Radio wiring

[Ratfink]

Does anyone know what colour the permenant live radio wire is?
Wiring diagrams confure me!
Cheers

[Ratfink]

You see the stress im under...I cant even spell consuse!

[mancs_joker]

think thats confuse lol

[Ratfink]

Doh!!!
What is wrong with me...i blame the keyboard!

[E30BeemerLad]

I couldn't be 100% on this one mate but in my car it is either black or brown, if you are wiring the stereo in and know which one is the earth etc then you can't damage the unit if you put the permanent and ignition live on the wrong terminal as it will either work with the ignition on or it won't

[Ratfink]

The problem ive got is its got an aftermarket tape player in it that was wired by a chimp....so i'm trying to work out what does what so I can fit my CD player.
The speaker earth wires were wired LH front and rear to the same wire and RH front and rear to another!
Its got two wires stuffed in the ignition live and a single wire in the memory!
Im just trying to work out which does what...i've done the speakers now

[placey]

ratfink

permanent live - grey/red - set your multi-meter to measure volts and check for +12 with one probe on the wire and the other earthed to a chassis point. Check for a fuse in this wire - if your head unit has a fuse then don't worry too much but if it doesn't now's the time to find and fit one.
switched live - violet - the same as above but check it goes to 0v with the ignition off. Consider fusing this too.
earth - brown - set your meter to resistance (ohms) and check for continuity with your known earth point.

[Andy_magic]

If you running a decent headunit with a healthy power output you should run decent gauge cable.

I've got a 60w x 4 V drive Alpine headunit and it sounds tons better since I re wired the power leads, it's like a scaled down version of running fat cable to your sub amp, properly fused etc to stop a melt down.

[Ratfink]

Revised edition translated from giberish to English:[
/b]Thanks guys...sorted my wiring and now the head unit has packed up, its eaten a cd and lost its flipping memory!
I shall be marching it back to Halfords tonight, iv only had it 4 months!