Swapping Radio in Vauxhall

[ericmark]

Battery went flat and radio stopped working got new radio and fitting kit but find radio does not auto turn off with ignition and when on I lose date display. Is this normal?
If I cut aerial wire i.e. one that should work an electric aerial will that stop date disappearing.

 

[wotan]

There are two live feeds to the radio, one should be connected to a permanent live supply, this is what retains the settings when radio is switched off. The other supply is controlled by by the ignition switch and is only live when ignition switch is in certain positions.


Wotan

 

[timtheenchanter]

did you get the adaptor cable as well in the fitting kit? IIRC there are 2 wires swapped in the vauhall wiring compared with the ISO wiring, the plugs will still fit the radio, but things will be wrong (cant remember if its the switched and perm live swap or not)

 

[ericmark]

Oh I am a silly billy I knew about ignition live and permanent live swap so before sliding home tried both options. But I forgot that the ignition live to radio only turns off when you remove key. So that bit is OK.

Still think I need to get behind radio and snip electric aerial wire. As soon as radio is turned on I lose the bottom line on vehicles display where with original radio it would have shown station.

The only way I think the system would know I have switched on radio is the electric aerial supply? However it is a real pain to remove so thought I would ask before pulling it out again.

 

[ericmark]

I was able to get to cables without removing radio and the blue wire marked up as electric aerial if removed does allow one to retain date on Vauxhall display.

 

[Mickymoody]

But you still got your permenent 12V, and ign on, crossed, the auto aerial has nothing to do with it..You are taking your feed from the wrong source?

Vaux used random colours for their radio setup, ie black for live????

Yes it works, but you are connected possibly to higher current fuses than expected, so if the radio has a fault, it may cause a fire?

 

[ericmark]

The permanent live and ignition live are the right way around only my testing was wrong I forgot the auxiliaries do not turn off until the key is removed.

Now electric aerial wire is removed I get full display.

I have lost auto update of the clock.

I have gained:-

Hands free mobile use. (Blue tooth)
Playing music with radio from phone (Blue tooth)
Playing MP3 CD's
Playing SD MP3 music
Boosting output of my ham radio's audio with 3.5mm jack
Extra pocket for bits.

Cost £50 for radio Aldi and £12 for fitting kit minus the £21 wanted by Vauxhall to re-issue code so £41 in all. To me great value for money. Only point was why didn't I do it a long time ago as phone calls while driving are real pain.

I suppose technically still braking the law as the telephone is not fixed. Don't know if any one has been done using a hands free non fixed mobile?

The remote used to control the radio seems a little gimmick as although to use mobile to dial out one needs the remote to have numbers I would not make a call when driving. And you can use the mobiles key board just as easy.

I do take your point on wire colours it seems the old Lucas colour code has gone and idea of blue for head lights, Green for ignition circuits etc has all gone.

Even the number system seems to be missing and 31 for earth has all but gone. Not that I can remember the numbers any more it was 1989 the last time I did auto electrics and so much has changed.

 

[Mickymoody]

Surely my advice warrants a TY? I can't understand why Vaux use black for live, and wire an electric aerial up differently than other motors?

I bought a kit for a 88 Celica, that was transferred into an Avensis, that was transferred into a 95 Celica, why do Vaux use black for 12V, immediately confusing everyone?

 

[ericmark]

It is because the Germans use black for all live wires. They use a number system and seem from memory 15 is live and 31 is earth been a long time.

British used colours with trace colours Brown live, Green ign (fused), Purple aux (fused) etc. Could get my Lucas workshop manual out but very few cars follow that now.

In the same way in house electrics USA use different colours to us. Think they use white where we use brown.

The electric aerial is likely wired as other motors but since the same display is used for date or radio there must be a relay which changes over the function. There is a third multi-plug which is used with dedicated radio so one can view radio details on main display.

I note with older Tevion radios fuses are included in both ign and aux supply although the newer one has no external fuses. Radios were supplied with three supplies Permanent live, Ignition live, and side lights the latter seems is no longer used. The Side lights on very old radios worked light in radio then were used to dim display but last few fitted don't seem to alter day to night.

Both Ign and aux would have be green and purple (fused) not white and brown (un-fused) in days gone by. As to what is done today I don't know? The original Vauxhall radio had a system allowing it to be used with the ign key removed but once switched on then removing key would turn radio off my new Tevion does not have this function. However not swapping the ign and permanent live would have allowed the radio to be used with ign off maybe this is why the two are swapped?

Fitting a radio today is far easier than yesteryear where no speakers were fitted and there were no multi-plugs and also one had to fit earthing straps on bonnet and capacitors and chokes all over the place to reduce interference. Drilling the wing to fit aerial was also required. And with cars not being fitted with radios as standard theft was also a problem. Hence the coded radio. Today there is really no need to code the lower end of market radios no one would want my old Vauxhall radio even if I did have code and I see no point in these silly codes for the cheap radios. However when DAB radios hit the market I expect radio theft will start all over again. That's if DAB ever takes off and since all DAB stations are also transmitted on the TV band digitally can't really see why DAB is used at all. Since different frequency it will also need aerials changing to duel band with filters in aerials can't see that happening in a hurry!