect them that way to the power amp(s). A 9-volt battery usually works best for this (it causes the most cone movement), but don't leave it connected to small drivers for a long time. A little 9-volt battery can produce a surprising amount of current into a near dead short (which is how it sees the speaker).

[pictonroad]

but, use a 1.5v battery, it should still work and it's safer, and I've just read that and it doesn't make as much sense as I'd hope.

BASICALLY

If the cone moves outward, the speaker polarity matches the battery polarity. If the cone moves inward, the speaker polarity is the reverse of the battery......

[Royalratch]

Ok. Will try that buddy.

One more thing - I know there's space in the drivers side speaker well for a crossover (where the central locking relay goes) but how about the passenger well? Door mounted tweeters don't have long enogh cables.

If not I'll just put the crossovers behind the centre console and re-solder some longer tweeter wires that will reach the crossovers too.

[pictonroad]

I can't help you on that one, I'm going to disconnect the entire standard system, and so far I've not even taken a door card off.......

[Royalratch]

Well, stripped the interior down today to lay the new speaker cable front and rear. Looks like so:




Crossovers were wired into the loom and then dropped underneath the heater controls in the gap behind the centre console. The loom reaches the head unit and it's a perfect place for cable feeds to front and rear speakers. The door tweeters were already wired in but not connected - they stop just behind the footwells and have male single pin connectors - I'll add a couple of feet to these so they reach thr crossovers. Don't have to faff around with door cards and stuff now.

So I plugged in the loom and the head unit does not power up! I had a flat battery for a while from not driving the car for weeks so it may have been that but can anyone look at the pix below and see if the loom wiring matches the pin diagram on the head unit? Even though I have a Blaupunkt, could it be the same problem that Conrad had?

[Conrad]

Thats completely wrong.

[powelly]

I plugged the new loom in at the weekend, in my opinion the ISO plug has been wired up wrong as when I tested put a test light on the terminals it was the orange wire that showed up as permanent live, it`s an easy fix though, just join the yellow to the orange in the plug and it`ll be fine.
Regarding the loom that I found out about, did anyone else think that it was a poor fit in the accessory socket, it pulls out very easily.

[Royalratch]

I plugged the new loom in at the weekend, in my opinion the ISO plug has been wired up wrong as when I tested put a test light on the terminals it was the orange wire that showed up as permanent live, it`s an easy fix though, just join the yellow to the orange in the plug and it`ll be fine.

Do you mean have yellow and orange BOTH going into one pin?

Regarding the loom that I found out about, did anyone else think that it was a poor fit in the accessory socket, it pulls out very easily.

It is totally shit - does not stay put at all.
Simple job turned into a nightmare.

Cheers for that.

[powelly]

No I don`t mean that both yellow and orange should go to the same pin, it seems that the yellow and orange wires need swapping round in the ISO plug.

I can`t believe my only contribution to the forum and it turns out to be shite, i`m going straight to the scrappy at the weekend to pull a loom out of one of their cars.

[Royalratch]

Nah man, it's still a rad thing - just shit from the manufacturer.

[gooner1]

Plugged mine in yesterday and ive got the complete opposite, right biatch to get out.
Which i supose is beter than your problems R/R and powelly.

[Royalratch]

Thats completely wrong.

So the only thing that's wrong (looking at the diagram on my head unit) is that the yellow and orange need swapping?

I don't know what the icons mean, or the which colour wires do what. The fact that they're not wired up right makes things even more complicated.

How do I get the the blades out of the ISO housing - or did you just snip wires?

[powelly]

Snip and solder, or use a proper crimped joint

[Royalratch]

Balls.

The whole point of this bastard thing was to have neat tidy wiring.

I'm gonna call these losers out and give them some shit.

[powelly]

Me too, trouble is I can`t send it back now, I left the loom in the boot of the BMW where the water leaks in to the boot and it turned the packaging to paper mache, still going to call them and tell them what a load of shite the products are.

[Royalratch]

Just called them.

Said they'd look into it - didn't give a shit really.

