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Lookie what I get to do.

I assume the larger plug is the car side, and the smaller is the stereo side. The colors should almost correspond. Yellow is constant power, red is switched, black is ground. Dimmer wire is orange/white, blue is amplified antenna power. As far as the other bunch, white and white with a black stripe is left front speaker, gray/gray black is right front, green/green black is left rear, purple and purple/black should be right rear speaker. These are the radio side connectors. Hopefully that is what you need.
 
330D said:
I assume the larger plug is the car side, and the smaller is the stereo side. The colors should almost correspond. Yellow is constant power, red is switched, black is ground. Dimmer wire is orange/white, blue is amplified antenna power. As far as the other bunch, white and white with a black stripe is left front speaker, gray/gray black is right front, green/green black is left rear, purple and purple/black should be right rear speaker. These are the radio side connectors. Hopefully that is what you need.
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Yes, the larger side is on the car side. I can post pics later, but I'm supposed to be working on a severely infected computer at the moment. The colors do correspond from one to the other. I.E. there's a purple cable on both, red on both, etc..... My fear is that purple on one plug may not correspond with purple on the other and there's no wiring diagram for one side.

My crimping tool is the wrong kind. It's designed for network wiring, not electrical wiring. :( I do have access to a soldering iron I could borrow, but I've never soldered before and have no clue what I'm doing. It would be a much neater job if I could pull it off. Is it hard to do?
 
No, not particularly, especially with an iron. Just be sure and get the connections fluxed well before, so as to draw the solder to the wire. All the rainbow colored wires are speakers. You cannot really screw those up badly, tbh. Even if you connect them wrong, they will still work, albeit they will be out of phase, and your balance and fader will be screwy...

The important ones are the yellow, red and black. They are the power and grounds. Those are the three that could potentially cause problems if you connect them wrong, ie; power to ground. That could fry a circuit or fuse. ;)

Also, the harness is made by a company named metra, I would guess, and they are the industry standard. The pinouts WILL match from harness to harness, so don't worry about that.
 
If you need I can go by Cruchfield and ask why the screws wasn't in the kit. They are just 20 miles from me. Lol

If you think something wasn't included that you think should of been. Call that number and inquire. Plus the cannon plugs wires that you connect should say on the side what they are. Again missing instructions call them. They have great customer service and want you to be happy.
 
330D said:
Also, the harness is made by a company named metra, I would guess, and they are the industry standard. The pinouts WILL match from harness to harness, so don't worry about that.
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Knowing the cables are standardized colors makes me feel better. I'm debating the soldering thing still, but I think crimping will be easier as I can do that with a pair of pliers and a trip to Radio Shack.

This basically what I've got.

IMAG0012.jpg


The plug on the left comes out of the car. The plug on the right goes into the stereo. There's an adapter that slides over the plug on the left so I have to marry that adapter to the wires on the back of the smaller plug which looks like this.

5712385672873267122
IMAG0013.jpg


I don't have the other adapter with me at the moment.

Dark Jedi said:
If you need I can go by Cruchfield and ask why the screws wasn't in the kit. They are just 20 miles from me. Lol

If you think something wasn't included that you think should of been. Call that number and inquire. Plus the cannon plugs wires that you connect should say on the side what they are. Again missing instructions call them. They have great customer service and want you to be happy.
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Please go there and tell them I expected to be screwed and am pissed that I wasn't. :)

They may say on the side of the wire what they are. It didn't occur to me to look there. Noob mistake.
 
Ahh, you're 3/4 installed! lol...

Seriously though, The metra harness (the only piece w/o a pic in the above post) should have very similar if not the same colors for the speakers. There will also be a diagram of the stereo wiring, somewhere in the manual that came with it (separate from the crutchfield instructions) There will be a diagram in the back of it to help you with identifying which wires are which.

I have faith, and don't be nervous dude, you'll get it.
 
The harness you speak of is at home. It has the same colors. I went through the wires. I'm just hoping they colors do indeed correspond and aren't just arbitrarily assigned. You telling me that they're a standard makes me feel better. I'm running by Radio Shack on the way home and I'll pick up some crimping caps. I've got a pair of pliers at home and a wire stripper from work. I do feel like I'm 75% done.

