Re: 5kt stereo install

[ti@amb.org (Ti Kan)]

DGraber460@aol.com writes:
> I'm using the Audi harness at the dash opening. The speaker wires are all 
> hooked up as the original radio was, crimped to the Kenwood wires 1 at a time 
> (all 8 + & - leads).
> On the car harness, Brown is ground, Red is power, Gray with Blue (unsure), 
> and Yellow for power antenna.
> Kenwood uses, Red switched power, Yellow maintenance power, Black ground, 
> Blue power antenna.
> The local Kenwood distributor was puzzled and thought it sounded like a 
> ground problem, which I have checked.

Does your Kenwood deck have more than about 5W/channel output power?
If so it most definitely has a "bridged" amplifier output section where
the + and - speaker output leads are both "active" outputs.  These amps
don't take kindly to having the - lead actually connected to "ground"
(or. in the case of your Audi's wiring, effectively shorting the - leads
of the two channels to each other).  This probably triggered the overload
protection circuit in the amplifier and caused it to shut down, that's
why you're not hearing any sound.

You should run your own speaker wire pairs to each speaker with
these head units.  Common problem.

> The Gray (car harness) with blue that I am unsure of, has continuity to 
> ground, and turns on the dash lights and warning dinger when powered to 12 V 
> (really puzzling).

That line is a signal to the radio for dimming the radio display when
the headlights/parking lights are turned on.  It connects to the
"instrument light booster" control unit.

Also, the factory radio on your car (which I assume to be the original
"Rothenburg" unit), if not turned off when the door is opened, will
sound the warning chime.  This is done via the antenna power lead
which also is wired to the warning chime unit.  For radios that only
raise the power antenna when using AM/FM only (the antenna goes down
when playing the tape or CD), then this feature will only work when
in AM/FM mode.

-Ti
96 A4 2.8 quattro
84 5000S 2.1 turbo
80 4000 2.0
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    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
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