Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

I have just bought myself a new car... L reg fiesta (not great i know, but in better condition than my banged up old metro!)

I am trying to swap the stereo into the new car, it is a Sony MD player. Problems is i can't get any power to the unit. The block from the car has been cut off so i have to bind the wires into the block from the unit instead.

The unit requires a 12v supply and i have verified with a mutimeter that this is available and carried properly to the unit, but i can't get any power. :cry: The car is negative earthed so it is a +12v supply, but still not getting anything. The unit is definately working fine unless it has died in the 10minutes of being between cars.

Can anyone offer any advice because i want my stereo back :( If not can anyone give me an idea of cost of having it done professionally? or anyone in the swansea area that can do it??

MB :monkey:

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Have you got 12V+ going to both the power lead and the ignition lead on the new stereo?

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Thats the red and the yellow cable or the thick red and thinner red cables. Have you got the ignition turned on?

And the black is connected? That needs doing too. Wire them up, you should see the head unit light up. You're off to a good start at that point.

Uplands Car Radio - Swansea. I seem to remember they had cars on the Sound Off circuits in the '90s. If thats the case they are certainly technincally competent.

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Also double check the fuse on the stereo just in case it's blown

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

just to reiterate , you will most likely need switched and permanent live feeds to it :) , the fuse idea is a good one also :)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

thanks for the replies

the fuse on the stereo is fine, as is the one in the car. There seem to be three cables available from the car (excluding speakers)

red, 12v (assuming this is iginition) and brown (assuming neutral) and a 1.5v supply as well (yellow)

I have wired the red cable from the stereo (labelled ign +12v) and the black cable in, but can't see anything else that i can connect. I have checked the power, with the ignition off i am getting 0v, but on position I and II i am getting 12v as i should be.

still :confused:

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

can you try the unit in another car ????????? , at least that would confirm it aint dead :disturbd:

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

So what colours come out the back of the stereo?
Only black and red?

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

well it was working in my metro when i took it out about 10 minutes beofre i tried to put it into the fiesta!!

there was a cassette player in the fiesta, but this was running on the 1.5v supply not the 12v and wasn't ignition controlled... don't know if this sheds any light on it for you....

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Still its worth switching back to make sure it hasnt died?

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

sorry for asking , but are you sure it was running on the 1.5v feed , seems weird to me somehow :confused:

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

have you tested the yellow to be 1.5V?

PS once you've got it all working make notes, go down to Halfords and get one of their multi contact clip connector things so it's much easier the next time you change cars! :)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

from the back of the stereo i have:

8 speaker cables (+ and - for 4 speakers)
+12v ignition (red)
Earth (black)
+12v memory (yellow)
antenna/remote (blue)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Have you connected up the 12V yellow to the yellow in your car?

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

:LOL: i did do this to start with... but soon realised that mistake ;)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

how about going direct to the battery as it seems you know which wires to connect where and rule out the cars wiring loom :)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

i haven't because i figured the stereo needed 12v and the 1.5v yellow supply from the car wouldn't be enough... but i am going to go try it now... back in a bit with an update ;)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

The 1.5v yellow (if it is 1.5v) is probably a lighting feed, controlable by the dashboard dimmer connection, on the right stereo it will adjust the illumination when you adjust the dashboard illumination.

If you really only have one 12v feed it will need splitting into the switched and permanent (memory) feeds on the radio to make it work.

But we can find a 12v feed. It just needs to go to two places.

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

have now tried connecting the 12v yellow on the stereo to the 1.5v in the car, but still appears to be dead as a dodo :cry:

I have also refitted into the metro and it is working in there. I think paying halfords £35 to sort it is becoming a distinct possibility!

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

that was what i was thinking :tu: :)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

If some previous owner has hacked out the ISO blocks then it will cost more than £35 at Halfords.

Connect the Red and Yellow from the Sony to the Red in the Car.

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

go direct to the battery :)

run some cables direct from it to the unit ;)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

I am not a electronics expert (as you can tell!!) but isn't there quite a high risk that this will short out the radio or car circuit?

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

run direct from the battery ;)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

No there is not - it is quite a common approach, the only problem is the radio will keep working when you turn the car off. Common form of wiring for competition audio so that it can be listend to with the engine off.

Only problem is if you leave the car with the radio on, but if your radio is face off then this can't happen either.

This is no different to putting a socket doubler in the wall socket in your house.

In my youth, I've wired up Kw audio systems in cars ran 4AWG cable from batteries, fitted stiffening caps (ooher), 4th order Isobaric Subs, so I'm pretty confident about this stuff.

That said modern cars give me the heebejeebies (trust me yours is not a modern car), My Saab has 6 airbags, the detonators, sensors etc to avoid and with all the wiring that already exists getting other cables in is a nightmare. In fact the current one still has the OEM in place. 18 months after buying it I still have these babies in the spare room waiting to be fitted. Mainly because there is a real baby (well toddler) in the house which takes up more time than you ever imagine (in a good way).

http://www.focal.tm.fr/gb/car/k2power/165k2p.htm It pains me to think that such expensive speakers are sitting their unused :bigcry:

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Yeah, connect the red and yellow from the radio to the 12V+
One of them should be the power feed circuit, the other should be the power switch circuit and both will need 12V+

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

WOO HOO!!!! :clap: :D

I have power to the radio now! :D thanks to everyone for the help! Having a slight problem with the speakers atm, but that is quite easily resolved. Also i am getting new speakers and a cd changer sometime in the next week so can deal with that then!

Thanks again people! reps all round ;)

MB

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

thank god for that :D :D :D :D :D

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

Excellent. It is probably worth you getting the ISO blocks and rewiring them once you know what cables go where. Will make life easier in the future.

Thanks guys between you my rep point count just went up by 35 points!

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

That was my plan! I am just looking on ebay at the moment for them...

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

buy them from halfords, they aren't expensive

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

I'll 2nd that - Thing to watch with some Sony's is they came out of VW's and they switch a couple of the 12v feeds around so that constant power and ignition power is wrong...Ever wonder why you need to tune the radio every time?

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

My Sony came out of a box brand new ;)

Anyone got a recommendations for some fairly standard shelf mountable speakers? I would like sony ones, and have looked on their site but don't know much about them! i just want some standard ones, not like big subs and amp job, nor super expensive ones!!

I am looking at these will they run just from the stereo? if not, can someone point me in the direction of some sony ones that don't please :)

Re: Fitting Sony Stereo in Ford Fiesta
 

It's a manufacturer thing, not a Sony thing. VAG (VW, Audi, Seat etc) and GM (Vauxhall, Saab, etc) wire the continuous and switched the other way around to the rest of the market (don't ask). So a VAG OEM Sony will be wired backwards so the fitter just has to plug it in. Many radios now come with in line bullet connectors to switch these.

Why Sony? Whats your budget? Remember you should allocate a similar sum to the speakers as to the head unit. Infinity make good speakers, so do KefKar amongst others. They are something you need to listen too before buying though. Best find a good local audio dealer or visit halfords as a start.