Stereo wires... Opinions please

Hello all

I have had a hunt around and I have found these wires, (see attached pics)

I assume that the 5 bunched together are speaker wires and an earth? I have not had the door cards off yet at the front as I have not had time yet. I can not see any wires for rear speakers at all. As you can see, there is not a lot of wire to work with. Is it deemed Micky mouse to joint new wire to it by the classic twisting and tape method?

The wire with the Ariel lead I assume is the live?

I am ok with running new wire throughout and connecting old school method but I'm thinking that it would be better to use iso blocks (or whatever they are called!) or something else modern? I have never done this before so if any one has any info or even better could help me I would be very grateful. I'm not even sure if new CD players etc can be connected without these iso things as I have not had to do one since 1999! All my cars since then have had decent built in systems...

Doh! One pic got missed!

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

I assume that the 5 bunched together are speaker wires and an earth?

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I tend not to assume with wires. If you don't have a multimeter, buy one and test the wires to see which ones carry 12v when ignition on/off. Once you've got the ground and the power & ignition, the speaker wires are just trial and error... the negative one's should be marked with a white line.

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

Is it deemed Micky mouse to joint new wire to it by the classic twisting and tape method?

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At the very least, crimp the wires. Crimping kits are cheap.

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

but I'm thinking that it would be better to use iso blocks

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Yeah, it is. you can get them from halfrauds/ebay and just wire the mess you have in the car into the iso block. then whenever you change stereo it's plug & play.
http://washford.scene7.com/is/image/...672?$PDP_MAIN$

All very useful, thank you:agree:

I'm sure there is a stereo/speaker wire identification list/pic/article or something somewhere on the site.

The problem that I have Trev is that apart from the live, all the wires are the same colour! I'm just going to pull them all out and start again, at least then I will know what is what.

Sorry for all the questions guys but what is the best iso connector to use? Male, female etc?

Also should I just crimp the new wires that I install on the ones already in the iso block? I am getting a bit confused when they contain more wires than just live, earth and speakers!

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

Sorry for all the questions guys but what is the best iso connector to use? Male, female etc?

Also should I just crimp the new wires that I install on the ones already in the iso block? I am getting a bit confused when they contain more wires than just live, earth and speakers!

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Buy the one i linked to in my post above.

Most stereos come with their own stereo-iso adaptor
eg.
http://www.deluxe-item.com/jvc_iso_b.jpg

So what you're wanting to do is to put the same iso connection into your Renault 5, that you'd find in a modern day car.
For that you need this cable, see how the ends are just wire... means you can crimp onto it easier.
http://washford.scene7.com/is/image/...672?$PDP_MAIN$
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_265876

Sorry Gordon I did not realise that was a link, I thought it was just a picture!

Thank you again for your help.

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

Sorry Gordon I did not realise that was a link, I thought it was just a picture!

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I did worry at the time it was a bit too subtle.. :cooter:

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

The problem that I have Trev is that apart from the live, all the wires are the same colour! I'm just going to pull them all out and start again, at least then I will know what is what.

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Looking at your second pic Rob I can see the orange and brown wires, which are some of the front door speaker wires IIRC. What colours are the wires at the speaker bin end of the equation?

I guess you're idea of starting again is probably for the best though. Just mark everything up as you go :) :agree:

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Originally Posted by Trevhib

Looking at your second pic Rob I can see the orange and brown wires, which are some of the front door speaker wires IIRC. What colours are the wires at the speaker bin end of the equation?

I guess you're idea of starting again is probably for the best though. Just mark everything up as you go :) :agree:

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Yeah I assume that they are front speaker wires but at the moment I have no idea which on is the earth!

I have not had time yet to look at the other end of the wires where the front speakers sit. Hopefully I will get to do that this week. The speaker covers have been glued on solid, are they supposed to be glued?? I will have to take the door cards off or I risk breaking something trying to break them off.

With the iso connected, I can clearly see which ones are the front and rear speaker wires but which one would I wire the live and earth too? Also there will be wires that I will not use, I assume maybe for an amp or something but if someone can elaborate that would be great. I have tried googling bug to no avail as yet.

