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  #16  
Old 05-06-2009, 11:25 PM
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Ok got the front speakers working!!

There are two black insulated balls that wrap around the front speakers into a connector. The wires and green and black.

All that is left now is to find the rear speaker wires.

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  #17  
Old 05-08-2009, 08:05 PM
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Bump.

Any clues on which wires at the fader are the rear speakers?
The DIY one has different colored wires than my 87.
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  #18  
Old 05-08-2009, 11:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ps2cho View Post
Bump.

Any clues on which wires at the fader are the rear speakers?
The DIY one has different colored wires than my 87.
I think one is black/yellow and one black/gray ... I also noticed the DIY has odd-colored wires ... I believe the ones on the diagram I sent you on PM match with the ones on my 87, so you can probably trust that. Are there black/yellow and gray/black wires at the fader in your car?
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
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2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
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  #19  
Old 05-08-2009, 11:29 PM
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I might be able to sneak a glance at the wires in my fader tonight or tomorrow if I get a chance, in which case maybe I can offer more input. Wiring in these cars is a little vexing, so I feel your pain.
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #20  
Old 05-10-2009, 02:43 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987 View Post
I think one is black/yellow and one black/gray ... I also noticed the DIY has odd-colored wires ... I believe the ones on the diagram I sent you on PM match with the ones on my 87, so you can probably trust that. Are there black/yellow and gray/black wires at the fader in your car?
Is there not a + and - for each speaker attached to the fader? (so a total of 4 wires for both speakers combined)
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  #21  
Old 05-10-2009, 04:36 PM
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Did some exploratory surgery today ...
Your fader switch should have eight wires:
Solid brown (-): ground for lamp in switch
Gray/blue (+): power to lamp in switch
Gray/brown (+): power to left front speaker
*Brown/red (+): power to right front speaker
Black/yellow (+): power to left rear speaker
Black/white (+): power to right rear speaker
Black/green (+): power from HU to fader
*Black/red (+): power from HU to fader
* These two w/ asterisk I am not certain of. They might be the other way around (i.e. black/red is power to rf speaker) ... the diagram is incorrect in this specific case, but I am almost certain the list above is correct with brown/red being the wire for the right front speaker.
Note: the above colors are the colors AT the fader ... they are not the same colors at the speakers as there are connections in between.

Now for the grounds:
I am only saying this based on what I have found in taking things apart, but this system is not grounded through the fader, so you will not find the ground wires for any of the speakers in the fader. You pull the power wires up from the fader to the speakers, then find the black ground wires behind the DIN opening. Each of the four speakers has its own black ground wire. In the two-channel setup, the ground wires for the left rear and front speakers are connected at some point behind the HU, entering the original Becker as one black wire. Ditto for the right side. You need to find the wire from each speaker back there and pull it out through the DIN, ending up with four black wires at the DIN for your harness ... easiest way to do this would be find the black wire at the front speaker and follow it. Find the bundle in the console that goes up to the DIN opening from the rear, and you will find the rear ground wires in that.

Unfortunately I'm limited in how much I can help you beyond that because my car does not have the original wiring or anything close to it. I had an Alpine installed in 2003, before I had any ideas about DIYing anything, so it was a 4-channel setup when I installed my new HU last summer on my own. I.e., the black wires had already been pulled up for me and the rears bypassing the fader. Then last fall I had new speakers installed and amped, plus a sub, all new wires ... had the store installer do it since 1) labor was nothing on top of what I paid for the equipment and 2) the guy was really good and I wanted it to sound as good as possible. Bottom line, I learned all the wiring but never did the dissection myself.

I hope some of my ramblings will help. Maybe I can pop the HU out later and see if the old wires are still back there.
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Last edited by BodhiBenz1987; 05-13-2009 at 01:07 AM.
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  #22  
Old 05-12-2009, 02:35 PM
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would these be the same wire colors for an '86 126? I'm having a tough time trying to wrap my head around this install...
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  #23  
Old 05-13-2009, 01:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by land sea air View Post
would these be the same wire colors for an '86 126? I'm having a tough time trying to wrap my head around this install...
The wiring diagram looks the same, so yes, the colors should be the same. I have not personally looked at the wiring in a 126 ... but the diagram is pretty much identical to the 124.

Did you have any luck ps2cho?
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #24  
Old 05-13-2009, 05:33 PM
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Im trying to tackle it right now...

I have found the colors as you said from the fader....Behind the DIN I found two connectors labeled L and R the same as the front speakers had....and with the grounds from the HU attached to the black cable @ each of the L R connectors, the speakers make static...but no sound.
Is this any indication of anything?
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  #25  
Old 05-13-2009, 08:39 PM
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Got it!! I had the right wires, but the HU needed to be changed to push the fader back. Weird?

Either way I am very happy!

--------------

Here is a very and easy summary for anybody who searches so my 3-4 hours spent doing this could be done in 30mins tops (seriously)...

