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Attempting to install a Kenwood KMM-BT315U. PO had a benzibox installed so the stock wiring harness is pretty hacked
From the car I have brown\black, violet\gray, yellow, and white.
I also have further up the harness a random white that wasn't plugged in to anything and then a red\green and a red\gray. All of these wires were connected to the best harness and everything worked, like sh!t. Lol
So now I am a little confused as to what to connect.
I think I should have
Kenwood harness------ car harness
Black------brown\black
Red------ violet gray
Yellow------ yellow
Blue\white (labeled ant.cont)------white
Brown(labeled mute)----- nothing
Blue\yellow(labeled steering)------ nothing
But then I have a blue wire that I don't know what to do with.
And also the white, red\green and red\white further up the harness.
I believe after I get this sorted out I still need to connect the speakers. Although I have no idea how the speakers were working on the benzibox. I do plan on bypassing the amp if that is still recommended.
There are 8 wires that come out of the fader, two of which are the yellow and the blue I mentioned above. No twisted pairs anywhere. Now I am really losing it
Hi Guys. i have a 91 318is. Non-premium audio. Original Alpine Headunit (slider unit). I recently wired up a pair of premium speakers for the front (tweeters and mid drivers). Hooked everything up and it sounds like absolute ass. I read through this entire thread "Radio Wiring and Amp Bypass", but seems like mostly directed at premium audio folks. Saw a few posts were it was stated 91 Base systems should be very easy. Trying to figure out if 1) wiring issue 2) speaker issue 3) head unit issue.
Here's the back of my head unit... and i labeled what i think the wires are:
Here's how the tweeters are wired
so when i hook up the speakers correctly into the headhunt, i have almost NO sound coming from the front. Rears sound great. The fade/balance function on my headhunt does crazy things... fading to front cuts out front volume, but i still hear rear speakers.
When i REVERSE the connection, (front wires to rear output and rear wires to front output), the fronts have sound, but sound like ass. mid bass driver is firing, tweeters are going, but little to no bass and easily distorts at moderate volumes.
How hard is it to pull the front speaker wires that come from the amp, separate them from the loom of wires, and then rewire them directly from deck to front speakers?
How hard is it to pull the front speaker wires that come from the amp, separate them from the loom of wires, and then rewire them directly from deck to front speakers?
Not hard. My car doesn't have an amp so it's probably even easier. But having tried all the outputs, the front premium speakers do t sound as good as the aftermarket eclipse speakers... I was under the impression that the premium speakers would best any aftermarket speaker of the same size. That's why I wasn't sure if it's a wiring issue or a head unit issue
Just wanted this clarified, as several times it was mentioned that running new wires to the fronts on a premium sound 88+ car is easier.
Okay. Im probably confused bc read earlier in a few threads that it was best to keep the stock wiring, I think this was from Luke? was that only intended for pre-88 cars? Either way, I may borrow a friend's head unit and see if any difference...
My car is a 9/87 build date, with 8 wires coming from the fader (premium sound), so for my case, running new wires to the front and repurposing wires for the rear speakers was suggested.
My car is a 9/87 build date, with 8 wires coming from the fader (premium sound), so for my case, running new wires to the front and repurposing wires for the rear speakers was suggested.
88 and 89 were likely equipped with the dash mount fader, that means front and rear speakers are wired to share a ground (its "negtive" BTW, not "ground", just so you know) on each side, and that isnt acceptable for an aftermarket deck.
The trick is this: you have to have 8 speaker wires behind the deck. If you don't have 4 pairs of wire, its not going to work right. Read your install guide, this applies to all modern decks.
So, what to do?
On the super early cars (84/85) the ground junction is under the front seats, on somewhat later cars that junction is inside the dash, on much later cars (like yours) that ground junction is in the harness about a foot down the harness.
So, 88-90, pull the harness out of the dash about 18", (meaning you may have to untangle it from the rest of the dash harness to get enough out) and unwrap it.
Once you get enough unwrapped, you will see the solid yellow (gelb) and solid blue (blau) only go from the deck to the fader, so remove those.
Once those are out, keep unwrapping, you will find a point just past the "branch" where the grounds junction. The two left grounds are connected to a brown/black that goes to the fader, the two right ground do the same.
So, once you unwrap the harness, you should find those two ground junctions, cut them so the wires are as long as possible.
Once you have those ground junctions you should have 8 speaker wires behind the deck, so no need to run wires at all.
Next, lets talk about the tweeters...first, are you using Premium mids with them? If not, what are you using as a passive crossover? Some form of passive crossover is a necessity, the stock Premium setup has that crossover built into the midwoofer, thats why it has 4 terminals.
HTH
Luke
Closing SOON!
"LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW
Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398
Shortly before I bought my car from the previous owner, he had a new stereo installed. A few months after I bought it, the rear speakers stopped working consistently (not sure if the fronts ever worked). However they would start giving me sound after a few minutes of driving. Now they are dead completely.
I pulled the stereo and jumped some temporary wires to a spare speaker I had on hand. It worked, I was able to hear music playing. Someone told me it is possible that my amp has gone bad and that is my problem. Does this sound correct?
Once those are out, keep unwrapping, you will find a point just past the "branch" where the grounds junction. The two left grounds are connected to a brown/black that goes to the fader, the two right ground do the same.
So, once you unwrap the harness, you should find those two ground junctions, cut them so the wires are as long as possible.
Once you have those ground junctions you should have 8 speaker wires behind the deck, so no need to run wires at all.
Next, lets talk about the tweeters...first, are you using Premium mids with them? If not, what are you using as a passive crossover? Some form of passive crossover is a necessity, the stock Premium setup has that crossover built into the midwoofer, thats why it has 4 terminals.
HTH
Luke
I think I'll just run new wire to the front speakers. I don't really understand your explanation. I'm I understanding that I can have 8 speaker wires behind the dash. Whereas, I thought I only had 4, which are repurposed ones anyway - the ones from the fader to the amp.
My original question was whether or not I could pull the soon to be useless old front speaker wires and re-route them. Just being cheap as I don't want to have to go buy new speaker wire if I can get some good ones for free. I already messed with that a little and realized it's not worth my time.
I've the tweeters in the door. I think I'll reuse them. Actually, I hope I can reuse it, and all my other speakers minus 1, as since I bought the thing in 2010 I've only been listening to talk radio out of one speaker. The election talk pushed me over the edge though.
Attached Files
Last edited by tkeenan; 10-29-2016, 07:16 AM.
Reason: rephrased question
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