Which wiring harness do I need for my car

H

Hum3ah

New Member
Hello everyone,

I'm trying to install an aftermarket single din head unit with a standard 16 pin interface, the previous head unit installed in this car was a Kenwood one. I'm just very confused on what wiring harness/loom I will need. I have attached pictures of the current connection with the Kenwood head unit. Any links to the required wiring harness would be helpful.

Thanks.

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What is the existing head unit? Can you pull any more of the wiring out to see whats been done to the body harness? Its either got a conversion harness to connect the head unit or its a chop job (much like my own mess)
 
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Looks like a "chop job" as I can see wires poked into the original socket, for line outs and switched 12 volts out of the radio, to the rear, (think yours is non Bose), amp.
Did/does the existing Kenwood work?
Mac.
 
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Hello everyone,

thanks for your responses, I have attached images of what the connections at the back look like below, I believe it is a "chop job". Not sure how I can get it all sorted, @PlasticMac the Kenwood head unit works fine, it's just the bluetooth has a delay when playing music and the microphone doesn't work for calls.

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Looks like a proprietary Kenwood conversion harness to me, brown and green plugs into the large black, other black to red.
Not a chop job.
Decent looking head unit for a 70's or early 80's car
 
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VAG fool said:
Looks like a proprietary Kenwood conversion harness to me, brown and green plugs into the large black, other black to red.
Not a chop job.
Decent looking head unit for a 70's or early 80's car
Click to expand...
Haha, exactly my point. Have no idea why the previous owner installed it. I'm guessing the wiring harness mentioned by @Kleynie is the one.
 
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I cannot understand how the rear speakers are working, unless the amps have been removed from the rear speakers.
the rear amps should be driven via ‘line out’ RCA plugs and I don’t see any RCA plugs there at all. Do you have a wiring diagram for the Kenwood?
 
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Kleynie said:
I cannot understand how the rear speakers are working, unless the amps have been removed from the rear speakers.
the rear amps should be driven via ‘line out’ RCA plugs and I don’t see any RCA plugs there at all. Do you have a wiring diagram for the Kenwood?
Click to expand...
I have no clue, I'll see if I can find a wiring diagram. The setup is pretty unusual.
 
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Kleynie said:
I'm guessing the rears didnt work before as they are not connected to the RCA outputs?

Ian
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I think they (the rear line outs) are connected, that's why there are wires from the HU pushed into the appropriate pins in the red connector. They look to me to be the rear line outs, and switched 12 volts out of the HU, to kick the rear amp out of standby. Better to buy the iso shell and pins to do the job properly though.
Did this on my Mk1 TT last week, exactly the same wiring .
It's a 20 pin, female, mini iso. Ebay £5.95, Radio World.
Mac.
 
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PlasticMac said:
I think they (the rear line outs) are connected, that's why there are wires from the HU pushed into the appropriate pins in the red connector. They look to me to be the rear line outs, and switched 12 volts out of the HU, to kick the rear amp out of standby. Better to buy the iso shell and pins to do the job properly though.
Did this on my Mk1 TT last week, exactly the same wiring .
It's a 20 pin, female, mini iso. Ebay £5.95, Radio World.
Mac.
Click to expand...
Yes, same observation as me except the rears appear to be connected to the speaker outputs on the kenwood loom, so feeding high output to the amps, which shouldn’t work.
You can see the RCA line output sockets on the back of the kenwood in the very first picture and no RCA plugs are present.
But, the loom I linked earlier should sort the problem out as long as the rear amps have not been removed.
 
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Kleynie said:
Yes, same observation as me except the rears appear to be connected to the speaker outputs on the kenwood loom, so feeding high output to the amps, which shouldn’t work.
You can see the RCA line output sockets on the back of the kenwood in the very first picture and no RCA plugs are present.
But, the loom I linked earlier should sort the problem out as long as the rear amps have not been removed.
Click to expand...
Maybe there's one of those gizmos that convert speaker outs to line outs fitted somewhere, maybe near the amp? Worth checking before connecting the genuine line outs. I'm thinking that if the old Kenwood worked, including the rear speakers, the amp must have phono level (2.5 v) connected.
Strongly suggest a careful look at the amp connectors, to see if anything non standard is lurking there.
Mac.
 
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