Radio Wiring

[Ste Kelly]

Recently bought myself an 05 Cabrio. It had an aftermarket Sony radio that I want to switch for a Pioneer bluetooth one. When I pulled out the Sony the wiring wasnt in good order to say the least. Everything was shoddlily in to various sizes of block connector , and not done well. The front left speakers sounded like they were at the end of a very long hall, really low and echoey. The fronts only worked some of the time from what I can tell. Most of the time it sounded like I only had rears. The original connectors were cut off at some point and theres an adapter in there. Seems like a PCB of sorts, covered in foam.

I set about changing the blocks for spades so it was neater.

 

Theres a seperate heavy blue wire coming from in the back somewhere which i  assume is a switched live to make up for lack of one on the original audi loom? I couldnt find my multimeter in the van, ill have to dig it out.  This wire was connected to the aerial power and in  to  the yellow on the sony radio (red and yellow were switched). I did try swapping in the pioneer radio before I touched anything and got no response. 

 

Theres a thick blue with a white stripe that has a bare end thats coming out of the adapter pcb yoke  that Im not sure was connected to anything and there are 2 very thin rangy ones that are on the original audi loom that werent connected before I started (and still arent 🙂 )

 

Am I best off starting from scratch (with the help of your good selves hopefully) and getting some form of new adaptor?

 

 

Appreciate any help

 

Ste

 

 

[Magnet]

Hello Stephen,

I'm worried - but I tend to do that!

This response is not meant to be critical, but just as I see it, and quite understandably, others may have a more moderate viewpoint. But if this is now tidier than it was, then I would not be going too far in this car without a fire extinguisher! Bare male/female spade connectors, dangling wire-exposed cables, unknown junction covered with some foam (insulation?). Oh dear!   

If this were mine, I would be attempting to the find a connection plug which plugged into the original radio ( from a scrapped car) and ideally getting someone to connect this back to the original harness wires, so that the wiring is returned to its (safe) original form. Personally, I would be soldering the connections to this replaced plug and insulating the soldered joints with shrink sleeving.

Once the set up is returned to its original safe form, you should be able to buy the correct Pioneer converting plug to convert the original to your new set. It seems the previous owner was too mean to invest in one of these converter plugs, or may have been on a bonus handout with the local fire brigade!

Kind regards,

Gareth.        

[Ste Kelly]

Cheers. Yeah, its a mess. The idea was to insulate the spades once it was working . The block connectors were much worse. Half the cables werent even secured properly.

 

Are all the original radio wring looms the same? So once I chop them off any b6 , or even a similar year one, I should be good? 

 

 

EDIT, this for instance? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-S4-A4-CABRIOLET-B6-4-2-SYMPHONY-2-RADIO-WIRE-HARNESS-CONNECTOR/131732180213?hash=item1eabd98cf5:g:rNYAAOSwQYZWx2Qg&frcectupt=true

 

Or this? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-A4-B6-B7-CONCERT-RADIO-WIRING-LOOM-HARNESS-REPAIR-CONNECTOR-PLUG-SOCKET/323703990672?epid=20029854909&hash=item4b5e42e990:g:94kAAOSw-9hcbrVY&frcectupt=true

 

Should I have 2 plugs or 3 like the 2nd one?

[Magnet]

Hello Stephen,

It seems replies on this are rather slow, and in order to suggest some sort of route to progress, the answer to you question of what the original plug set up would have been obviously lies with what sound system was originally fitted - Concert etc? 

The build record for the car should tell you this, and I believe there are some on-line enquiry searches where the VIN can be inputted and the build record accessed. An alternative would be to go along in the car, to your local main dealer ( equipped with the V5 as prof of ownership) and see if they can access the build record for you. It may cost a little, but.... 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Ste Kelly]

Cheers. Mine has a single din (assuming no one converted from double to single. But I doubt it) so would the only option be a concert? I assume Bose systems have Bose speaker grilles and the like? Mine doesn't have that. 

I'll have a look for a vin decoder and see can I find out for sure .

[Ste Kelly]

I registered it on the myaudi app and it shows as having the concert radio alright.

[Ste Kelly]

So I got myself some original plugs with cabling attached, apparently from a car that had a concert head unit, off eBay. 

 

Still having issues in that I seem to have a couple of extra cables on the 3rd loom on my car than the plug has. And the brown plug doesn't match, colour or size of cable wise, to the ones on the car.

 

Black plug in the pic with the brown and black together was intact on the car, so that's the way it was from factory.brown plug that's beside it is the one I got from eBay. The yellow and white on their own are what's extra once I matched up the cables on the bigger orange plug I got from eBay

 

The one with the 4 cables on the car is what I've left to match to the brown Ebay plug