MK3 Head unit wiring help

[mitch750]

I have a pioneer head unit and want to put it in my VR6, i can't do it because all the wires dont correspond to the colours of the jack that i have.. (the colours dont all match) As i suck at wiring already i was hoping i could post a pic tomorrow and see if anyone has any idea. Just thought i'd start the thread in advance.

also does anyone know of any info out there which may help me out? i dont want to take her to JB cause i wanna learn.

Mitch

[Paul_R]

Ah the good old days. No computers or CANBUS to worry about.
Assuming you have the manual for the new head unit you can search for the wiring diagram for the car you have. You might even be able to buy a plug n play harness off eBay or the like.
Failing that you will need a voltmeter and a pen and paper to work out what each wire in the car does.
Speaker cables can be figured out by looking at the speaker end. Then it's usually power, earth, aerial, ignition on etc.
Then it's time to cut, splice and solder.
Have fun.

[Buckets]

Try here

There's two links to Mk3s depending on what year. Might be worth a look for you

[mitch750]

That like from buckets was very helpful! but!!! it still wont work for some reason! really frustrating, but ill keep at it!

[Golf Loon]

Goto supercheep or a good car shop. You can buy an adaptor from the common connector in the car to that brand of stereo for like $15. Plug in, that's it.

[Buckets]

Goto supercheep or a good car shop. You can buy an adaptor from the common connector in the car to that brand of stereo for like $15. Plug in, that's it.

Fair suggestion. Aerpro are the biggest manufacturer of these sorts of things and after looking around, there DOES seem to be a harness available for the Mk3.

[mitch750]

okay im gonna try figure it out.

the car came with the original jack cut off, so i need to figure that out as well!

[The_Hawk]

I essentially had to do the same myself back when I had my own Mk3.

Check out this thread here:

http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f47/head-unit-wiring-diagram-mark-3-vr6-63594.html

and my post:

I have done pretty much all the head units in all my cars including the VR6 It's not all that hard to do at all.

There are some adaptors that go from the stock plugs to different model stereo's for example "VN Commodore to Pioneer" which allow you just to plug it all in. That said I don't know that I have seen one for VW

Personally I make my own using one of these:
12 Pin MULTI Pin Plug / Socket - Jaycar Electronics

That way when/if you ever change your head unit you can do all/most of the soldering on the bench and not in the car

Not having ever seen the back of the stock head unit I'm not sure what the wiring is like, maybe you can even salvage the stock wiring plugs and use them (unless it plugs directly into the unit of course).


As for the wiring itself:

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/VW-Wiring.pdf

(so yeah, make your own )