You DO NOT NEED to purchase an aftermarket $25-$30 wiring harness. This can be avoided....albeit a little more messy, but I wont be swapping the headunit ever again, so who cares?

This will work on 87 and earlier models I can tell you for sure....not sure about later years as I have searched, and some W124 models use different colored wires at the Fader...so this should clear up much confusion for the earlier models. This also "should" work for all NON-OEM-Amp setups with only a change in the fader's wire color. You can determine the new color by simple elimination. Just do all steps and skip the fader until the end then just cut it and do one-by-one while playing music til you find the right wire.

Disclaimer: Please remove negative cable from battery while doing this and ensure you have a fuse built into the headunit, or add in your own on the +12V constant wire.

Step1: Remove shifter + A/C wooden cluster then Cigarette Lighter. There is a DIY on this.

Step 2: Remove OEM Becker Unit. Remove power cord, Speakers L + R (2 channel), Chassis Ground and the Antenna.

Step 3: Cut the original Becker power harness off -- It will have 4 (four) wires. Wire them up with harness on new headunit.
OEM-Harness-Side:
Blue = Power Antenna
Brown = Ground
Red/White = Ignition +12V
Yellow/Black = Constant +12V
There is no illumination wire if your harness has one.
So match the names with the new harness. Pretty straight forward.

Step 4) Now head over the fader. Cut it off completely and pull out the following wires:
Black/yellow (+): power to left rear speaker
Black/white (+): power to right rear speaker
^ (Thank you to BodhiBenz1987 for the correct wires)
These are the only two wires you need. Tape up the exposed remaining wires for safety reasons.

Step 5) Run new wires from the Black/Yellow and the Black/White up to the headunit. Tape/Solder them to the positive wire for the respective speakers as shown above on the hew headunits wiring harness.

Now, behind the headunit, there are a total of 4 (four) little connectors as shown in the picture below:

Above you can see the male and female connectors. You only need the male one.

Front speakers: They were directly plugged into the 2 channel L + R in the beginning. Simply gut the male connector and attach the green to the positive (+) and the black to the negative (-) on the new headunits wiring harness. On the little male connector, it will have a L or R imprinted on it so you can tell. I would label each connector with tape for ease at a later date if anything comes loose or w/e.

Rear Speakers: There is NO grounds at the fader....instead, you should now have TWO remaining speaker male + female plugs left behind the headunit. Each of these will still have a L or R written on them. You are ONLY using the ground (black wire) from these. Wire the grounds to the new harness. Now, take your new extended positive (+) wires that you made from the fader, pull it behind the headunit and attach it to the positive (+) for each speaker wire at the new headunits wiring harness.

At this point the speakers should be working fine.

Step 6) Attach Chassis ground (my headunit had a bendable piece of metal that it attached to...Had to pry it up)

Step 7) Attach antenna

Step 8) Test if you have not already.

Might be a little confusing....but print it off and read it with yourself in front of the wires. Ask me if you have any other questions.
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Last edited by ps2cho; 05-13-2009 at 08:44 PM.
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  #26  
Old 05-13-2009, 11:34 PM
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Good job! Thanks for the write-up and the pic ... it cleared up for me how the front speakers attach to the fader. I was thinking you had to pull the two front speaker wires from the fader (gray/brown and brown/red), and didn't realize those male/female connectors connected the fronts to the fader behind the DIN. So my method would have still bypassed the fader and connected the fronts, but you would have had an extra, unnecessary connection in there, losing sound quality. Now it makes sense that you can pull the front speaker wires straight out from behind the DIN. It was hard to picture by just looking at the diagram.

Of course, none of this really applies to me, since I have the amp and all the sound system I need, but for some reason I really wanted to understand the original wiring anyway ... it's nice to have that cleared up.
__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #27  
Old 05-14-2009, 12:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987 View Post
Good job! Thanks for the write-up and the pic ... it cleared up for me how the front speakers attach to the fader. I was thinking you had to pull the two front speaker wires from the fader (gray/brown and brown/red), and didn't realize those male/female connectors connected the fronts to the fader behind the DIN. So my method would have still bypassed the fader and connected the fronts, but you would have had an extra, unnecessary connection in there, losing sound quality. Now it makes sense that you can pull the front speaker wires straight out from behind the DIN. It was hard to picture by just looking at the diagram.

Of course, none of this really applies to me, since I have the amp and all the sound system I need, but for some reason I really wanted to understand the original wiring anyway ... it's nice to have that cleared up.
Knowledge is power
Anybody who comes around now asking about this can be pointed right here. We can be the w124 OEM audio installation gurus
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  #28  
Old 11-15-2011, 10:57 AM
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Thumbs up Quick and Easy fix

Thank's ps2cho on the thread. Your write up was exactly what i needed to fix this fader switch headache.

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