UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

I am trying to sort out why my stereo doesnt automatically turn on when the ignition is in the right position. My ride is a 98 model POLO CL, and it has a Sony CD Player fitted to it...which i believe is not the original one, as the previous owner of the car changed it.

I was trying to find out how to sort this power problem out until i was told that the red VW continuous power wire and the yellow ignition power wire may be connected the right way, as in terms of the stereo the Red wire is the ignition cable and yellow is the continuous power, in which case red VW wire needs to be connected to the yellow stereo wire and yellow VW wire needs to be connected to the red stereo wire.

Anyways I slipped the unit out of its cage to see a dreadful amount of wires instead of black and brown ISO connectors. From the current wiring i noticed that the cars red wire (continuous power) was connected to the double bullet connector of the stereos yellow wire. In this bullet connector there were the red and yellow wires both connected to the red cars wire. This is the reason why i am being provided with continuous power.

Looking for a yellow wire in the cars wires, i notice that there is not one existing. a vw wire connection map says that the wire may be brown / black stripe. i do have this one which is very thin and empty, and one which is thick as the red power wire and is connected to the front speakers, as when i pulled the connector from the stero off(which had a grey/black connector) the front speakers stopped working.

Although the ISO Connectors are cut off, all the cars wires are wrapped in a soft rubbery sticky sleeve, which i believe is the original way the wires were, so it is not cut off or tampered with.

Being A 98 Car, im sure that vw had the technology then to have ignition power.

I have two wires bare, one is brown and blue and one is brown and black which are both very thin.

Also I the sound quality when the car is started of the speakers is very poor, especially in the MW wave of the stereo. I only have two standard vw front speakers and I think two standard vw tweeters.

Any ideas on how I can sort this out????

I had a proper Sunday morning look at the wiring. there are 8 wires which are wrapped together excluding the antenna. I tried the ignition wire on both of these other spare connectors but no power. i know the car had a alarm, a proper metasystem 1. it did have some ignition imobilisation thingymajig is it possible that cos it was discnnected the yellow wire may have been cut off or something. Any 1 know where the other end goes to, anywhere near ignition barrel?? pls can some1 let me know asap cheers.

AKs_SlickPolo wrote: Looking for a yellow wire in the cars wires, i notice that there is not one existing. a vw wire connection map says that the wire may be brown / black stripe. i do have this one which is very thin and empty, and one which is thick as the red power wire and is connected to the front speakers, as when i pulled the connector from the stero off(which had a grey/black connector) the front speakers stopped working.
I have two wires bare, one is brown and blue and one is brown and black which are both very thin.

Are the other speaker wires thin (grey/black for example) it sounds like somebody has used the wrong brown/black stripe wire surely the thick wire is for power circuits due the amount of current carried in 12v supplies.(speaker wires only carry a signal hence thiner wire. I'm no auto electrician it just my guess at the fault.

thats what i thought. but note these wires are coming from the cars wiring harness, they are wrapped up tight not just electrical taped so im sure this is the original wiring setup.

Its just the yellow ignition power wire, i cant seem to find it, but then again this wire can b brown/red as well. i have two, i connected the ignition wire from my stereo (red in this case) to the thick brown/red wire of my car, but no luck. i connected it to the thin brown/red wire but no luck either for power. im confused. the speakers work through the thick wire so i doubt thats anything to do with the ignition wire? cheers anyways

Any other possibilities?????????

Have you tried looking at your sony head unit manual.
Try connecting the head unit so it is always on and see if that works, this bypasses the ignition wire. I had to do this once my head unit stopped working. It worth a shot

my headunit is operating fine. it has no problems. at the moment the stereo is connected to constant power, but i wanted it so that it turns on and plays music at u when u start the engine. It can do this, but i dont have yellow wire and i have a brown/red wire bare but it doesnt seem to do anything?.

Basically the stereo works fine just i hate having to switch the ignition and stereo on seperately, (lazy) and plus i dont like taking my face off off all the time so it is draining my battery!!

AKs_SlickPolo wrote:my headunit is operating fine. it has no problems. at the moment the stereo is connected to constant power, but i wanted it so that it turns on and plays music at u when u start the engine. It can do this, but i dont have yellow wire and i have a brown/red wire bare but it doesnt seem to do anything?.

Basically the stereo works fine just i hate having to switch the ignition and stereo on seperately, (lazy) and plus i dont like taking my face off off all the time so it is draining my battery!!

Did your stereo used to start on and switch off by the ignition?
Mine used to until I used an ISO connector which made it as your is now.

I've personally gotten used to taking the face off and back on... in London crackheads nick anything... EVEN a stock stereo.

Is your brown/red wire the only wire you have thats not connected to anything?
I have no idea why, but originally there are 2 yellow wires, connected via a double bullet connect as in your first post. But in my new ISO connector, there are 2 yellow wires leading TO the car, but FROM the stereo, there is a double bullet connector on the red wire WITH one of the yellow wires connected to that.
Could there be something to do with there being two yellow wires from the car?

the thing is i dont know. however it is a CL model which is not basic, and every polo with the same spec does it. just not mine, i have a brown/red wire and brown/blue wire free. these are both coming from the cars loom unmodified or cut into, so one of these should b it. i dont have two yellow wires, my power connection is as follows:

i red wire coming from cars loom. this is connected to a doubler bullet connector, and the doubler connector has both the red and yellow wire from the stereos connector iso or whatever its called.

the yellow from stereos iso should stay with the red continuous power car wire as vws is vice versa. and the red wire from stereos iso should go to cars yellow or brown/red wire. I dont have a yellow in the cars loom but i do have a brown/red wire twisted with a brown/blue wire. I assume the brown/blue wire is the illumination power wire. So shouldnt the brown/red wire be ignition 1??. i tried connecting the stereos red wire to the brown/red cars wire but the hunit didnt power up at all?? any other ideas?? could it b the headunit itself? i have a sony cdx-c5850r???

Im in London as well but im lazy to take it out and carry it wid me eventhough my windows been broken into!!