Tha manufacturer is Auto Leads.

[powelly]

I called them too, exactly the same as you, they couldn`t really give a toss.

[tristan325]

That's absolutely correct for you radio.
Red is switched live feed
Yellow is Un broken live feed
Orange is illumination (rarely used except for OE radio's)
Black is earth

All these connectors are in the right place.

Do not under any circumstances start joining wires together. This a bodge and you don't need to do it.

[tristan325]

To add to the above, it sounds like the wiring in the accessory panel is different to the ISO standard, basically VW's loom, it's not surprising really as it the industry didn't start making it standard fitting practice until around 1993. Even now BMW still buck the trend and have there own version, awkward sods!.

It's quite easy to remove the blades from the plastic housing. You can use a very small jewelers screw driver or a pin. Just reverse the orange and yellow wires and jobs a good un. I have just ordered a loom from Blaupunkt and will do a write up of my install with photos.

[Royalratch]

Thanks for the input bud but I'm confused.

You said the loom is correct for my radio but then said swap the orange and yellow wires?

Did you allow for the fact that the plug pic is left to right and the diagram is the other way around?

Jeez why is this so complicated...

[tristan325]

Hi there,

Yes the stereo and loom are correct it's the car that's wrong! Switching the orange and yellow wires will correct it.

Do not take this as gospel just yet though, I am going to be putting right my car on Saturday and will post picks and a good right up then. any probs PM me and I'll walk you through it.

Tristan

[Royalratch]

You mean the car end of the loom right? The car can't be wrong!

What difference does it make if you swap them at the ISO plug or the car end?

[tristan325]

Makes no difference at all where you correct it. Your best bet is to switch the orange and yellow wires at the white plug end. Then all will be fine and dandy. I shall be switching at the connector that comes out of my head unit as this easier for me. Unfortunately you have a Blaupunkt so don't have this option. Either way it's an easy fix and you shouldn't need to cut any wires. Can be a bit fiddly, but with a bit of patience it's easy enough.

[Royalratch]

And I can change the pins in the White Plug end buy just pushing the out with a tiny screwdriver?

[tristan325]

NOt sure as haven't seen one yet, but I would imagine so. Either end is good though and it doesn't really make a difference.

[Royalratch]

It's quite easy to remove the blades from the plastic housing. You can use a very small jewelers screw driver or a pin. Just reverse the orange and yellow wires and jobs a good un.

Hello bud. Can you or anyone else elaborate on how to remove the blades from the ISO plug or the staggered female pins from the BMW 4-pin plug even if you have tiny screwdrivers? What do you do exactly?

Much appreciated.

[Royalratch]

This is all done and working so thanks to all for their help.

One last thing! My electric aerial does not extend when I power up[ the radio.
There is a thick grey wire, the signal that goes to the stereo aerial in.

And there is also a thin blue wire that travels with it from the aerial. I think this is the power feed - but where does it go? Maybe someone can decipher the pix?


[/quote]

[tristan325]

The aerial wire needs to be connected to the remote switch wire. This is a blue wire usually and if you look at the back of your radio it should be coming from the second pin from the right on the lower set, marked Aut Ant i.e. auto antenna.
hth

[Royalratch]

I think that wire is taken up by the amp switch wire.

Makes sense as it serves the same function.

Can I splice into it?

Or wire it into something else?

[Royalratch]

Because the amp pre-out cable also has the switch wire.

No need having two.

[Brianmoooore]

And there is also a thin blue wire that travels with it from the aerial. I think this is the power feed

The OE wiring to the aerial is a parallel pair of a red wire and a white wire, running back the LH sill.
The red is permanent live, and plugs into the accessories socket. The white is the control wire, and goes to the radio

[Royalratch]

Balls.

I have a thick grey wire that ends in the signal plug at the stereo. Taped to it is a thinner blue wire.

I'm 99% they are OE wires as they are taped in the same fabric sticky shit that BMW fasten their looms with. Also, the wire is brittle, like old old wiring.

Where in the accessories panel does it go?

Is there no pin for it at the ISO end?