1997 850 R-radio wires are a HOT-MESS!

smojo · Post by **smojo** » 30 Jan 2011, 21:26

A little history of this car. I recently purchased a 1997 Volvo 850 R. The previous owner had an after market stereo and some aftermarket set up with rear deck speakers. Who freak'n knows what the kid has done to this. So I have decided to go full on all just starting from scratch with New Head Unit and all new speakers. I'm up and down about doing this myself or just have BestBuy or Cartoys deal with it all and I'll just pay them. So here's some pics. Does anyone actually have a detail lay out of what wire go where? I'm a visual learner and have installed many aftermarket radios in my previous cars, but this Volvo has waaaay too many wires and connections then I think it should have. I took this pic. I'm very discouraged now. He cut some of the wire and stuff too.

The car is 1997 Volvo 850 R, 8 speaker spots and an amp somewhere up under the dash (if the kid didn't mess with that too)

How hard would it be just to re-wire the speakers and power connection to the New Aftermarket unit and just do away with the Volvo set up? If so what wire is POWER, ACC, and Ground. What's the name of a tool that reads which wire has power to it?

Any and all input would help. I now have all new Polk Audio Spearks x 8, New Alpine HU, and Alpine Power Pack ready to be one with the Volvo R and jam to some tunes....

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 30 Jan 2011, 22:08

With the exception of the bare red/black wire that looks completely stock for a system with a CD changer and an OEM amp. In the factory amp configurations the male and female harnesses are normally wrapped with a real sticky foam tape that actually hides the connection between them.

The tool you are talking about is a DVM but we have schematics for the audio system in the downloads section but I don't have a direct link to them.

BEJinFBK can get you to the schematics that are hosted here.

...Lee

smojo · Post by **smojo** » 31 Jan 2011, 07:10

thanks for the reply. I'll take a better look at all of this and look for the wiring schematics.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 31 Jan 2011, 14:01

Here is a link to the schematics:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/downlo ... iagram.pdf

Most of the schematics that we have were scanned on one side and then the other side so the page numbers don't match up.

...Lee

Post by **BEJinFbk** » 31 Jan 2011, 15:36

From what I can see, your wiring doesn't really look too bad.
( Sometimes the plugs aren't even there anymore...I HATE that!

)

I'd start by getting out a soldering iron and some shrink tubing.
Repair the few cut leads and run it all back to bone stock.
NOW, you can pick up a wiring adapter and get down to business.

The two circular DIN connectors are for the optional amp and CD changer.
The 6 pin DIN is the amp input, the other runs to the OEM changer location.
( For now, just blow the changer off. Let's get a basic deck installed first ).
You can get an adapter that will port you straight into the stock amp
or you have the option of going after the foam wrapped interconnect plugs
and using the amp in your new HU to run the speakers. No Biggie.

SO -
Fix the cut wires
Determine if the stock amp is still there.
( It mounts right behind the radio - just follow the cable)
Deceide if you want to use the HU amp or the OEM amp.
With that call made, you can hit eBay for the right adapters.

Once you have the correct adapters, you can confirm that everything is
predictibly stock and functional with a digital multi-meter and an AA battery.

Post back when you reach that point and we'll go from there!

smojo · Post by **smojo** » 31 Jan 2011, 16:41

thanks for all the info! I will see how far I can get with what is there. I do think its all complete. Besides all the cut wires, I didn't know what the plugs where for. I bought a wiring harness for an aftermarket radio, but I didn't know which plugs to use.

So from what I understand:There is a plug for the factory radio (power and stuff), a plug for the speakers to factory radio, a plug for the amp (power and stuff), and a plug for speakers to amp, and a plug to a CD changer and then CD changer to factory stereo?

I'm sure I'm over thinking this. Forgive my ignorance ahead of time. I know I can figure this out, but I rather ask stupid questions before I "F" up all of this.

Post by **precopster** » 31 Jan 2011, 18:43

This photo may clear things up a little, (SC-811 radio/tape) as you can see separate plugs for everything.

If your Alpine head unit has ISO inputs for speakers and power there are plenty of adapters available which are a direct plug-in to the two large black connectors.

There are also amplifier bypass cables with ISO plugs built-in (I had to use one of these on my Volvo 960 because the speaker wires went straight to the amp)

As BEJinFBK said first repair any broken wires then determine the presence of the amp or not first before buying anything.

Post by **BEJinFbk** » 31 Jan 2011, 20:36

smojo wrote:thanks for all the info! I will see how far I can get with what is there. I do think its all complete. Besides all the cut wires, I didn't know what the plugs where for. I bought a wiring harness for an aftermarket radio, but I didn't know which plugs to use.

So from what I understand:There is a plug for the factory radio (power and stuff), a plug for the speakers to factory radio, a plug for the amp (power and stuff), and a plug for speakers to amp, and a plug to a CD changer and then CD changer to factory stereo?

I'm sure I'm over thinking this. Forgive my ignorance ahead of time. I know I can figure this out, but I rather ask stupid questions before I "F" up all of this.

This is kinda general, but it may help:
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=30204

Post by **vjaneczko** » 01 Feb 2011, 08:23

BEJ's link (30204) has a post from Stone36 with a picture of the harnesses and the wires coming out of them, which was a real help for me when I installed my Kenwood HU a few months ago. One odd thing IMHO was that the two rear speakers (tweeter & door) were wired together but the two fronts were wired directly to the HU. So in effect you had six pair of speaker wires coming off the HU which powered eight speakers. Other than that, it's pretty much like a standard HU. Since they're 8 ohm speakers, I figured the fronts were wired in series in the HU itself but the rears were wired 'downstream'.

If you go with a wire harness adapater from Amazon, be careful which one you get. I got the wrong one so I decided to skip it and wired directly to the new HU. Added some time but I got it done non-the-less.