headunit wiring experts look here please

[acf8181]

and here was me thinking it would be easy to do this!

ok...car came with a sony aftermarket headunit. the fader was working back to front, so the rear spund was going to the front speakers.

was gonna simply put my kenwood mask in, however....although the actual unit fits fine i can't clip the trim on due to the mr2 dash trim.

so i thought i'd try and sort out the wiring for the sony so the fader works properly...the unit only has one pair of preouts, so the person who installed it has used a speaker-output-to-preout adapter to take a tap off the sony speaker outputs. so there is then basically a pair of preouts, these then connects to the o.e. car wiring using another adapter. (confused...cause i am!)

problem is i am not getting any sound out the front left components...i hadn't noticed, but before i hadn't been getting any out the left rear speaker and sub.

can someone explain, a)how the system is wired (i've looked at the diagram in the know your 2 section on mr2oc and i can't read it as the quality goes poor when you zoom in on it, and b) why the left front speaker isn't working?

i'm starting to tear my hair out over this...i've installed many a car stereo before, but this is all weird!

oh, its a late '92 rev2 mk2 with active system by the way

[acf8181]

ok, i've thrown in the kenny as the sony sounds, wel, cr*p in comparison!

all the speakers are working now, so most likely something weird on the sony's loom.

only prob i have now is how to fit the surround to the kenwood face plate, any ideas? i have one of those toyota blanking plates below the unit the by the way.

[JohnA]

I had the same problem, ended up using double sided tape!

[dabcabc]

mine had a bit of space underneath so it could clip in, but i ended up snapping off the top clips and using a bit of tape to make the surround stick in. i've got one of the din pockets in the bottom slot.

as far as the wiring goes, mine's pretty similar, i have a sony mp3 headunit with only a pair of pre-outs. these are connected directly to the autoleads wiring connector's front speakers, with the rear outputs coming from the speaker outputs on the stereo through a line level converter i picked up from halfords. i did have to put some crimps onto the line level converter as one end was a pair of rca female, and t'other 4 wires. the crimps slotted straight into the pins on the connector from the sony headunit so all is good. Couple of points tho, there is a large difference in volume so the fader has to be set quite far to the rear to lower the rear speakers (mine is also back-to-front).

I found that when it was plugged in correctly, i.e. front output to front speakers, rear output to rear speakers, i got a horrible *loud* squealing noise whenever the ignition was on, which i presume is related to the power steering pump, that i've seen mentioned many a time on here. Switching the outputs around seemed to solve it, no idea why but i'm not one to tempt fate so it's good as it is.

Also i found that since the subs under the seat are connected to the rear outputs, changing the fade slightly is a good way to turn the bass up or down

[acf8181]

prob is by wiring it like that the sound is different (as the headunit send different frequencies to front and rear)...which is why i didn't want to do it that way. i also got the weird sounds when connecting the fronts off the speaker level outputs.

anyways, have the kenny in now, and its a huge improvement (never ever been impressed with sony tbh)....gonna try modifying the mounting brackets so the unit sticks out more, then hopefully i can get the surround on.

[Jonty]

gonna try modifying the mounting brackets so the unit sticks out more, then hopefully i can get the surround on.

If you're lucky (and very careful) you might be able to drill another set of holes in the side of your head-unit, so that it'll sit forward like you want. Alternatively, drill the holes slighty further forward so that it can sit further back.

Kenwoods is my biggest gripe when it comes to MR2s. I had no 'Toyota' panel when I got my '2 so picked up one of those fitting kits from Halfords. That didn't allow my Kenwoods to sit right either so had to shave off an even amount of plastic all round and I got there in the end.

http://www.sopertek.co.uk/mr2/mods/ice/ ... 1incar.jpg

Jonts.

[Paul F]

Hi, I had the same problem with my Kenwood hu if you ring the company on this web page http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/su ... en=2&M2=29 and ask them for a surround that’s flush with the unit they should be able to get you one off a American head unit. If you can wait until Monday I have the part number at work and you can order it that way. I think it was about £10 including VAT and delivery.

HTH

Paul

[Ian Geary]

My old pioneer stereo is the same- it's flared, not flush with the unit.

I carefully unclipped it from the head unit itself, bolted the box in, then reattached it after the centre trim was back in. A bit scarey as you can see right into the electronics and cD player.

To make the unit stand out from the brackets I put a few washers in when I screwed it back in.

New pioneer ones are better now though - they are flush with the DIN slot.

hth

Ian