[ozz tdci]

So I bought my focus dirt cheap and this is what I got for a stereo...

Basically a gaping hole in my dash and a load of wires which have been joined and I think 3 that are cut. Can anyone please advise on how to get this back to normal so I can just get a ford to Sony or whatever connector and a new head unit?

Thanks folks

 

[pcordes1979]

Wow just wow, in this day and age with stereo wiring harness adapters being sold at Walmart and being given away for free with purchase of a radio from Crutchfield I am surprised, but not really surprised, people still do this, too much backwoods ghetto way of thinking out in the world.

Well at least it looks like they spliced in a stereo harness from whatever stereo was in the car originally, so you can probably just match the wires up and tap into that one (the little black connector). All of the wires looks there, yellow for constant 12V, black for ground, red for switched power, the tan for telephone muting, the green/gray/white/purple wire pairs for each of the speakers, and the 2 blue wires for the power antenna and amplifier turn on signals. Of course verify everything with a meter before hand, yellow should read 12V at all times and red should read 12V when the car is in the accessory and run position, and black should read 0V, the rest of the wires that are spliced into the car harness go to speakers so have to make sure you match those up properly to the correct speaker.

If I were to do anything with that I would cut off the existing aftermarket stereo connector as close to the connector as possible and then splice in the new aftermarket stereo's wiring matching up the colors (as it appears it uses the "standard" aftermarket wiring scheme). Whenever I have made up a wiring harness I have always soldered and then heatshrinked the connections for the most solid connection. However using properly sized crimp connectors would be acceptable, just make sure to properly crimp them together.

 

[zetecDon]

Moved to "Car Audio, SYNC, MyFord Touch & Electronics". Christ that's a mess. Good luck getting that sorted out. Most companies use a general color scheme for the wiring. Most of them are similar while a few are just a little bit different. I am sure if you search around here enough you will find what you are looking for.

 

[ozz tdci]

Thanks for the advice guys and thanks for moving it.. I'm new to this forum so my apologies. I might just go to halfords and see if one of the audio guys recognises what make of headunit is for and just get one the same make! What a mess though...

 

[mechanizeddeath]

Oh my god I want to punch whoever did that. Seriously. My very first car, an '85 Ford Crown Vic, came to me like this. Someone had literally sawed a hole in the dash and chopped up the factory wiring, which they then secured to the wiring of the shoddy aftermarket deck by bending the wires into a "J" shape and hooking them together. And then covering that atrocity with clear tape. [spank]

Anyway, one option is that you can get a "reverse" harness for like $10 that will allow you to repair the damaged harness, and restore it to original factory condition. This way, you'll be able to reinstall the factory radio (if it was included) or throw in a compatible unit from a junkyard. In addition, you could then use a normal adapter harness, if you wanted, to then adapt the repaired harness to an aftermarket radio using a regular harness. Just like the previous owner should have done in the beginning.

Option 2 is to do as pcordes1979 suggested, however I wouldn't trust those terrible splice connectors, and just looking at the photo makes me want to reach through the screen and cut them off. The "right" way to do it is with solder and heat shrink, or with crimp connectors and a proper crimp tool, if you're uncomfortable with soldering.

Referring back to the first option, you'd probably want to crimp anyway if you choose to repair the wiring with a reverse harness. Soldering that close to the dash isn't easy, especially if you aren't experienced at it.

If you lived in my city, I'd happily fix it for you. Just buy the parts. Because I hate this kind of damage so much! [gunfire]

 

[pcordes1979]

Anyway, one option is that you can get a "reverse" harness for like $10 that will allow you to repair the damaged harness, and restore it to original factory condition. This way, you'll be able to reinstall the factory radio (if it was included) or throw in a compatible unit from a junkyard. In addition, you could then use a normal adapter harness, if you wanted, to then adapt the repaired harness to an aftermarket radio using a regular harness. Just like the previous owner should have done in the beginning.[gunfire]

MD: I can understand your anger, I had to take a step back when I first saw it as reflected in my comments (and I was being nice in them).

