Mk2 Wiring Woes

Krupa · Post by **Krupa** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 8:55 pm

Hi all,

Having a nightmare with the wiring in a Mk2, can anyone help?!?!?

I've been wiring my old stereo into my brother's 1985 Mk2 Coupe, no easy task as there's no ISO connector in the car and the wiring for my old stereo has been pissed about with and it was hardwired into my car originally.

What I've found, under the passenger half of the dash, is a massive bundle of wires which don't look like they're meant to be there. They look like a really old stereo wiring loom. Plugged into this was a red wire, a blue wire and a brown wire which match up to the red/yellow, blue and brown wires coming off my butchered Sony wiring loom (mine had bodged wiring too when I bought it). So, I chopped out the wiring loom that was there and connected these wires up.

So far so good, the stereo came on fine. No speakers though as the dashboard one is f****d and though there are speakers in the back of the car I can't find the wires for them (will dig them up when I change the interior) but it powered up and found radio channels.

Here's where it gets tricky though, the other end of the loom was attached to a connector block with 4 wires coming out if it, two brown, one red, one blue. I assumed originally that these might be a wiring loom for the stereo but after trying them and finding they didn't work with the stereo I used the other wires. The stereo also seemed to work without them. However, the lights on the instrument panel are now not working

.

So, assumed the worst, took the stereo out again and took the insulating tape off the soldering I'd done to solder these wires into their matched colours going into the stereo - they came off the same wiring loom originally anyway. Soldered the red one up first (I know, bad idea, it's live) then when I was touching the earth to the stereo earth the lights on the instrument panel came on, albeit dimly. Touching the blue one on the stereo earth made them light up completely. Assumed this was a short circuit as I don't think the lights were on, soldered the two browns together, then to the stereo brown, soldered the blue to the blue, the red to the red and put everything back together. Still no go with the bloody instrument lighting

.

So, my question is how the bloody hell are these things meant to be connected up? I'm drawing a blank!

Anyone with a Haynes manual and a good scanner could you possibly e-mail me a copy of the wiring diagram that has the instrument panel on it? Make it grayscale before you send it though, as I've only got 56k and it'll go spastic if I try and download anything big.

Any help VERY MUCH appreciated. For some reason Mk3s are simpler to mess around with the wiring on. Took 6 hours to repair the loom for the stereo in mine, but it was plain sailing all the way, and there are more wires in a Mk3!

Alex Grant

polokris · Post by **polokris** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 10:11 am

the wireing unda the passenger side.... do u mean ontop of the glovebox, on the unda side of the dash... if so, this is the relay for the indicators. wen u put the indicators on, u can hear it ticken, so im guessing that its nothing to do with the radio..... all the wires shud be there, and i think the wires for the back speakers run along the sills or the doors, so shudnt prove difficult to wire.... if u cant find them, then try folding the rear seat down, u shud see the wire go from the back.... if not.... erm... dunno m8!

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 9:05 pm

I sympathise.. I've just spent the weekend wiring in a new dashboard (someone smashed mine to steal the radio while it was living in london. Gotta love some people.), and even though the wiring looms were there and ready to wire in I still managed to end up with no headlights and an indicator switch that turned both front and rear wipers on plus the washer jets all at once

I dunno if you still need the wiring diagrams, but if you do give me a shout and I'll try and get my old scanner working.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:46 pm

lol sounds like you had fun GroovyCarrot,

it took me 2 days to wire in my auto gage rev counter and that only has 4 wires

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:17 pm

I'm not sure 'fun' was the best word to describe it

And after all that, I've wired my radio in so that it draws a load of current even when it's switched off, so I've got more wiring fun tomorrow afternoon

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 11:38 pm

thats not too bad then as that'll only be your live's and earth wire