Car stereo wiring installation

The diagrams are provided on request by members of their forum that have access to car alarm manufacturers wiring databases. They are then cataloged and indexed on the site. Very helpful and you can request other diagrams in the forum if yours is not already available. Wiring Diagrams - This site is provided by Bulldog Security and is geared toward car alarm installation. Still good for finding the power wires needed to hook up your car stereo.

This is the go to site for free car alarm wiring diagrams. The pages are not model specific but do concentrate on the wiring diagrams for car radio. The site is sparse compared to the other two but the diagrams they do have are good. The Car Audio Help DVD catalog includes five different videos covering many areas of car audio installation and custom fabrication.

Download Article Explore this Article parts. Related Articles. Article Summary. Part 1. Purchase a wiring adaptor. Your new stereo will come with a diagram indicating what each wire is and what it needs to be connected to, but that process can be made much simpler by using a wiring harness clip adaptor. Use the diagram provided with the stereo as well as the diagram provided with the clip, to loosely connect each of the wires to the new adaptor.

Using the adaptor greatly reduces the chances that you will make a mistake wiring in your new stereo. Identify and connect loose wiring. If you are not using a wiring harness clip adaptor, you will need to identify the wires coming out of the stereo, as well as those coming out of the car. Use the repair manual for your car or locate a wiring diagram for your car online to aid in your efforts to identify each wire.

Most car stereos will require the following connections: [2] X Research source The power wire coming from the stereo is usually red, and likely will connect to a red wire from the car. The ground wire for the stereo will be black, as will its corresponding wire from the car. If there is no ground wire, you can secure the ground cable to bare metal in the body of the car to serve as a ground.

The 12 volt constant power wire is usually yellow or blue, though it may be a number of colors coming from the car. The rest of the harness wires are for the speakers. Use the diagrams to properly match each with its appropriate wire from the car. The antenna wire is much thicker with a metal head and can be connected separately before you install the stereo. Connect the output convertor if necessary.

Some vehicles will require an output converter to make it work properly with components of the car that are not common industry wide. Be sure you order an output converter designed specifically for your year, make and model vehicle. Secure all connected wires. Once all of the wiring has been connected to their corresponding wires, you will need to make those connections permanent.

There are a number of ways you can permanently bond two wires together and while some may be more resilient than others, most will work just fine for car stereo applications. Be sure there is no bare wire metal showing from any of the wire connections by wrapping them in electric tape or heat-shrink wrap. You melt the solder onto the wires to stick them together and as the solder cools it forms a permanent bond.

Twisting wires together and then covering them with heat-shrink wrap or electric tape will suffice for car stereos. Connectors can be purchased that you simply slide both wires into and either crimp them together with pliers or twist them together with your fingers. Part 2. Disconnect the battery.

Once you locate the battery, use a hand or socket wrench to loosen the black cable from the negative terminal on the battery. You will not need to remove the bolt entirely, instead simply loosen it enough to pull the cable off of the terminal. To be sure the battery is disconnected, check to see if the lights come on in the cabin of the car.

Nothing electronic should work with the battery disconnected. Disconnecting the battery will prevent you from doing damage to the electrical system as well as protect you from shocks. Remove any necessary pieces of trim.

You will need to gain access to the sides of the stock head unit or stereo in your center console. In some cars, that will require the removal of some pieces of plastic trim. Be careful when removing trim pieces, as they may be brittle and subject to cracking. Whenever possible, try to pull the piece of trim out slightly to get a look at what kind of clip is used to attach it.

You may need to slide the trim piece in a certain direction to separate it, you may need to hit a release with a screw driver, or you may need to simply pull on it hard enough. Checking first will prevent you from breaking off the clips and having to replace the piece of trim. Determine how your head unit is mounted. Car stereos are all held in place using one of two methods: spring clips or bolts. Each method requires a different technique for removal.

Spring clip mounts may not require the removal of any trim pieces and can be identified by the matching pairs of holes on either side of the stereo. Stereos that are bolted into place may require more trim removal, as you will need to gain access to the space behind the stereo. If they are present, your stereo is held in place with spring clips.

If there are no holes, remove the trim below, above or to the side of the stereo to gain access to the bolts. Use DIN tools to remove spring clipped stereos. If your stereo or head unit is held in place using spring clips, you will need to purchase a pair of DIN tools. Insert one DIN tool into the two holes on the left, and another into the two holes on the right.

Press them both in until you hear the click of the spring releasing. Spread the tools apart slightly to grip the back of the stereo and pull the tools toward yourself.

The stereo will slide out of the console of the car along with the tools. Remove a bolted in stereo with wrenches. You will likely need to remove quite a bit more of the trim to access bolts that hold your stereo in place than you would have with spring clipped stereos. Once you are able to see the bolts, removing the stereo should be fairly self-explanatory: there will likely be four bolts, either attaching the stereo to a bracket at the back or on either side.

Determine the size of the bolts, then use a hand wrench to remove them. Unscrew these bolts and slide the stereo out. Remember that the stereo is still connected to the car with wires, so be careful not to rip any out as you remove the stereo from the console.

Disconnect the wiring. If you are removing a stock head unit, there will likely be at least one plastic clip with a number of wires going into it that you will need to disconnect. There may be a second clip and an antennae cable as well in some cars.

If you are removing an aftermarket stereo, there is a possibility that there will be no clip and the previous stereo was wired loosely. If that is the case, you may have to cut the wires in order to connect them to the new head unit. Be careful when removing the wire harness clip from the back of the stereo. It may have a plastic button or tab holding it in place. Part 3. Test the stereo. Before you install the stereo in the center console of your vehicle, reconnect the battery and turn the car on to make sure it is functioning properly.

With the stereo completely connected, turn it on and try a few functions. Make sure all speakers in your vehicle are working and that CDs or your MP3 player play properly. If you have been able to connect the antennae cable already, check to make sure the radio works. If something does not work properly, review the connections with the wiring diagrams that you have to make sure all of the wires are connected to their corresponding match.