Think i have broken my stereo

the nice weather and half day finish on saturday had me ready with a box of tools and a list of jobs for the disco (97 300tdi import)

replace wing - done
fit bull bar & fogs - done
remove roof rack - done
fix door catch -done
new thermostat - done
new headlight washers - done
fix sticking ignition - done

next on the list was to replace the stereo, with the disco being an import it wont go above 86 - 87 fm so i have been listening to radio 2 since i bought it and it seemed a bit daft to have my old kenwood cd player sitting in the garage.

now the trouble starts, old stereo comes out no problem but with more wires than i have ever seen (3 blocks of wires, 2 aerial wires and a cd changer wire even though there is no changer) so off i popped to halfords (first mistake) who told me to ignore the long plug, cd control and 1 aerial cable. Got home and did as i was told and got a protect message on the new stereo which google tells me is a short circuit in the speakers. Next my neighbour comes over and says "i can fix that" (second mistake) after cutting all but the power cables we proceed to try and wire up the relevant speakers but after doing this all i got was a lot of interference if i turned the volume right down and 2 spare black wires from the long block so i decided to call it a day and just connect the old radio back in.

Thinking everything will be ok just turned it on to check and retune in case the stations were lost but now when i turn it off there is a loud popping noise from the rear speakers and it is the same when i use the ignition.

i'm now left wondering if i have fooked the stereo/amp? and could someone please give me simplified instructions what wires i should/shouldnt be using and where they should be going for an aftermarket install.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

Some non uk spec discos have an additional amplifier located i believe in one of the footwells so did you remove that also.
What you should end up with at the head unit is a permanant and aux 12v supply, earth, aerial, 4 or more loudspeaker feeds, CD and subwoofer feeds (option) any other wires are redundant.

Didnt remove any amplifiers, all i tried was using the wires from the long pink plug as +ve feeds to the speakers but there were 2 extra black wires which i didnt know where they were supposed to go. There is no sub as far as i know, i did a search before posting and dont have any separate plugs with red/black wires.

Any idea what the spare black wires are for?

If i disconnect the amp will i have to reroute the wiring around it?

Thanks again

bobbler said:

Didnt remove any amplifiers, all i tried was using the wires from the long pink plug as +ve feeds to the speakers but there were 2 extra black wires which i didnt know where they were supposed to go. There is no sub as far as i know, i did a search before posting and dont have any separate plugs with red/black wires.

Any idea what the spare black wires are for?

If I disconnect the amp will i have to reroute the wiring around it?

Thanks again

Click to expand...

Blacks in audio systems are usualy earths and yes the speaker wire will have to be extended up the new dash unit and identified L R front and rear.
There threads on the subject, but it's only getting the various wires for what you need and blanking off the rest.

Thanks for your help discool I will try again tonight.

I had searched here and on google but all the threads i found were based around the red/black sub wires which i dont have. From what i can find on google the amp should be in the passenger footwell so shouldn't be too hard a job to work around (should help me route the ipod cable into the glovebox too).

Thats ok, what you have to do is not hard maybe a bit fiddly but it's do-able.
The power and the aerial connection is already in the slot so it's really just the loudspeaker wiring to sort out. Take your and do a proper job with any joints then it will be trouble free, also leave a bit of string in the cable route through the dash as that will make any additional cable installation easy.