brian a

I am putting in a cd player, and I am having a lot of difficulty figuring out which wires are my battery and ground for the stock stereo. It is a stock Audi cassette radio from 1990 Coupe Quattro, it has a diagram stuck to the side that has symbols describing each wire. FOr example there is a little sun symbol, a branching symbol, positive and negative symbols, yada yada yada. I cannot figure out which symbol is power and which one is ground, and after a lot of trial and error I couldn't figure it out by just testing each wire individually. Additionally, I can't find a diagram of the stereo input/outputs in the stereo owners manual, or my bentley manual. Does anyone know where I can find a diagram, in english, of the wires connected to the stock stereo? OR Does anybody know the wire colors and their function? Thanks!

ps. before you chew me out for cross posting you should notice that this same post on the audio forum, probably still unanswered

QCRAZY

..and it's always the ground in an Audi. The power connection to the factory radio is the bottom connector of the three (sorry, I don't remember the color). Find the brown wire in the bottom connector, that's the brown wire you want. The brown wires in the other conectors are grounds for the rear amps and you don't want to use those (not a good ground).

To find a switched power and a constant power (memory wire), I just use a circuit tester. That's the easiest way to find the power wires; circuit testers are cheap too!!!

From what I remember a Red/Blue wire was the constant power (although it's been a while since I've wired from factory). The only close by switched power comes from the climate control. I didn't want to use power from the climate control so I ran a new wire from the fuse box. I also ran my own ground wire in two of my three cars!! You may want to do the same!!

Good Luck!!
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Andrew
90 80Q
91 90
95 90Q

ARK

"+"= plus 12V, "-"=power ground,"+A(with switch symbol)"= switched power signal for amp turn-on, "O"(SUN symbol)= night illumination power, "+/-LF"=radio amp out to front left speaker, "+/-RF"=radio amp out to right front speaker, "LF", "RF","RR","LR" = line level out for Left/Right Front, and Left/Right Rear.

The branch symbol is the antenna. A branch symbol

brian a

Turns out my guesswork with the symbols was actually correct, so the translation provided by ARK and fast928 was exactly what I thought they were supposed to be, but a fuse was blown throwing the whole thing off! Damn fuses! Thanks for the help guys, I am happy to report everything is now working fine!

QCRAZY

Glad to hear it!!