BX Radio Wires

All aspects of tuning,modification and repairs to the BX 16valve.
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scrappydoo
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:37 pm
Location: Midlands

BX Radio Wires

Post by scrappydoo »

Looking to wire a CD player into an '87 BX but unfortunately someone has got there first and has "butchered" the current radio wiring meaning the adapter I've got will not fit straight in. If someone can just guide me as to what colour does what it would be much appreciated.

Cheers in advance! :wink:
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Simran
4000 rpm
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Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2006 12:30 am
Location: leicester

Post by Simran »

i dont know them by colour but the speaker wires should be in coloured pairs from what i remember. For example a pair of green wires will be for one speaker, pair of purple for another,pair of grey etc. The - and + are identified by a differnt coloured line/dash on one wire, it can be hard tospot because i think they're spaced quite far apart or only on the terminated end of the wire. That should give you 8 wires for the speakers. You'll be left with 3 power wires, if you have a multimeter you can work out which two are the permanent - and + with the ignition off. The one thats left will be your switched + from the ignition. I found mine didnt have one as it was designed for a radio cassette with a clicky knob to turn it on so there was no switched live. If thats the case, look on your fuse board and right in the middle of it will be two blank single (female) spade terminals. One of them is a switched positive which im guessing was left blank for factory upgrade stereos/alarms etc. Run a wire from that to the back of your stereo and you're sorted.
I would sort the power wires first, turn the stereo on and set the fader and balance in sequence from front left, to front right, then rear left, rear right, this will allow you to identify which set of wires on the back of your new stereo does which corner, then just test it against the speaker wire pairs sticking out the dashboard, when it matches to the one it is meant to be, wire it in

Job done!
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Simran
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Location: leicester

Post by Simran »

Another note, your new stereo may have other fancy features which means it will have more wires than the car has. Black is -, the thick solid coloured red and yellow are the + and switched +, the speaker wires are again in coloured pairs with probably a white stripe on one indicating -. Anything that is left you can ignore, they are normally remote sub switches, electric aerial controls and handsfree mute wires.
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RobC
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Location: East London

Post by RobC »

Yup Simran's right: AFAIK no BXs had a switched 12v feed to the stereo. Also if you're a perfectionist be sure to wire the polarity of the speaker wires correctly.

The wiring diagram in Haynes is actually quite useful for stereo wiring, which makes a change.
scrappydoo
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:37 pm
Location: Midlands

Post by scrappydoo »

Thanks for all your help guys. Fitted the Kenwood CD this morning and removed the "twirly knobbed" (sounds painful I know) Blaupunkt that I believe was the original Stereo for the car from new judging by the handbook that came with it!

It had the wiring for the front speakers (which are the only ones it has) so couldn't use extra two connectors that came with the adapter, and the wiring was as follows and is off an '87 GTI with just the front door speakers:

A Large Grey and a Large Yellow wires together and were used in the old stereo. Grey is permanent 12v and yellow is earth.

Smaller Red which is also permanent live, a small green which is ignition switch live and a small yellow which I've not been able to establish what it's for.


CD working well which means I've finally been able to stop having to listen to crackly Radio 2! :wink:

Next job is to sort the running issue out and find a replacement Air flow meter! :wink:
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