I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Stereo head unit wiring.
Hi, I have a 2006 NC which was imported to the EU from Japan sometime around 2008 or 09. The previous owner of this car never used the stereo or fiddled with it so I’m unsure of what has happened or what they were trying to attempt.
I recieved this car last Summer and found that the right speaker was really weak. The left one sounds fine, and it seems as though the right one might have been broken. The head unit was upgraded to a now very old Sony which had bluetooth. The speakers were also replaced, to Sony ones. They’re both very outdated and in poor condition. I replaced the head unit and the speakers and nothing changed.
The only thing I noticed was that the wiring loom behind the head unit looks like someone, perhaps while smoking crack, wired it up. There are loads of disconnected wires and the steering wheel controls also don’t work. I’ve messed around trying to figure out if maybe if it’s a ground issue but I’ve accomplished nothing.
I know this is a long shot, but can anyone take a look at this and see perhaps what they were trying to accomplish? For reference this is a non-bose model.
Any help would be really appreciated, and thank you in advance!
The bottom picture of the two connectors, the white one would plug straight into the original factory head unit. The only other connection that should be there (I’ve spotted) will be the aerial one. Apart from those you would have the heater controls connector present.
Now I can’t work out where those other cables are going to and what the other orange/brown looking connection is. The bottom picture again shows an orange connector, this should plug into that white connection (the loom) then the mess of cut wires should terminate into this below to the aftermarket head unit or it’s supplied loom.
Having looked again I see the black connector hidden above, that other connection is part of that loom I posted above. Looks like the last owner has been busy making up their own configuration, for what?
Robbie has an idea, I’m unsure.
I wonder if the car has an amp fitted - or if this is a poorly done bose ectomy
Looks like the PO has tried to bypass the car loom and either feed speakers direct OR feed an aftermarket amp.
Here is the wiring diagram for a 2006 Bose equipped car - perhaps you can check the car loom wire colours to see if they match the loom.
@CBRDEANO Thanks so much, I do appreciate it and really wish I was able to but I’m in Amsterdam. I’ll take another look tomorrow and report back. I just bought a new multimeter too. Thanks guys and wish me luck.
@MickAP Thanks, I’ll report back when I get a moment tomorrow and I can dig a bit further. One more question though, am I able to basically just rip a bunch of this stuff out and start new? There are so many wires going everywhere that I’m beginning to think it’s a lost cause trying to sort it out and maybe I should just order a new loom.
If you can bring all the wiring fully into view and take a picture plus what the wiring looks like at the rear of your current head unit.
Probably the best option would be to start again TBH but it does look like someone has spliced into the loom, so that needs looking at and made good.
If you have no steering wheel controls but the buttons are on the steering wheel then you’ll need a loom with that extension on it.
I’ve fitted three head units into NC’s Bose and non Bose, they are virtually just plug and play with the standard kit.
The smaller black and brown plugs + the large female brown connector look like they may be connected to a box or something hidden behind your glove box. ( perhaps a parrot hands free system as already mentioned )
@CBRDEANO Finally got a moment today to take additional photos. Indeed it’s totally a lost cause and I’ll just need to replace the whole wiring loom. The speakers are wired really weirdly so I’ll need to fix that somehow and wire them back into the original (white) part, although I’m not really sure how to do that. I guess I’ll need to cross that bridge when I get to it.
It looks like the cars loom terminated to the white plug is untouched so this is a starting point. Wherever the rest of the wiring disappears to needs careful removal and start again. Let’s hope the wiring to the speakers hasn’t been modified in an attempt to get them working properly. That could be an answer to the mess of splicing into that added loom, where do those wires disappear to?
The old saying rip it out and start again.
