headunit installation question.

[zhy]

So I bought this headunit today and i want to ask questions prior to soldering because I want to do it right the first time.

#1 - do I NEED have to connect the blue wire aka "Power Antenna / Factory amplifier remote turn on - from the eBay harness i bought
says "ANT REM- Power antenna control lead or power supply lead of antenna (aerial) booster .. not too sure if this wire is meant to go to a power-antenna when the ignition is turned on or if its meant to make the stock antenna "work"

#2 - About the grounds... I have 2 ground wires from the 2 harnesses... should I solder the ground wire from my eBay harness into the headunit harness like an "y" shape? I want to have a sub/amp setup so ground here is required.. just not sure how to make it work

rest of the harness wire connections have been identified successfully.. those are my only 2 worries

thanks. =]

I also used this, good guide
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Mazda_Guide/Protege_5/Installing_Aftermarket_Stereo

 

[DarkAngel]

#1 I don't recall but I ran my own remote wire to my amplifier.

#2 I have read on here that the factory ground from the harness can or may cause unwanted static/noise from your alternator and would be best to get an actual ground from somewhere close by to ground.

 

[Cosmic Wonder]

#1 is used to hook up an external amp to tell it to turn on or a power antenna to make the antenna extend when the radio power is turned on. If you don't have either then leave it disconnected (if it's exposed wire, put a butt splice on the end and tape it up.)

 

[zhy]

So the blue wire is used when installing a sub + amp?

I just want to know if I can splice the ground from the ebay harness into the terminal of the radio harness

 

[Cosmic Wonder]

As long as the wire you're connecting it to is ground, it doesn't matter. Ground is ground. Zero. Nada.

But DON'T connect ground to the blue wire from the deck. It's either 5V or 12V depending on the deck. It outputs a signal to the antenna or amplifier telling it to turn on. Think of it like this, if you have an amp and sub, with positive and negative on it and your audio hooked up, you won't get any sound. Why? Because there is nothing telling the amp to turn on. That's why the blue wire is there; otherwise the amp would be on 24/7 an you'd start a thread about a dead battery in no time.

As long as something is ground, you can hook almost anything up to it (provided the wire is big enough to handle the current).

 

[zhy]

As long as the wire you're connecting it to is ground, it doesn't matter. Ground is ground. Zero. Nada.

But DON'T connect ground to the blue wire from the deck. It's either 5V or 12V depending on the deck. It outputs a signal to the antenna or amplifier telling it to turn on. Think of it like this, if you have an amp and sub, with positive and negative on it and your audio hooked up, you won't get any sound. Why? Because there is nothing telling the amp to turn on. That's why the blue wire is there; otherwise the amp would be on 24/7 an you'd start a thread about a dead battery in no time.

As long as something is ground, you can hook almost anything up to it (provided the wire is big enough to handle the current).

thanks for replying
I just saw someone explain that certain headunits came with ground loops like this.. I just cut it off and soldered it to the other ground wire because the factory headunit wire goes to a ground anyways.
also connected blue to blue..

Am I gonna have to modify this when i buy and install an amplifier?

 

[us3r]

I connected the blue wires together after getting a new harness 2 weeks ago. I didn't install my amp and sub yet. Is this causing unwanted battery drainage?

Bro, next time get your harness from crutchfield.ca. Fast shipping and cheap.

 

[zhy]

I connected the blue wires together after getting a new harness 2 weeks ago. I didn't install my amp and sub yet. Is this causing unwanted battery drainage.

Bro, next time get your harness from crutchfield.ca. Fast shipping and cheap.

will I need the blue wires for the amp? that's my question lol
and having them connected drains battery? not too sure if your sentense was a question or an affirmation

 

[us3r]

will I need the blue wires for the amp? that's my question lol
and having them connected drains battery? not too sure if your sentense was a question or an affirmation

I'm very tired lol my bad.

I'm not sure about that sorry. Maybe you can google it.

 

[KCKrogoth]

As far as the black wires are concerned, just solder them together into one ground and then find an applicable place to ground the fork connector. Simple as that.

