Installing a car stereo - power cord issue?

gizmo1990

gizmo1990

gizmo1990

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I've just taken delivery of a cd player (JVC KD-G521) for my car and I've been pouring over its installation instructions. After reading these I'm a bit concerned over the issue of power leads!?

I did my homework prior to buying the stereo and know about ISO wiring looms etc, which I found out I wouldn't need as my car ('94 306) has ISO connections BUT I didn't think there would be a problem with the power cable...

My stereos instructions has a big section on connecting up each power related cable and where it goes! I've had a look at my old stereo and examined its power leads and the colours are all different.

I know colours might not be the same for all the different car models and stereos but is it right of me to presume that I can just connect my new stereo via the current power lead coming from my dash?

Apologies if this is a daft question but I'm a newbie at all of this and I don't want to blow up my nice new stereo!

Any help appreciated.
 
if you have iso blocks it should be a 5 second job to wire it up.

sometimes (on kenwoods at least) the acc live and permanent live need to be swapped, but thats about it.

the swap is done with bullet connectors, that are usually already on there
 
Thanks for the reply Matt82.

Do you know how I would go about finding if any of my wires need to be swapped? The wire diagrams with the new stereo itself are clear however I haven't a clue what wire in my 306 goes where!? :confused:

Also how do you pull out bullet connectors? I always thought once they are in, they're in!? :confused:
 
I think with the JVC units you get the block that goes into the HU, and then just wires to wire up after, or is this not the case with this head unit?
 
One will be permanent live, the other will be ignition, as long as you don't wire your speakers etc to live you can't go far wrong.
If the permanent and ignition live wires are mixed up all that will happen is that you'll loose the radio station memories, if that happens switch them over.
Like i said though just make sure you don't put live to speaker or earth etc.
 
chipperhead said:
as long as you don't wire your speakers etc to live you can't go far wrong.

Like i said though just make sure you don't put live to speaker or earth etc.
Click to expand...

With a standard iso block you can't do that, it only features two wires which can be changed neither are earth or speakers :confused:

If you had to wire the car without an iso block fair enough this could be an issue but in this case i fail to see how it helps.
 
Phil W, yes you do get the block, this is it isn't it?
jvccn1.jpg

What I don't understand though is how I'm supposed to know what goes where from the perspective of my 306? I've no documentation telling me which wires are which in my 306?

Also how am I supposed to connect the wires up when I do know which is which? Am I suppoesed to just twist them together or do I have to go out and buy another female to female block?

I thought this was going to be simple once I found out I didn't need a ISO converter!? :confused: :(
 
Get a 306 to iso converter it costs about £10, why do anything else, the way you spoke before it sounded like your car already had a hard wired in iso plug!
 
Ok maybeI'm getting my wires crossed here (pun intended!) but I thought the power cord and the iso cable/connecter were 2 different things!? :confused:

But maybe looking at it they're actually the same thing?

If this is the case (and I'm rapidly thinking it is!) then because my 306 does have an ISO connector already. I can disregard any fear of ******* things up because everything will match fine?
 
Firestar_3x said:
With a standard iso block you can't do that, it only features two wires which can be changed neither are earth or speakers :confused:

If you had to wire the car without an iso block fair enough this could be an issue but in this case i fail to see how it helps.
Click to expand...

I was just offering some advice, if he started to get a bit adventurous joing wires together to avoid a disaster, nothing more.

I fail to see how you could take offense at my comment.
 
gizmo1990 said:
Ok maybeI'm getting my wires crossed here (pun intended!) but I thought the power cord and the iso cable/connecter were 2 different things!? :confused:

But maybe looking at it they're actually the same thing?

If this is the case (and I'm rapidly thinking it is!) then because my 306 does have an ISO connector already. I can disregard any fear of ******* things up because everything will match fine?
Click to expand...

The iso block is a big black thing, it has two sides to it, one is for power and the other is for speakers and suff like dimming the screen if the lights come on, best way to do things is take your current unit out the car, go out with the new HU and plug it up, you can only connect the iso plug one way it either wil or will not fit.

If your car has an iso adapter it will all simply connect up, if it doesn't order a converter from CAD.
 
Thanks again for the reply Firestar_3x.

I've been told by my local peugeot dealer that I do have an iso connector. What I think is confusing me is that mine seems to be broken up into 3 sections.
Here some pics:
iso01hk4.jpg

iso02he0.jpg

I've outlined the blocks themselves to make things clearer.
Basically my new stereo only has connections to accept the lower 2 blocks. ie. the blue and green ones in the photos. Am I to understand that the red one is for the steering column control? And that my stereo won't support this function an therefore that is why it doesn't have the connectors for a red plug?
 
Correct, the red block can be converted using a lead to allow the column controls to work in your stereo but the leads / box cost around £45, Green and blue block should be plugged in, look at the ISO wires on the car and the HU block, you can plug either into each side of the iso but if you look at the pins and match them up you should be alright, usually the side that carrys the power will have less pins than the block with the speakers.
 
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