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So I made some little pieces of wire with a female phono at one end and spade connertors (for the ISO box) on the other. When all fitted the head unit works perfectly but no sound at all comes out. Tried shouting/screaming at it.....nothing.(i know sounds daft but mine wudnt work without it!) and i'm sure i had to cut and join in another wire somethin to do with the remote out...... have you turned up the volume are you playing a CD (if CD headunit) rather than trying to listen to radio. - ensures you have sound to play check that the system is set to default fader and balance All of the speaker wires go through 1 of the 2 ISO connectors. The speaker wires are pairs of wires one being a solid colour and the other the same colour with a balck stripe the whole length of it. You should have the same coming out of your headunit though the colours themselves do not have to match. It should be a matter of following the wires. Once they're all connected, you can play with the balance and fader to ensure the spearkers are connected in the right order."think" the remote wire is blue mate, on mine there was nowt till i connected this a different way.. and where did you get your ISO Connector? I have got a blue wire spare, with a bullet connector on it, but I can't see anywhere it could connect?(mp3 cd player £50!) so there is the chance that it is knackered (that's the next test!). ..... 
Thing is I can't remeber the colour of the ariel wire 
Local ICE should know or someone on here...... or are we talking another ariel wire ... ie ... remote ariel up thingy ... that is usually blue or blue with a white stripe.... there's usually 4 pairs of colours .. one solid .. and one with a stripe(12v)... usually igition switched ... almost always red .. with an in-line fuse(12v permanent) usually yellow .. again with an in-line fuse.. aways a stiff black cable.. usually blue or blue and white ... to be honest.. both the arial and amp wire do the same thing more or less.... or orange wire spare .. often used for controlling the dimming of the stereo when you turn your lights on... have I missed any?.. this is all from memory .. not fitted one for a few weeks now - just get yourself a muti-meter .. can't go wrong!remote amp turn on lead
In short, front speaker wires are always in pairs (white/white with stripe and grey/grey with stripe), rear speakers (green/green and stipre and purple/purple and stripe), amp/aerial remotrew power is blue (can be blue with white stripe), dimmer is usually brown or orange. When you come to the original wiring however, this is something that even the Sphinx couldn't know. (with low volume so as not to blow them). If you get a sound then, then you need an amp. If your new unit has amplified outputs then you can get adapters to reduce the signal to a level suitable for the amps. I tried that and found it was sh*te and a waste of money. Better to run in some new wires either to each of the speakers or just to where the existing speaker wires connect to the amp and then connect them there (much easier, and you will retain the existing sub-woofer). I found that the sound was much much better than the old setup (old radio and amp = pants) and the previously un-noticed sub came to life. See this:(best drop me an e-mail - see profile). I've been really busy (lazy) but am going to give it another go soon. Ashy, you could well be getting an email soon. Im assuming your car has the active speakers with the 2 small amps? In which case the fact that you said you got a cheap headunit from aldi makes me think that it doesnt have any non-amplified pre-outs coming from the back? In which case i thought that it wont work properly with the speaker system? I bought a sony cdxf7500 mp3 jobbie with lots of preouts on the back and that works very nicely - got to say i think the quality and sound of the unit is excellent. I also had to swap a couple of the wires over on the harness, but cant remember which Blue one sounds familiar though... Not sure, mines a UK car, late 94 L (rev 3?). Where are the amps hidden? The stereo has 2 pre amp outs on it that I might try next. (someones else like to comment on this?). Either way you'll need one of these leads:- im not an auto electrics expert!! - I needed the top lead. What i suggest is what i did: just take it to a car audio place and show them the adapter that is present in the car and explain you're not sure whether the speakers are active or not and show them the stereo and see what lead they come up with, maybe even get them to try it and see if you get signal through? Hope that helps! I spliced the blue remote wire into it's opposite number and bought 2 'Y' connector leads to change 1 set of pre outs into 2. Had to pull a bit off the head unit cover so it'd sit in the existing hole. Just for info, I think the stereo is earthed via the ariel. There was no power at all until it was plugged in.