The speaker covers are supposed to twist off. The lugs on the door cards which hold the covers on are flimsy though and tend to snap off (and once broken the covers are often glued on).

If you remove the door cards, bear in mind that you may end up snapping some of the plastic retainers and if you don't have spares, will need to use the remaining ones strategically to get the door card to sit securely. If your speaker covers are definitely glued, it might be better to try and remove them with cheese wire or something rather than remove the door card (and then re-glue afterwards). Either way you really need to see what's going on at the speaker end since one of the previous owners could have changed the standard wiring.

I can't remember now which colour Renault used for the +ve and which for the -ve. If you are fitting after-market speakers, best just to find the wires in the doors, trim the ends off, refit, and make a note of which colour you choose for each and then wire up appropriately at the head unit.

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Originally Posted by Trevhib

The speaker covers are supposed to twist off. The lugs on the door cards which hold the covers on are flimsy though and tend to snap off (and once broken the covers are often glued on).

If you remove the door cards, bear in mind that you may end up snapping some of the plastic retainers and if you don't have spares, will need to use the remaining ones strategically to get the door card to sit securely. If your speaker covers are definitely glued, it might be better to try and remove them with cheese wire or something rather than remove the door card (and then re-glue afterwards). Either way you really need to see what's going on at the speaker end since one of the previous owners could have changed the standard wiring.

I can't remember now which colour Renault used for the +ve and which for the -ve. If you are fitting after-market speakers, best just to find the wires in the doors, trim the ends off, refit, and make a note of which colour you choose for each and then wire up appropriately at the head unit.

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Cheers. :agree:

Right, I'm almost losing the will to live! I have run two brand new wires for the front speakers and where they wire up to the iso are very self explanatory. I followed what I believed the live wire to be all the way back to the ignition and tested it with ignition on and off with a multimeter. I then wired this to the red wire on the iso and the earth to the wire that says chassis ground on the iso.

Both earth and live are black, I really do not want to run new wires so I will label them.

The multimeter need to be earthed to work so I held the black part on the earth wire and the red part on the live, turned on the ignition and it read 12v. Now if I put them the other way around it reads -12v. With this in mind I assume the first way around is correct and that I definately have the earth and live?

None of the other wires read anything so I assume that they are either redundant or old speaker wires, they will not pull out neither are they present in the doors! In the doors the speaker wires were blue but I can not find the other end of them! They go into the dash somewhere and I really do not want to take it apart.

Anyway with the live, earth and speakers connected to the iso nothing happens. The radio is in full working order so could anyone please tell me where I have gone wrong? If need be I will have to run a new live and earth but time for me at the moment is a problem.

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

Right, I'm almost losing the will to live! I have run two brand new wires for the front speakers and where they wire up to the iso are very self explanatory. I followed what I believed the live wire to be all the way back to the ignition and tested it with ignition on and off with a multimeter. I then wired this to the red wire on the iso and the earth to the wire that says chassis ground on the iso.

Both earth and live are black, I really do not want to run new wires so I will label them.

The multimeter need to be earthed to work so I held the black part on the earth wire and the red part on the live, turned on the ignition and it read 12v. Now if I put them the other way around it reads -12v. With this in mind I assume the first way around is correct and that I definately have the earth and live?

None of the other wires read anything so I assume that they are either redundant or old speaker wires, they will not pull out neither are they present in the doors! In the doors the speaker wires were blue but I can not find the other end of them! They go into the dash somewhere and I really do not want to take it apart.

Anyway with the live, earth and speakers connected to the iso nothing happens. The radio is in full working order so could anyone please tell me where I have gone wrong? If need be I will have to run a new live and earth but time for me at the moment is a problem.

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Your iso block will expect 2 power wires and 1 earth.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...pinout.svg.png

When using a multimeter, if you're not sure which wires the earth, you use the body of the car.
If you only find 1 live wire then you'll need to split that into 2 wires to supply the iso block

Also, some stereo's have a fuse at the back.. Whilst your at it, check the car's fuses.

Top man Gordon :agree:

So I assume its A4 and A7 to connect a live to?

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Originally Posted by Rob1980

Top man Gordon :agree:

So I assume its A4 and A7 to connect a live to?

