I decided to pull the crappy non-working aftermarket stereo out of my 91 loyale and install a sony xplode cd player. I pulled the old stereo out and saw a terrible mess of wires where only about half were connected, so I went to a junk yard and picked up a stock Subaru stereo harness. I also got the metra harness that fits 90-94 loyales. So I connected the stereo harness to the metra harness and then plugged the metra harness into the stock subaru harness, and nothing happened. So, my question is can someone help me? I have attached 2 pictures. One is of the sony to metra harness and the other is of the subaru harness. The subaru harness has 3 connectors and the metra came with 2. I have no idea what to do with any of these connectors except the big one. Please help! I did also read this http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50840 but it doesn't seem like it tells me everything I need to know.

Edited April 18, 201114 yr by The FNG

usually the adapter harnesses have color wrong for yellow and red. meaning usually you need to put yellow wire to red wire, and red wire to yellow wire. I have seen this on over 50 imports where 12V vs ignition it switched on the harness kits....

 

you have yellow to yellow

red to red

 

 

 

switch that and have yellow to red

and red to yellow

 

simple thing to check are fuse since old radio you had didnt work either

 

also, older subaru used common ground on the speaker leads, meaning you need to run new wire directly from speaker to the headunit. You cannot use existing stock speaker wire on a aftermarket headunit on the old ones cause of the grounding system style.

 

you can stay with the existing stock harness with a stock radio, But since you are going for aftermarket you need to redo some speaker wiring..

 

In preparation of some bashing, yes i do know how to wire systems. I hit 129.5 DB on a single 12" in former car, of which i wired entirely I used to do this stuff and here is one on a suub

Edited April 19, 201114 yr by bheinen74

I think the connection from the Subaru harness to the metra is messed up.

Heres a radio harness diagram from a 86, it shouldnt be to much different.

 

 

The green is constant power and yellow is switched.

Thanks, and the fuse is not blown. It was, but I changed it. So, should I just use the stock harness for the power supply and wire the speakers directly to the head unit harness? I will try switching the red and yellow wires tomorrow. Also, what about the other plugs/connectors on the harness? are these just left out?

Wire up the speakers separate, but remember they have a common ground for front and rear. You wont get 4ch separation unless you run new wire to the speakers. If you have a voltage meter, find a switched hot and a constant hot, they should be in the stock harness. If not, run one from the fuse box (switched) and the battery (constant). If you run a constant from the battery put a in-line fuse in it.

so how would I work out a common ground system? I guess I am confused a little. I attached the Sony wiring diagram. Do I wire it like that, with the ground attached to the car body? or do I give each speaker its own ground? Sorry, it is just a little confusing to me.

To power the radio, all you need is three wires, Red, Yellow, and Black (ignition, always on, and ground). The ground you can do yourself, so all you need is two wires, the always on (yellow off the back of the deck), and the ignition on (red off the back of the deck).

 

Using the diagram Turbone posted, it looks like the green wire from the car will go to the yellow wire on the stereo, and the blue/yellow wire from the car will go to the red wire on the stereo. I am only guessing on that, so test the wires with a DMM (Digital Multi Meter), and if you don't have a DMM, get one before continuing. The green wire should always have 12+ volts, and the blue/yellow wire should show 12+ volts with the key on. Then find a ground on the car body and connect that to the black wire on the back of the stereo.

 

Now for the common ground system in the car for the speakers, just forget it exists. Run new wires for the front speakers, that's the easiest way. You can try to figure it out, but I would just run new wires. In fact that is what I did with my stereo install (multiple amps, new speakers and head unit as well as a sub). It was just easier than trying to figure out the common ground system, and then dealing with it once I figured it out. The common ground system as no benefits other that it was easy for subaru to do. Other than that it sucks, so just ditch it in favor of newer, better wires.

 

Obviously then just connect the new wires up the the back of the deck, and then you are done!

 

Hope that helps!

Wire up the speakers separate, but remember they have a common ground for front and rear. You wont get 4ch separation unless you run new wire to the speakers. If you have a voltage meter, find a switched hot and a constant hot, they should be in the stock harness. If not, run one from the fuse box (switched) and the battery (constant). If you run a constant from the battery put a in-line fuse in it.

 

 

Now for the common ground system in the car for the speakers, just forget it exists. Run new wires for the front speakers, that's the easiest way. You can try to figure it out, but I would just run new wires. In fact that is what I did with my stereo install (multiple amps, new speakers and head unit as well as a sub). It was just easier than trying to figure out the common ground system, and then dealing with it once I figured it out. The common ground system as no benefits other that it was easy for subaru to do. Other than that it sucks, so just ditch it in favor of newer, better wires.

 

I read here somewhere when I did my search on the subject that newer head units don't like being wired with a common ground and it's better for longevity purposes to run new speaker wires.

 

I never attempted to verify or invalidate the information, but it might be something to think about. As running new wire is not difficult, that's the route I went.

 

Dan

from your picture it appears that you have the yellow (radio side) attached to the orange(harness side) which is illumination +. the constant + is the yellow (car side) the one with the white plug with the male spade connector.

ya, I wasn't sure about that one. It comes in green on the stock harness, and was never really referenced. I just blew my timing belt (hopefully that is the only issue) so this project will be on hold for a week, but thanks for the inpput.