However your suggestion is something I am surprised I did not think about (especially since I have done it before for other connectors on cars), in fact you can probably get a reverse harness for free or next to nothing at a local parts yard, there are plenty of Focus's in their so cut off a 6-12" section of the radio harness with wires and properly splice them in, and if it is the same year car the colors should all match up.

However being that it appears ozz tdci is in the UK or Ireland (based on Halfords being a UK/Irish auto parts store chain) so I would have no idea where if any parts yards are over there. ozz tdci, good luck it only looks worse than it really is so it shouldn't be too bad to fix up. I had to deal with a similar situation years ago after somebody stole my stereo and cutting up the wires instead of taking the 3 seconds to unplug the stereo adapter harness from the car wiring (who also tried to steal the car itself but couldn't get it started (cracked the column open but couldn't get beyond that)).

 

[ozz tdci]

Oh yeh! Never thought of getting a standard harness and crimping that together along with some shrink wrap! That would be the best option in my opinion then I can simply match the colours plus it will be back to standard so I can just get the after market adapter after that thank you very much!

 

[mechanizeddeath]

No problem! I've fixed this kind of damage several times for friends. Around here, that sort of thing is common enough that when I was younger, it seemed like every few months one of my friends was buying a car with a gaping hole in the dash and a mangled bundle of wires sticking out of that. So I got pretty used to either using a reverse harness from eBay or similar, or going the junkyard route.

I remember some of the early reverse harnesses didn't always have all the wires, but I haven't seen that in a while, so I think it is no longer a problem.

Repairing the wiring may also help if you ever go to sell the car. Even if you do choose an aftermarket head unit, a lot of people don't like them (too complicated, looks different from the rest of the car, theft risk, etc.) so being able to put a compatible Ford head unit back in there may help to move the car if that time comes.

Good luck!

 

[ozz tdci]

Picked up another look from a scrapyard and wired it all together using solder then electrical tape, only one wire left but the colours don't match... I would imagine they are meant to go together and it goes to the connector shown in the picture along with three other thin wires, (yellow/brown, black/white and green/white)

Can anyone reassure me before I attach them and go buy a new headunit as I don't want to damage it!

Thanks

 

[ozz tdci]

Oh and the miss match wires as you can see are orange/black and green/black.

 

[ozz tdci]

Doesn't matter anymore, that block isn't connected to my new head unit anyway! Must be for steering wheel controls. Got a sub in as well now so I'm very happy!

 

[pcordes1979]

Good to see that you got it all working. That 3rd connector looks to be (from my research as I have a US model 2006 ZXW which is completely different from the 00-04 Focus's radio wiring wise and also probably different from the 2005+ European Focus) for the factory subwoofer wiring and for the steering column radio controls http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151335, while that link shows how to modify the harness for an aftermarket radio to use the factory sub in 00-04 models it does list the connections on that connector. And before you ask if you were to want to add the column radio controls, and assuming your radio supports it, you will have to buy an aftermarket adapter to "translate" from the factory controls to what that radio expects.

Did you happen to take some pictures of the repaired wiring using the macro mode on your camera/smartphone to get a better quality pic?

 

[ozz tdci]

No afraid I didn't mate. But got me new head unit and sub installed, sounds great! I think when I replaced the drivers door the speaker wiring must not match up or be connected as I for have any sound from it. I don't suppose anyone knows which wires go to the drivers door speaker?

 

[pcordes1979]

For the speaker wiring may wish to take a look at this forum posting http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2140 and from that

Harness 1

1 --- White --- Black --- Left front +
2 --- Gray --- Black --- Left front -
3 --- White --- Purple --- Left rear +
4 --- Gray --- White --- Left rear -
5 --- White --- Red --- Right front +
6 --- Gray --- Red --- Right front -
7 --- White --- (none) --- Right rear +
8 --- Gray --- (none) --- Right rear -

 

[ozz tdci]

Perfect!! Thank you