Radio Wiring help

[Nola Mike]

just drove the new s home from south carolina a few nights ago. i have the bose "premium" sound package and a sony aftermarket head unit with xm changer built in. a couple of questions while waiting for delivery of my bentley:

1. the "bus in" input of the unit is occupied--does anyone know if this is for an xm control box of some sort? i'd like to plug my mp3 player into that slot...

2. i got no AM reception, and fairly crappy FM reception. prior experience has told me that this is from a blown/not powered antenna amp. does this car have an amp?

3. there's a lonely, unconnected blue/brown wire from the car--anyone know what this is? illumination control, antenna amp power lead maybe?

basically, if anyone has a wiring diagram that they'd be willing to scan, that would help me out immensely.

thanks!

[Loren]

Welcome

It would be very helpful to know the model year of your car?

It would also help to us the model number on the front of your radio.

Under your front hood is a sticker with some codes on it - these are option codes. You need to write those down and check them with our option lists here to see what options are on the car.

[Nola Mike]

sorry, i thought i had a sig enabled with the car model. 2002 Boxster S. Only options are sport touring package and bose premium sound and arctic silver paint. the head unit is a sony cdx-r5515x. thanks for the help.

[Loren]

All the factory radios are Becker so someone that knows your after market radio will have to help out.

Was the amp changed with the after market head? The BOSE system could have come with either the Harmon amp or the BOSE amp.

The amp is in the front trunk - you will need to find the label and see what it is.

[Chris_in_NH]

sorry, i thought i had a sig enabled with the car model. 2002 Boxster S. Only options are sport touring package and bose premium sound and arctic silver paint. the head unit is a sony cdx-r5515x. thanks for the help.

do you have the original radio? or do you have the yellow wiring harness plugs (ISO connectors) that plug into the back of the original radio?

do you have the manual for the Sony head unit? if not, you can probably download one from the Sony site. then you can look at the back of the radio and figure out which wires are connected to what. while you're in there, i would label all the wires with duct tape (write what they are on the tape - power, ground, etc.), it will make things easy in the future.

is the blue/brown wire a single wire, or is it multiple wires taped together with a 4-slot plug on the end?

[Nola Mike]

do you have the original radio? or do you have the yellow wiring harness plugs (ISO connectors) that plug into the back of the original radio?

do you have the manual for the Sony head unit? if not, you can probably download one from the Sony site. then you can look at the back of the radio and figure out which wires are connected to what. while you're in there, i would label all the wires with duct tape (write what they are on the tape - power, ground, etc.), it will make things easy in the future.

is the blue/brown wire a single wire, or is it multiple wires taped together with a 4-slot plug on the end?

loren, it's a bose amp.

chris, i have the sony manual, but i want to see if it's wired correctly, and for that i need the porsche wiring diagram. your idea doesn' t work if the p.o. wired the unit wrong. as i said, the reception is terrible; i suspect that the porsche antenna needs to be powered, but i don't know which wire it is. the head unit also doesn't dim like it should when the lights are on. again, i need to know if there's a porsche input that could go into the head unit. the blue/brown wire is a single wire with a female spade connector on the end.

thanks,

-m

[Chris_in_NH]

chris, i have the sony manual, but i want to see if it's wired correctly, and for that i need the porsche wiring diagram. your idea doesn' t work if the p.o. wired the unit wrong. as i said, the reception is terrible; i suspect that the porsche antenna needs to be powered, but i don't know which wire it is. the head unit also doesn't dim like it should when the lights are on. again, i need to know if there's a porsche input that could go into the head unit. the blue/brown wire is a single wire with a female spade connector on the end.

ok. i think that blue/brown wire is a wire that connects to the radio cage/chassis. i can't remember its function, but i think it has something to do with the alarm system (telling the car if the radio is present or not or something like that). you won't need to connect it if you have an aftermarket stereo. i'm 99% sure that's what it is.

the Becker radio wiring diagram won't tell you the wire colors, it will just tell you which slots the wires are connected to in the yellow ISO connectors that connect to the Becker head unit. that's why i was asking if you had the radio or the connectors. that way, you if there was some wire left on the connector, you could match that up with where the connector fits into the Becker radio and figure it out from there. you could take the radio out and start all over to make sure that it's wired correctly. if the radio is working now, it is probably wired correctly. it just sounds like your antenna connection is flaky.

are you sure that the antenna is even connected? i replaced my Becker radio with a Nakamichi and a special adapter is needed to connect the Porsche antenna wire to the aftermarket stereo. it may be that the previous owner didn't connect the antenna correctly. if you pull the radio out, the antenna wire will be pretty obvious. check it out, make sure it's in properly and that it mates to the new stereo correctly.

i don't think that the antenna in the car is powered. do you know what model the original radio was? did you get an owner's manual with the car? the radio manual may be in with the owner's manual... mine was. but if you can find out the original radio model number, you can download a manual for it. again, it won't tell you the wire colors, but it will tell you what wires are used in the radio operation, which may answer some of your questions.

i also think that the switched (key turned) 12v wire is the radio illumination wire.

Edited June 25, 2007 by Chris_in_NH

[Cassiebox]

According to the Bentley manual, the antenna is amplified. BN/BU wire would be the alarm contact (per below).

I just sent you a PM as I have a full scanned copy of the radio schematic for an '01 which will help you. Not sure I can post it here directly since it's not my material. ;)

Edited June 26, 2007 by Cassiebox

[Nola Mike]

According to the Bentley manual, the antenna is amplified. BN/BU wire would be the alarm contact (per below).

I just sent you a PM as I have a full scanned copy of the radio schematic for an '01 which will help you. Not sure I can post it here directly since it's not my material. ;)

aha! i knew there was an antenna amp in there somewhere--i bet it's not powered correctly in my car. as for the schematic, i've already ordered a bentley, but it's on backorder for a month--this is just an advance ;)

thanks for the pic--i'm interested to see the rest of it. tel mute? speedometer? hmmm....

[atmorris]

According to the Bentley manual, the antenna is amplified. BN/BU wire would be the alarm contact (per below).

I just sent you a PM as I have a full scanned copy of the radio schematic for an '01 which will help you. Not sure I can post it here directly since it's not my material. ;)

GUYS...be carefull. I just did a HU and amp install, and found the Bently diagrams to be incorrect in a lot of places. I would try to find a wiring diagram elswhere.

The BN/BU wire is indeed the alarm wire. It grounds through the radio chassis. I believe if the radio is ripped out the ground loop is broken and the alarm is triggered.

Edited June 26, 2007 by Andy_M