Fitting a modern stereo

I want to fit a stereo as I enjoy a bit of music while driving, but I'm not sure what I have to do to connect the original stereo connector to the connector on the new stereo.




I also have a set of four alpine 4x6 speakers which I intend to fit in the existing speaker housing front and back. But a I also need to re-wire the speakers as I believe the original wire has been removed at some point before I bought the car. Where exactly would I connect the speaker wires at the headunit end?

I would suspect that you need the Soche or Matra connection between your head unit's Jack, and the speaker wires and or power sources that you need.

The original power jack on your first picture is usually full time power (red) ground (brown) then the Gray/blue is the Illumination from the headlight dimmer.

A good source of switched power for your new unit can be run from the rear window demister switch black/yellow, which is easiest to get to.  There is a spare switched lead on the ignition switch but that is a little more harder to get to.

The wires for the speakers in the front doors would be run through the "A" pillar behind the knee-bar and is a right painful thing to run…Been there done that.

Running the rears if you are so inclined is best to run them under the carpet next to the sills on one side and then under the carpet to the left or right (depends on which side you run them down to the back) and up and under the rear quarter panel cards to the parcel shelfs if on a Golf, or the rear quarter panels on the Cabriolet or Vert….

From the one pic it looks like someone remove the map pocket and speaker pods that were there.  They are pricey on the used market for ones that are in good condition.

www.cabby-info.com has some great pictures of the various head units that VW used, and the power and speaker wiring.  She even has a bit on industry standard radio wiring pairs.

 

Briano1234 said

I would suspect that you need the Soche or Matra connection between your head unit's Jack, and the speaker wires and or power sources that you need.


 

What do you mean by Soche or Matra connection? I googled it and couldn't seem to find anything.

Running wire to the rear will be simple. It will only be the front that will be awkward.

I do have a set of door pockets, they just aren't in the car at the moment. I managed to get a set in good condition for £55 which I thought was pretty good as most others I've seen seem to be £50+ for one side.



Sounds like it could be a little more complicated than I initially thought as I don't really know anything about car electrics.

If you pop into halfords they will have am ISO wiring kit.

Something like this

Universal Volkswagen ISO Harness Adaptor CT20UV11 | Halfords UK

You don't need a VW one specifically all you need is the black bit in the image with the wires sticking out of it.

The problem is now that due to the mk1 golf being so old you can't find a harness that is plug and play so you're going to have to some cutting and connecting.

Once you have the multi plug from attached to the black connector on the back of the stereo it's relatively simple to connect the wires up. there should be a wiring diagram either on the body of the stereo or in the instructions.

On the car
Red is live. Battery supply. Always live
Brown is earth.
Grey/blue is dimming
(As Briano says)

On the Stereo (normally!!!!!! Please check on your wiring diagram!!!!!!!!!!)
Red is switched live (ie from ignition)
Yellow is permanent live
Black is earth
Blue is aerial (electrical aerial feed)
Blue with a coloured line is remote amp turn on
There may be an orange or purple that will probably be the dimmer feed.

There will be 16 wires that run the speakers. Check the colours as they will be specified to tell you which wire runs which speaker. The line on the speaker wire indicates either the positive or the negative to the speaker. Both need to go to the speaker.

You have an option to make the stereo work.

1 - Connect the battery feed from the car (red) to both the Battery feed and the ignition feed (red and yellow) . This way the stereo is always on and you'll have to remember to switch it off when leaving the car

2 - Find an ignition live and wire the ignition live (yellow on the stereo) to the new feed you find.
To do this properly you'll need to change the switch on the bottom of the ignition barrel from the one that's currently on there for a later cabriolet one

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-GOLF-MK1-MK2-1-8-GTI-IGNITION-STARTER-SWITCH-C403/190285739353?epid=1027018751&hash=item2c4de9f559:g:ZIQAAOSwCmZZN~uY

You'll need to take a feed from the small tab that isn't on your existing switch. This way when you put the key into the ignition the radio will come on.

As Briano says running the  speaker wires is easy enough just time consuming.

As you have a tintop you can remove the bottom trays from the dash and then the 'dog ears' bits of carpet from the bottom of the A posts and gain access to the holes from the door frame to the doors and feed the wires in. It's easier than in a Cabbie where the knee bar is in the way.

I see you're in the South West. I'm in Camborne in Cornwall so if you're anywhere near me you're more than welcome to pop over and we can sort it out.

I know a bit about stereo's. Check out the later pages in my 'Mynx' thread  

Ian

To expand:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectors_for_car_audio

From Cabby-info.com
http://www.cabby-info.com/Files/AudioSystem.pdf

If you have the connector from your new head unit. but only that little connector on the car, then you are going to splice that connector to your male connector on the new unit.

I highly recommend that you Solder and Heat shrink all connections, and stagger splice them.

Stagger / splice means that not all the connections are equal in length, and that you cut them a wee bit short of each other so that when finished you have a "normal" cable width instead of a 4" round hump of wires.  Solder connections are more secure, and less diameter than a "Crimp" Connection.  

Modern Head units usually don't use the Gray/blue wires from the headlight switch the have their own internal illumination….

Read teh warning at the bottom of the cabby-info stating that if you do connect the gray/blue to the orange you can take out your headlight switch.


Then remember this:

Thanks for your reply borednow. I assumed that I would have to do something like that but wasn't exactly sure how to go about it.

According to my stereo manual the wires are:

Yellow - battery
Red - Ignition
Black - Earth
Blue/white - Remote
Orange/white - dimmer/illumination

So if I've got it right then it will go as follows:


Then connect the speaker wires to their respective colours.

Would this harness adaptor also be suitable?

https://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/stereo-fitting-accessories/male-iso-harness-adaptor-ct21uv01

Thanks for the offer to help, but I live in Weston Super Mare so it would be a bit far. I was hoping to make a start this weekend but the weather has prevented me from doing so.

Yup you're correct and the ISO adaptor is the one you need

Ian