97 Protege Audio wiring

[plm2928]

My daughter has a 97 protege that she wants me to put a cd player in.
The problem i have is some butcher put the existing stereo in and i cannot make heads or tails out of the wiring. Can anyone help? Thanks

[audio323]

hey i had the same problem with mine some dummy used electircal tape to "hold" the wires together it was amazing that half the car had not shorted out due to it. get a volt meter if you dont already have one they're pretty cheap .. test for a 12 v circuit (sometime a little less sometimes ex 11.59).. should be the red or black wire after that your striped wires(red or yellow w/ black stripe) should be your speakers use the positive terminal on a 9v battery to check which wires goes to which speaker

i would recommend not to power full of a stereo unless you intend to ungrade the speakers as well ... the stock fronts only handle 8 watts not sure about the rears .. when i started doing my sound system i bought a deck first and almost blew the speakers @ quarter volume

[plm2928]

Electrical tape.....same genius must have installed this one...thanks for the tip on the 9V battery. I haven't gotten to the speakers yet, i'm still looking for the 12v hot but that tip should sure save me alot of time and headache.

Thanks again


hey i had the same problem with mine some dummy used electircal tape to "hold" the wires together it was amazing that half the car had not shorted out due to it. get a volt meter if you dont already have one they're pretty cheap .. test for a 12 v circuit (sometime a little less sometimes ex 11.59).. should be the red or black wire after that your striped wires(red or yellow w/ black stripe) should be your speakers use the positive terminal on a 9v battery to check which wires goes to which speaker

i would recommend not to power full of a stereo unless you intend to ungrade the speakers as well ... the stock fronts only handle 8 watts not sure about the rears .. when i started doing my sound system i bought a deck first and almost blew the speakers @ quarter volume

[solid_snake]

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/detail.asp?info=alarm&year=1997&make=Mazda&model=Protege&ID=18323&type=Stereo

[audio323]

as well dont forget if you want the radio to only be on when car is on, make sure its only hot when your ignition is on. i wired mine to an always hot cause it was the only convenient full 12V i found
additionally i ran new wires to the back speakers cause one of mine had a huge voltage loss along the way ... but dont bother trying to put new wires into your fronts cause its a huuugeee pain (unless you have too)