Old stereo removed - check (except that I left a CD in there so I need to plug it back in)
New stereo mounted in mounting bracket - check

All I have to do is wire the two adapters together, run the BT mike (which I have no clue where I'm going to put it) and put the whole thing back together. I think the wiring thing will take me 30-45 mins once I get the crimping caps. Putting in 4 screws and putting the dash back together will take 15 mins tops. I have no idea where to run the receiver/remote for the bluetooth.

Do I leave it hanging out the front? Do I punch a hole in the dash and run it through the dash? Do I run it through the trim and put it where it hangs right above my head on the drivers side? Do I run it through the header and hanging it between the driver and passenger seat? I have no idea what kind of gain this mic has.

Edit: Here's the wiring harness I bought - http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120705520/Receiver-Wire-Harness.html?tp=2977#Tab
 
You should be able to sneak it out the back, near your kick panels. From there run it under the dash, along the driver footwell. Maybe try to get it up on the ignition cover on the steering column.... I have seen them there before. They look good, and can be fairly easily mounted. If you poke around down there, you will see it is probably simple to fish it up to that point
 
After googling, it seems the preferred places based on user experience are (in no particular order)

Driver side A frame
Steering column
Rear view mirror

I'm inclined toward the latter as it would give both driver and passenger equal ability to talk on it. I don't know how well it'll pick up there though.
 
I personally wouldn't want the wire hanging from the mirror, and taking a headliner down (so as to hide the wire) can be a MOFO. YMMV ;)
 
I'm just thanking my way through the post now.:D After 330D described the wiring accurately I figured I'd better step back, read and learn.:) That was impressive.
 
330D said:
I personally wouldn't want the wire hanging from the mirror, and taking a headliner down (so as to hide the wire) can be a MOFO. YMMV ;)
Click to expand...

You have this picture in your head of what the interior of your car looks like, then you actually get in your car and find that's not case at all. I thought I could run the wire down the outside of the rearview mirror and tape the mic on the back. That's not going to work in my car without wires hanging all over the place. I'm going to wire these two harnesses together, pray that they work, sacrifice a goat to ensure they work, then work on running the wire for the BT adapter.

The suggestion of looking at what is printed on the wires just saved me from panicking. I've got two extra wires on the wiring harness, but they appear to be for a power antenna that I don't have in my car.
 
Can I get some of the meat? I like a roasted goat on occasion... ;)

Seriously dude, it'll be fine. The hardest part of this whole thing will be getting your BT paired to your receiver:p
 
A.Nonymous said:
You have this picture in your head of what the interior of your car looks like, then you actually get in your car and find that's not case at all. I thought I could run the wire down the outside of the rearview mirror and tape the mic on the back. That's not going to work in my car without wires hanging all over the place. I'm going to wire these two harnesses together, pray that they work, sacrifice a goat to ensure they work, then work on running the wire for the BT adapter.

The suggestion of looking at what is printed on the wires just saved me from panicking. I've got two extra wires on the wiring harness, but they appear to be for a power antenna that I don't have in my car.
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With those extra wires, just make sure that you get them covered somehow so they don't short on metal behind the dash. Or better yet, take the pins out of the harness so they aren't even an issue....
 
Not necessarily, they will just take 2 crimps per wire connection instead of 1. you will have to put the wire in one end, crimp, then the corresponding one in the other end and crimp that. I actually like them, because they are easier to get shrink wrap on if you choose to use it.
 
Three hours I've now spent trying to wire this harness. I'm now wishing I had paid someone to install it. Still not done with the wiring harness yet.
 
Gotcha. Just think, next time you do this it'll be old hat.


I'll tell you a story, you'll be amused....

First car I ever installed a stereo in, I cut the factory harness out of. I had no idea which wires were which. I had no dummy light or any of the tools to do it correctly with. I had to make all my connections like you are doing in the car, without proper tools, and without crimping caps or butt connectors. In December. In Upstate NY. Needless to say, a couple hours later I had music in my car, and I was proud of a job (well????) done.

So when it gets tough, just remember... I was once in your shoes, (and probably way worse off) young paduan. :p
 
I had planned to run the mic off the dome light. I can easily get just under the headliner to run it and get over to the drivers side a frame with ease. Can't figure out how to get back down under the dash though. So, I'm sitting it next to the steering wheel and running through the steering column which is very easy. Whether it'll work or not is another thing.
 
If you can snake it over to the doorframe, you can probably unscrew that piece of trim and sneak it down the A-pillar and then behind the dash.... That is usually how they hide the wires, behind trim pieces.
 
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