[purrp]

OK, I'm starting to feel a bit stupid, because I've read all the threads I could find here and I'm still not sure about some of the wires.

This is a picture of the car wires:

Now, according to the instructions for the wiring harness I got, from left to right:

1) should be ground?
2) is switched power
3) is illumination
4) is constant power

This is where I get confused:

5) the spade connector is...? I was sure it was ground, but why would there be two ground wires? After reading these forums I think it's for the power antenna. Is it?

6) I have no idea what this one is. It seems to have only one wire, but 5 jacks in the connector, 3 of which have metal, and I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. What do I do with this one??

Thanks for any help!

 

[ML Precision]

Not sure myself. It may go to the antenna switch as you said. I'll have to look into it. Good picture BTW.

 

[ML Precision]

Good link for radio install.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w20...o-my-car-but-i-dont-know-how.html#post2025160

 

[purrp]

Hehe, that's the thread that made me start to feel stupid, actually Because there's a lot of good information in there and I still can't figure it out.

OK, I'm pretty sure #5 is for the power antenna. According to the paper from the wire harness:

"If vehicle has a power antenna, connect power antenna wire from new receiver to the female spade connector in vehicle. The spade connector will be on the end of a blue wire which may be covered with black tubing".

That sounds like a pretty exact match (to be honest I only actually noticed that wire is blue after taking the picture).

So I still have no idea what to do with the wire on the right?

 

[V12StealthHunter]

thanks i so needed a picture of that thing.


this is what Kynyption posted a while back

Memory (+12v Constant) Red
Ignition (+12v Switched) Black/Yellow
Ground (-) Brown
Illumination Gray/Blue
Dimmer (none)
Power Antenna Blue
S p e a k e r s
Right Front (+) Black/Green
Right Front (-) Black
Left Front (+) Black/Red
Left Front (-) Black
Right Rear (+) Black/Green
Right Rear (-) Black
Left Rear (+) Black/Red
Left Rear (-) Black

 

[Kynyption]

the one on the right, probably went to the CD changer in the trunk.

If all else fails break out the trusty multimeter.

 

[Jippi]

the blue spade is power antenna, and the other is changer as dave sed

 

[355190E26]

Since he has an 89 model like mine, I don't think the connector on the far right is for a CD changer. The stock unit was the Becker 780 which didn't have CD changer output on it. Basically the only connections you need to worry about are the connector on the left (memory, ignition ground, illumination), the antenna plug, the blue antenna remote power line w/ the spade connector, and the speaker connections.

Connect the blue antenna lead on your new stereo harness to the existing blue antenna plug. Then make your memory, ignition, ground, and illumination connections, and you should get power.

 

[purrp]

I could swear I haven't seen a CD changer anywhere in my car ;p

I'll poke around a bit more tomorrow and see if I can figure out what's up with that cable. All the cables expected by my new receiver are accounted for, so I guess I'm good to go... *cross fingers*

Thanks for the help guys (and thanks for the help again, 355190E26!)

 

[Kynyption]

Yes the cable is not needed as mentioned.

iirc all cars were prewired for a cd changer. The actual changer itself was an option.

 

[purrp]

Maybe it was for a cassette changer? I don't even know if the 1989 model had CD players as an option.

At any rate, I installed the radio and left the mystery wire alone, and the radio works great. It's running on 2 channels but it sounds good, I'm not an audiophile... I might run new wires to the speakers, but that'll be more for an excuse to tinker with it

Here are some more pictures for anyone else who might need them:

These are the wire harnesses, on the left is the car-specific harness from Crutchfield, on the right is the player-specific harness that came with the Sony player.

Roughly from top to bottom, the wires are:

Yellow - 12 volts constant power
Orange - illumination - not used by the Sony player, I just taped it off
Red - 12 volts switched power
Black - Ground
These 4 connect to the plug on the left in my first picture in this thread.

Blue - power antenna control (connect to middle wire in my first picture in this thread - more on this one later)
Blue/white - amp control (unused for me)

Gray + Gray/black - front right speaker - connected to "right" (black) speaker connector in car
Violet + Violet/black - back right speaker (unused for me)
Green + Green/black - back left speaker (unused for me)
White + White/black - front left speaker - connected to "left" (white) speaker connector in car

The power antenna wire from the Sony harness gave me a bit of trouble. It looks like this:

which doesn't really fit with the middle wire from the first picture. I had to cut it and crimp a male connector instead:

One last thing - the panel underneath the radio has two plastic hooks which go up into two holes in the bottom of the factory-installed player. The new player doesn't have those holes, meaning the panel can't slide all the way up, meaning I couldn't put the ashtray back in. I saw no other option but to amputate. This is the back of the panel after the operation:

And finally, the finished product:

It's not much to look at, but it probably fits better with the car interior than a flashier Alpine player.

 

[355190E26]

Glad to see the radio installation job went smoothly. I did the same thing that you did w/ the antenna turn on lead and crimped a male connector on it as well.
Definitely make your next project to run new speaker wire throughout the car into a 4 channel setup. There are various write ups on this board about doing that.

 

[Jippi]

nice, in the states here we dont have harnesses.. they tell me that all the older benzes they re-wire the whole car. my alpine isnt flashy.....lol

 

[purrp]

I stand corrected, an Alpine looks good in there too

To be honest, I like the looks of the Alpine units more, the main reason I went with the Sony was for the aux-in and the USB port.

 

[355190E26]

Actually the harness for the 190E is available from Crutchfield.com. When I ordered my Alpine HU from them, they threw it in for free as well as vehicle specific instructions on how to install it in the W201.
And this is my Alpine HU. I think the newer ones are a lot flashier than the older ones.

 

[Jippi]

yea not many companys have harnesses for them crutchfield is an exception. my alpine is an 03 model. i need to get an ipod cable for it..

 

[355190E26]

yeah definitely get the Alpine iPod controller. IMO they make the best iPod control interface. my fav part of it is the "percentage search" where the preset buttons allow you to find stuff quickly w/0 scrolling thru a long list

 

[[email protected]]

guys, i wired everything according to that, and since the old owner was a retard and didn't check for a wire harness before butchering the car's wiring, now i have to hard-wire my stereo in. i plugged it accordingly with:

CAR - Stereo
Yl/Gr/Blk - RED(ACC)
Red - Yellow(memory)
Brown - BLK(Ground)

and still the radio won't turn on, everything is plugged and should work.
if i wire it as memory and constant power all together with the illumination, then it works but i have no memory on the head unit, and it turns on when my lights are on(go figure) .
i went through the wiring diagrams over and over, and staring at them seems a waste of time. help?

 

[Jippi]

check the fuses or you have a busted stereo

 

[[email protected]]

stereo works fine when plugged to my other car, and the fuse#19(for interior stuff incl. stereo) is in and working.
like i said, if i wire it properly, it doesn't work, but if i wire is improperly, all power togethers, then it works, but i don't have memory..