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volvo 850 front speaker wiring?

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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longo
Posts: 3
Joined: 2 January 2011
Year and Model: 850 1996
Location: Wi

volvo 850 front speaker wiring?

Post by longo »

Im finding conflicting info all over the place about how the wiring is connected for the front speakers on 850 volvos. Ive read that they are connected parallel and in another thread that they are direct to radio. I need to know cause I am replacing all the front speakers and head unit. Original speakers were 8 ohm in dash and 4 ohm in doors. I have replaced dash speakers with 3.5 inch 4 ohm speakers and have a pair of infinity 5.25's for the doors. Problem is that they are 2 ohm and if the wiring is parallel the impedance will be to low and fry my HU. If the speakers were wired direct then no problem. I know the backs are in parallel and are all 8 ohm but if the fronts were parallel why didnt they just go 8 ohms for all speakers instead of putting the 4 ohms in the front door. Hope this is clear enough. Great forum by the way.

vjaneczko
Posts: 1550
Joined: 27 March 2006
Year and Model: 2006 S60R
Location: San Antonio, TX
Been thanked: 6 times

Post by vjaneczko »

Goofy question, but are you sure the front door speakers are 4 Ohm? I didn't pay much attention when I swapped mine, but I thought they were all 8 Ohm. In my 855 I have eight speakers, four in the front & four in the back. The rear channel speakers are wired together so the HU had two pair of wires connected for them. The four speakers in the front were wired to the HU, so it had four pair of wires connected. That's a total of six pair for eight speakers. My thought was they 'wired' the fronts together in the HU so the load was balanced across all speakers. When I ripped out the factory speakers, I simply tied the dash & door wires together at the HU.

Maybe this will help:
Lead colors are shown by letters:

SB = Black,
GR = Gray,
W = White,
R = Red,
BN = Brown,
Y = Yellow,
P = Pink,
BL = Blue,
GN = Green,
OR = Orange,
VO = Violet.

To break down the 14 pin "A" connector:
1A = Dash Left Speaker +,
2A = Dash Left Speaker -,
3A = Antenna +,
4A = Battery + 12V,
5A = Not used,
6A = Ground,
7A = Dash Right Speaker +,
8A = Dash Right Speaker -,
9A = Not used,
10A = Rheostat +,
11A = Rheostat Ground,
12A Battery + 12V ,
13A = ACC +,
14A = Ground.

Breaking down the 10 pin "B" connector:
1B = Left Rear Speaker -,
2B = Left Rear Speaker +,
3B = Left Front Door Speaker -,
4B = Left Front Door Speaker +,
5B = Right Rear Speaker -,
6B = Right Rear Speaker +,
7B & 8B = Not used,
9B = Right Front Door Speaker -,
10B = Right Front Door Speaker +.
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"He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which." - Douglas Adams

1997 855 GLT - R.I.P.
2006 S60R - For ME!

longo
Posts: 3
Joined: 2 January 2011
Year and Model: 850 1996
Location: Wi

Post by longo »

Mine are, Im looking at one right now. Unless someone changed them but they sure look original and say volvo on them.

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