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yearp :)

You need to find the ignition live and permanent live. if you just use ignition live for both then you'll lose all settings every time you take the key out the car. If you use permanent live for both you'll prob just end up with a flat battery all the time because the stereo will be constantly on?

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Originally Posted by JamesF

You need to find the ignition live and permanent live. if you just use ignition live for both then you'll lose all settings every time you take the key out the car. If you use both permanent lives you'll prob just end up with a flat battery all the time because the stereo will be constantly on?

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yes, your right he should wire it to ignition and permanent live... but wiring both to permanent live will only drain the battery if you leave the stereo playing music - and that'll take a while. he'll just have to press the off button or pop the face off.

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Originally Posted by GordonB

yes, your right he should wire it to ignition and permanent live... but wiring both to permanent live will only drain the battery if you leave the stereo playing music - and that'll take a while. he'll just have to press the off button or pop the face off.

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Yeah maybe, there's gotta be an ignition live in the somewhere to do it right though.:)

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Originally Posted by JamesF

Yeah maybe, there's gotta be an ignition live in the somewhere to do it right though.:)

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I definately have an ignition live, I have followed it all the way back.

Maybe the black wire that I thought was the earth is the perminant live, hopefully I will get a few minutes today to investigate further. My multimeter is not very long so earthing it is proving a bit tricky! I will soldier on though.

Oh for the info from the old site :(

If this is such a buggers muddle, the only wire you really need to find is the switch-ignition live (which it sounds like you have). All the other wires can be easily re-run, marked up and married to the ISO connector from scratch, including the permanent live. Then just safely terminate everything else and crack on.

Thank you for all of your input guys, much appreciated.

The picture shows you where I am. I have run a new live and earth from the battery and the ignition is plumbed in too. The two front speakers are the only ones attached so far.

The perminant live I have run is attached to the yellow wire on the iso, the ignition live is attached to the red wire on the iso and the earth is attached to the black on the iso. Can you please confirm that this is correct??

I think that the fuse had blown on my head unit as it still does not work. The wife will never let me have any time to myself so I have no chance at the moment of popping out to buy a new one!

Looks like you're nearly there.

I can find two diagrams here that have the red as the ignition live and the yellow as the permanent live:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=...ml%3B512%3B434

Whether that's right or not I can't remember but it does ring a bell as for me it's counter-intuitive. You'd think red would be perm live! Lol.

I've blown fuses in head units before. Shouldn't be difficult to visually check and replace if necessary.

http://d4858336.u73.hosting365.ie/im...SOWiringEd.JPG

Looks correct to me, with green, blue, white, and grey pairs for the speakers.

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Originally Posted by Trevhib

Looks like you're nearly there.

I can find two diagrams here that have the red as the ignition live and the yellow as the permanent live:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=...ml%3B512%3B434

Whether that's right or not I can't remember but it does ring a bell as for me it's counter-intuitive. You'd think red would be perm live! Lol.

I've blown fuses in head units before. Shouldn't be difficult to visually check and replace if necessary.

http://d4858336.u73.hosting365.ie/im...SOWiringEd.JPG

Looks correct to me, with green, blue, white, and grey pairs for the speakers.

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Thanks Trev, this is exactly what I have done. However the stereo will not shut off with the ignition! I'm beyond caring now, I will just make sure that I take the face off it each time. Finally I have sound!!

I replaced the fuse as it was clearly blown.

Rob pop round next weekend or when ever your free and I will have a look... Done a few ICE installs in my time ;) maybe able to sort it easily enough

Put the red to yellow and yellow to red

Cheers Penfold.

It's just the ignition issue that's confusing me now. I ran a new perminant main and wired it up correctly as I have the ignition. Would be good to have a little catch up.

Is it not fixed yet? :cooter::laugh:

Yeah, sounds like the ign and perm are the wrong way round. Either way, it's nearly sorted. :agree:

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Originally Posted by Trevhib

Yeah, sounds like the ign and perm are the wrong way round. Either way, it's nearly sorted. :agree:

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Very nearly! I have the ignition and the live the correct way around, I have given up now! I have some sound albeit from a very poor head unit and speakers made out of a couple of roses tins!

Thank you to everyone for all the hints and tips:agree: