cd player wiring

[IL4Festiva]

hello,
I got a sony cd player from my buddy, it has no instructions and no wire labelling on the cd player. it has 3 green wires, 3 blue wires, 2 sets of grey wires on 2 opposite sides of the connector, a thick yellow wire, and a thick red wire. there might be a couple more. I was wondering if Cd players follow any generic coloring of wires, or if anyone knows what these wires are supposed to go to. Thanks
Sean

[SimonTuffGuy]

Yellow = Battery (constantly on the keep your settings, time, etc)
Red = Ignition (this turns the unit on when you turn your key on)
Black = Ground
Blue or Orange = Illumination (some units will have this and others may not - this will dim the unit when you turn your lights on)

And then the rest will be for speakers. Usually they will keep them color coded by sides, front & back. So you should have something like... A white and white with black stripe for 1 speaker... Gray and gray with black stripe, green and green with black stripe, and purple and purple with black stripe.

If you want my suggestion? Go to your local BestBuy or stereo installation place. Find a Festiva wiring kit (I believe it's the same as an RX7 if they can't find Festiva... Look in the bag, there should be 4 sets of plugs!!!) - That SHOULD go from your stock plugs to a universal adapter... Then find a universal to Sony. You plug the 2 wires you just got together, plus the 1 end into your Festiva plugs and the other into your CD player and you're playing music.

I did that for Casper and it made it 10x easier than splicing all the wires again and again. Especially if it craps out a month from now and you need to get a new one again.

[MONSOON]

You should be able to go to www.sony.com and type in the model number of the radio and download the manual for it. That way you for sure what wire is what.

[Levitan]

2 thumbs up for the question and the answers, guys!!

[SimonTuffGuy]

The only possible problem(s) that you may run into with my suggestion above (about buying the 2 universal harnesses) is:

1. I don't remember if the Festiva harness went to a universal or not. Maybe I'm thinking of my Jeep... I did the same there, except I extended all of the wires by 3 feet each, to run the wiring into my center console where the CD player now sits...

And 2. The area behind the CD player is VERY tight... I've got a bunch of extra wires behind there because my dash is stripped, there's no hvac controls/wires, and the heater core is gone, which allows the wires to hang where they won't be able to in a regular car... With that said... I had it like this in the last car and you just have to be very tricky about which way the wires go, where they tuck, etc. It can be done, it's just tight.

[25Horseplay]

This might help too.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2123

[m715]

The Metra # is 80-1781 from wiring harness to brand specific harness. I use Pioneer head units in mine, for example, which makes the second adapter a PR01-80. The connectors stuff up on the dash to the left, and up right out of the way. Just watch, like Simon said, as you slide the unit into the DIN mount for resistance, tuck in tighter if you need to. Try to get the plug connection up in as far as you can, and wiring away from the center support bar directly behind the unit.

HTH
Michael

[SimonTuffGuy]

Thanks for the #'s Michael!

[IL4Festiva]

Awesome boys $$@!@$% awesome, and yes it is very tight.. i've got a few good scratches from the plastic already.. I didn't even think this car had speakers, its had a stock dash compartment for 17 years.. people owned this car for 16 years, SIXTEEN YEARS without a stereo, man times have changed haha.
There any reason my front speakers wont work from age or never being used?
Thanks again for the help boys, you all stop in for a beer if your ever in nova scotia ya hear.
Take er easy fella's
Sean

[m715]

If you feel the need, the doors already have everything in place to install speakers in there.

[MONSOON]

Pioneer makes a 2 way speaker that mounts right in the front openings with no problem.

[IL4Festiva]

the door speakers, i have an unmodified L, it has all the crappy fabric covering over the door, no plastic mold or anything, is the speaker mount underneath that still? and what would be a good way to run wires from the interior into the door, without accidentally cutting them off with the door some day?
The closest store i can think of a CD stereo place would be The source, which is in a mall. if u know any names of other places that would be in canada, that'd be cool man.
Thanks again for the help boys,
Have a good one!

EDIT: does it make a difference what color wires are hooked up to what speakers?

Edit2: Ok i think the connected might be a little bit messed up on this one, i got my ground, battery and ignition, and that leaves me with these wires here, +3 open slots in the connector:
Solid blue, Blue/white stripe, Solid grey, Grey/black stripe, Solid purple, Purple/black stripe, solid green, green w/ black stripe, and solid white w/ black stripe. There is no single Orange or blue wire for illumination but then again this deck only has 4 buttons that will light up minus the volume button which is 1 light i think, and the screen. its not one of those light up your car cd players. Would it work without the illumination wire? hard to tell if it needs one or not, where its missing 3 wires on the connector, if they were broke off it was a very clean break.

[m715]

If you remove your door panel, you will find that everything was there in plce to mount the speakers, including the basic outline to cut out the cardboard panel itself. Holes are there in the door, and body you can run your wires through. Rubber plugs are ther on the early L models, 90 up wiring is there for the seat belts. Check it out.....

[SimonTuffGuy]

The blue, grey, purple and green (and those with black stripe) are your speaker wires. Check the link that Brian provided above for what colors on the stock harness go where. If you can read on the wires off the headunit, sometimes they'll specify what wires are where.

Is it important to match them correctly? Not really, unless you care about adjusting the face or balance (front/back or left/right)... I'd suggest hooking them up correctly, but that's just me.

The illumination wire won't matter. The headunit will automatically switch the lights on... The illumination wire just tells the unit to "dim" itself when your headlights are on. It makes it less hazardous at night I guess. My player has a setting that I can tell it to dim itself if I want, yours may be the same.

I'm nt sure what the white w/ black stripe would be... You may be able to read the side of the wire to see if it says?

(I know that on my cd players, printed on the sides of the wires are what each wire is for... So, on the yellow wire it says "battery", the red wire it says "ignition", etc, etc... Yours may have them, it may not have them.

[SimonTuffGuy]

And yes... Your door will still have the hold for the 6.5" speakers... You'll have to cut the door panel up a bit so you can see them, but it's still there.

And as said above... There is a rubber grommet going into the door from the body. You should have wires in the door for the power mirrors and stuff that the cars are pre-wired for.

In my last car, I ran a set of power windows... The harness that needed to go in the door was big, but I made it fit eventually. You'll only have 2 wires, which should be easy to fit in the plugs.

Good luck!