95quattro90

Anyone good with wiring up a head unit? I just got my new head unit last night (along with new speakers) and I'm having trouble getting it to work properly. Here's where I stand at the moment: once everything is plugged in, the head unit will turn on, scan for stations, turn on/off (without the key in), but no music will come out of the speakers. Only at the highest volume level of the head unit will anything come from the speakers. Even then, you have to listen very very hard to hear anything. This makes me think there is no power going to the speakers. Here is the cluster f*ck wiring harness I'm using:
<img src="http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/thenewedgeco/IMG_0034.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket">
I'm not used to having to use a relay so I'm getting thrown off. Everything that is in the original wiring harness of the car has a place to plug into except for the single little brown "harness" pictured here (3rd plug):
<img src="http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/thenewedgeco/IMG_0029.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket">&lt;/a&gt;

I honestly have no idea what that is for. It appears to be a ground wire that connected to the original stereo?

If anyone has a clue as to what I'm doing wrong I would love to know. Thanks!

90/90Qs

I have a 9855 and I seem to recall a rash of posts on various forums on this particular HU describing very similar behavior. If I'm not mistaken it was a manufacturing bug.
Do some (google) research if this is the model in question, maybe even if it's not.

95quattro90

cda-9885

95quattro90

does the remote wire on the alpine harness need to be wired to something?

S90RTRRO

...the blue wire (remote) from the head unit should be tapped into the remote turn on from the harness. I'm not sure I know which one it is (could be that lone-wire) as I ALWAYS re-wire all my systems. 12 yr. old wiring is not conducive to high-power...but then again, I replace amps/speakers/wires..the whole enchilada.

S90RTRRO

unless you want your stereo to have power all the time..key, or no key. I find it annoying to have to turn off the stereo each time I get out...but some ppl like it that way...(or could be that the remote turn on from the audi doesn't work either after an ignition switch replacement...)

Is that orange wire tapped in to the red/yellow there too???

95quattro90

well that can take care of that issue. what should they be tapped into then? those are the switched 12v power wires. should i just connect them together (alpine harness to relay)?

i have it wired up the way the diagrams say to wire it. i found it kinda funny to wire the constant to the switched but that's what it said to do! and no, the illumination wire (orange) are by themselves.

95quattro90

...i just don't know what! there is nothing labeled on the conversion harness that states its for the remote turn on.

the only thing labeled as the remote turn on is coming from the alpine harness.

90/90Qs

this wire generally goes to an external amp, it's a relay (trigger) to switch the amp on w/ the HU

95quattro90

i have been told there is a factory amp. if that's the case...i need to find what wire coming from the car's wiring harness is for the remote turn on for the amp.