The blue wire however, you have no need to hook the one on the EBay harness to anything. It's most likely just a generic Mazda Harness and covers all applications for plug size. The P5 doesn't have a power antenna, so yo don't need to hook it into anything. The point of it is so that if you did have a power antenna the radio would send a signal to the antenna to extend when you place the head unit in AM/FM function, and to retract when taken out of said function. As far as the head unit wiring, one of the blue wires (prob the solid blue) is for the power antenna feature, but not needed in your case, so just tape it off. The other wire (Blue with a white tracer) should be your amp remote turn on, that sends the 12 signal to turn on the amp when the radio is on. This is the wire you want to use for installing an aftermarket amplifier if you so choose to do so later. The head unit wires should be marked as such, one saying PWR ANT and other REM AMP or something like that, I might have the wires backwards in colors, but that is the purpose of the two blue head unit side wires...

Hope this helps.. (thumb)

 

[zhy]

As far as the black wires are concerned, just solder them together into one ground and then find an applicable place to ground the fork connector. Simple as that.

The blue wire however, you have no need to hook the one on the EBay harness to anything. It's most likely just a generic Mazda Harness and covers all applications for plug size. The P5 doesn't have a power antenna, so yo don't need to hook it into anything. The point of it is so that if you did have a power antenna the radio would send a signal to the antenna to extend when you place the head unit in AM/FM function, and to retract when taken out of said function. As far as the head unit wiring, one of the blue wires (prob the solid blue) is for the power antenna feature, but not needed in your case, so just tape it off. The other wire (Blue with a white tracer) should be your amp remote turn on, that sends the 12 signal to turn on the amp when the radio is on. This is the wire you want to use for installing an aftermarket amplifier if you so choose to do so later. The head unit wires should be marked as such, one saying PWR ANT and other REM AMP or something like that, I might have the wires backwards in colors, but that is the purpose of the two blue head unit side wires...

Hope this helps.. (thumb)

This post made my life so much easier hahah.
i DO have 1 extra illumination "dimmer" wire and a telephone wire, which were both taken care of so they dont short out on anything.
so this blue-white wire is the only wire I need... thanks alot man

 

[us3r]

This post made my life so much easier hahah.
i DO have 1 extra illumination "dimmer" wire and a telephone wire, which were both taken care of so they dont short out on anything.
so this blue-white wire is the only wire I need... thanks alot man

What did you do with the orange illumination dash light wire?

 

[zhy]

What did you do with the orange illumination dash light wire?

the orange/white wire is the dimmer illumination wire... meaning that the light will go down as you play with the dimmer light in our cars
i dont really care about this wire.. I only have it on my headunit harness and not the eBay one... so i'd have to go and get myself a pin and blabla... its not mandatory

 

[us3r]

the orange/white wire is the dimmer illumination wire... meaning that the light will go down as you play with the dimmer light in our cars
i dont really care about this wire.. I only have it on my headunit harness and not the eBay one... so i'd have to go and get myself a pin and blabla... its not mandatory

I taped mine off since my head unit harness doesn't have it.

 

[KCKrogoth]

This post made my life so much easier hahah.

Glad I could help, Yes the other blue wire (One with the white tracer) should be the only thing you need for an amp install, that and the RCA preamp outputs, but that's obvious...lol. And I do believe you are correct with the dimmer, our car's factory harness doesn't have the dimmer wire on the adapter, but I'm not 100% sure on that, I'd have to tear mine apart to look at it. However, it's not so you can adjust the head unit with the dimmer switch, it's so that when you drive at night the head unit wont blind you while driving. When you turn on your headlights, it switches the dimming on the head unit so it's not so bright, but I believe there is a way to adjust the brightness manually on the unit itself through it's options. As far as the telephone wire, I think that's an accessory of some kind. My amp uses a telephone line for the remote bass control switch, but that's just options...

 

[Zixxer636]

At work I always hook up the blue or blue/white on the factory harness side. There wont be a pin in your factory wiring if it does nothing so...go ahead. We don't get many mazdas so I don't recall if that harness has blue in it. Put a butt connector on for sure though so when/if you add a system its ready.

My car has illumination wire...normally don't hook up Bc of potential problems and Bc I always want brightness but my new Tv was too bright at night. Good luck and don't pay guys like me $60 to match Colors.