Deck Ignition Wire

[equate]

I recently put a new deck and and Im having a problem getting it to turn on and off with the car. My deck requires a constant 12 volt which I tapped from my cigerette lighter, and a switching ignition wire to turn on and off, I have it hooked up to the original power for my old deck, the yellow one, is this correct? What am I doing wrong here... Its a Kenwood KDC 5011 if you want to know and the product manual link.. http://www.kenwoodusa.com/support/manual.jsp?divisionId=3&productId=419

Any ideas? Thanks guys

 

[rjp325i]

Try getting the adapter harness from Crutchfield. They list one for the E30s. It will simplify things a lot. Everything just plugs in, with no wires to splice.

 

[dhaus]

All the wires you need are present in the factory harness. A 12 volt test light is a handy tool for finding the constant & switched power wires. German cars generally use brown for the ground. The only complication is the external speaker fader. You can keep the factory fader functional by only wiring the front outputs from your new deck. However, you'll only be using half the power in the deck. Splitting the front from the rear requies tracing the output wires from the fader. You need to get to a place where there are two wires for each individual speaker. You can identify which wires go to which speaker by using a flashlight battery.

Don

 

[equate]

I understand all of that, I have it all compleatly hooked up I just can't get it to turn on and off with the car.. Do i use the yellow wire? From the original harness?

 

[dhaus]

As I remember, the yellow wire in the factory harness is a speaker wire. Use a test light to find the wire in the harness that goes on and off with the key. That wire hooks to the red wire on the Kenwood harness. I don't have the manual with me so I can't tell you the color.