[V6-12v] any caveats about replacing radio

[Tom Christiansen]

At 12:07 PM 4/18/2005, Steve Kramer wrote:
>I have a 1995 cabriolet that I am replacing the radio with a panasonic cd 
>player.   According to Circuit City all that is needed is a wiring harness 
>kit.  My question is that my Audi v8 had an aftermaket radio installed and 
>the store bypasses the the starter because the starter was looking to the 
>radio for a code.  Would the same thing apply here.
>
>Also does the wiring harness take into account the passive front speakers 
>and the active rear speakers.

Steve,

I don't know about that starter code thing you mention. Here's my story:

When I bought my 1994 90S, it had the factory radio in it, but the radio 
was dead (and had change rattling inside...) So I installed a Kenwood radio 
with CD player in there instead. The factory radio has two antennas and the 
aftermarket only one RF input. I forget which one of the antennas I used, 
but I think I tried both and concluded that it didn't really matter... In 
any case, trial and error works fine for finding the proper antenna.
Power and front speakers are trivial. The challenge is to make the rear 
speakers work properly. My Kenwood has a preamp out (line out). I soldered 
up a wiring harness with two RCA connectors and a couple of properly 
trimmed spade connectors (aka quick disconnect connectors). The pinout of 
the audi connector is indicated on the factory radio and it's pretty 
straight forward to plug the spades into the proper terminals.

This solution is not exactly optimal for a number of reasons. 1) The signal 
level on the line out is a bit low so there's almost no sound in the rear 
speakers with the default settings on the radio. This is pretty easy to fix 
by cranking the volume up and fiddling with the front/rear fader on the 
radio. But not an optimal solution... 2) I forget if the audi harness 
didn't have a pin for a dimmer or if the Kenwood didn't support it. In any 
case, the display on my radio runs at full blast even when I turn on the 
lights. This is a bit on the annoying side for driving on the country side. 
Something I'd like to fix...

But I have sound and CD player. I'm happy...

Tom