Replace Radio, not sure about Connectors 1993 850 GLT

[imnotswedish]

Hi all!

A few weeks ago, I became the happy owner of a 1993 Volvo 850 GLT Wagon.

It’s running great, aside from the ABS and ESP not working . One issue I’ve noticed is with the left door speaker. After a few minutes of music, it starts making weird distorted noises and sometimes cuts out completely. Restarting the radio fixes it temporarily, but the problem comes back.

Currently, there’s a Blaupunkt Kingston DJ radio installed. I’m looking to swap it for a Blaupunkt Barcelona 200.

When installing the new radio, I noticed the pinouts on the connectors don’t match (see attached picture). The old radio is on top, and the new one is below. The old unit seems to have used A, B, and C ISO connectors, while the new one only uses A and B. That said, only A and B cables were connected to the old unit anyway.

Also i am not even sure if this vintage of volvo even used ISO connectors. I am finding mixed infos in forums and from the almighty chatgpt.

What concerns me is the pinout difference—some pins are clearly in different places. I’ve found the pinout diagram for the new radio, but I can’t find one for the old Blaupunkt Kingston DJ.

Does anyone here know if it’s safe to install the new radio? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and best regards!

[imnotswedish]

Hi, i am still looking for a resolution, if anyone can give info it would be much appreciated!

[scot850]

We may not be able to help as the Bluapunkt radio is not a standard fitment that I am aware of, and not in the UK where I lived or in North America that I have seen. The wiring on the 2 radios you show look different as you mention. The upper of the connectors you show is 180 degrees rotated from the other one. I'm going to assume the notch on the side is a fitment guide to prevent fitting the radio connector wrongly.

All I can suggest is trying to get a pin out from Blaupunkt for each radio and re-pin the connectors to match the new radio.

Sorry, I should add, have you checked the speaker is not bad at this age? It could have failed.

Neil.

[imnotswedish]

Hi Neil, really appreciate your input.

I may try to write blaupunkt and ask them if they have the pinout for the Kingston DJ. I found the original manual on the wayback-machine but unfortunately there is no pinout diagram in there.

Regarding the Speaker, i have not checked that. I hoped that i can replace the radio easily, and if the problem persists, i would have looked in to the Speaker itself. Is there an easy way to test that? Or do i have to replace it to see if it works then?

Thanks and best regards, Jan