I am trying to install an aftermarket stereo in a 1999 XJ8 and I cannot find any resource telling me which wire is which. Anyone have such information or can anyone direct me to where to find it?

Thanks so much,
Craig

 

I should probably let 12volt answer this, but I'm going to lay a guess here:

The wires should be color coded the same as the after market wiring harness (or, at the very least, you should have been able to buy a harness adapter for your stereo).

If they're not color coded, are they labelled? As in, do you see any print on the wiring itself?

If neither of those are the case, typical wiring goes as follows:

red = accessory - the wire that goes to your ignition switch to power the radio up when your car is turned on. If you link this to the POWER WIRE, instead of the accessory wire, your stereo will be on all the time, and you'll have to manually shut it off when you turn the car off.

yellow = power - this wire goes to the battery

orange = illumination - the wire that goes to whatever lights up your stereo (if an option)

blue = power antenna - self explanatory

White and White/Black wires = left front speakers
Gray and Gray/Black = right front speakers
Green and Green/Black = left rear speakers
Purple and Purple/Black = right rear speakers

If the speaker wires are a different color, you can always do the try and fail method - do the power and accessory wires as shown above, then connect each set of speaker wires from the stereo to a set of speaker wires in your car and see which is what. Make sure to use the BALANCE and FADE settings on your stereo to get the correct speakers.

 

The stock harness does not use wiring color conventions that will match the new stereo and 'hit and miss' is asking for trouble, like damaging the amplifier (if you have one stock). THere is a diagram floating around in here for you... have you searched "stereo wiring" in the advanced search using XJ8/XJR forum?

I have a pdf containing the 2000 XJ8 series electrical wiring diagrams, including the entertainment system. It should be close enough for your 99, or at least a good start. If you pm me with an email address, and can accept a 2.8MB file, I'll be glad to send it to you.

 

From the electrical guide.....

For a car WITHOUT the Alpine upgrade (so Harmon Kardon written on the speaker grilles)

PRIMARY WIRE COLOUR/STRIPE COLOUR (where applicable)

BROWN/GREEN (x2) --> 12V constant
WHITE --> 12V Ignition live
BLACK --> Ground
GREEN/BLACK --> Aerial
YELLOW --> Front Right Speaker +
YELLOW/RED --> Front Right Speaker -
WHITE/GREEN --> Rear Right Speaker +
BLACK/ORANGE --> Rear Right Speaker -
YELLOW/BLUE --> Front Left Speaker +
ORANGE/YELLOW --> Front Left Speaker -
WHITE/BLUE --> Rear Left Speaker +
BLACK/WHITE --> Rear Left Speaker -

Other wires you probably won't use with an aftermarket stereo

ORANGE/YELLOW --> speed input (for active volume) --> NOTE : This is the same colour as one of the speaker wires..... I double checked the diagram and it is what it says. I'm hoping that the speaker wires will be clustered together in a multiplug or at least the + and - wires will be together to help you distingiush them from the speed input wire, which appears on the circuit diagram to be on its own.
RED --> Dimmer controlled lighting
RED/GREEN --> Dimmer override
RED/WHITE --> steering wheel control

If your car has the Alpine system, then the speaker outputs become more complex and they come directly from the amp, not the back of the stereo.

Let us know how you get on installing an aftermarket unit. It's a topic of frequent discussion here with the main challenge always being how to get a single din to fill the large hole in the dash and not look out of place

 

I appreciate all the advice. I did manage to find an accurate wiring diagram in the JTIS that was supplied from a forum user. I have the Alpine system (evidently) but not the one with an amp.

The head unit is in the car and powers up and plays music out of all the speakers, BUT it is barely audible even with the volume maxed out.

Any thoughts or ideas on this problem?

As an FYI, I saw that there seem to be a lot of folks having problems installing the JTIS program. I was able to just look in the folders and pull up the information as a pdf without installing the program. I am not sure what else the software might do, but at least the information is available without running the program.

 

Hi Oswald

Glad you've got the info you needed.

There isn't a mute/attentuate function on the system so I'm not sure what your problem could be. Maybe someone has had the thing up full blast and fried the speakers ?

Is it equally quiet on all sources ? (ie tape/CD/radio)

 

Got it working! There was a switch I had flipped to connect the cd changer. I flipped it back to the original position and everything works.

Now I just have to get the thing mounted somehow.

 

Hi,

I am trying to install a parrot bluetooth kit in my 2002 x308 and am having problems with the mute connection. Despite connecting to the wire under the centre console it refuses to mute! Can anyone let me know what the mute (and the line in connections) are on the back of the stereo itself please and then I can attempt to tap into them there...

Unless anyone knows why the connector under the console isn't working :-)

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

Hi Matt

Thats not good. There was a big thread on doing this and several members had success.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ghlight=parrot


Just to be 100% sure.... you do have the mute wire identified correclty ?

Mute (pin3) ............................ blue/yellow on the multi plug in the centre console ?

What happens when you get a phone call ? do you hear ringing and the sound from the stereo at the same time ? or does it just not do anything ? What happens if you have the stereo switched off and you call your phone ? Does the stereo swicth on (and say "Phone" in the display) and can you hear the ringing through the stereos front speakers ?

According to the wiring diagram, there should be a yellow wire coming out of the back of the head unit to control the muting so if you're feeling brave you could try that.

 

Hi Sarc,

Thanks for the reply. I have connected to the blue/yellow wire on pin 3 and nothing at all happens (even with the radio off). I have tried grounding the wire directly but with the same results... It is really confusing me as it should be so straight forward...

I will have a look for the yellow wire and see if that helps..

Do you know which wires the audio line in connections are on as well please in case I have issues with those as well?

Thanks again for all your help,

Matt

 

Hello again,

After my previous post I managed to get hold of the JTIS manual which had the wiring diagrams I needed (result!).

It seems that the American version is different to the British (in fact the diagram shows two wiring versions - NAS and ROW which I am assuming means North American System and Rest Of World). In the American system the telephone wiring exits the head unit and then terminates at RT2 in the console, however in all other versions the wiring exits the head unit and then runs straight to the fuse box in the boot (trunk to you :-) ). The telephone module then connects here and a separate loom runs from the boot back to the centre console for the handset (RT3). The wiring loom actually describes two distinct phone systems for the two markets.

(For reference the connector in the boot is IC25 and pin4 is the mute connection - in fact all info is in fig 16.1 and 17.2)

So armed with this new information I ran out to the car armed with a short length of wire, popped open the boot and grounded pin4 - success!! The stereo muted and 'phone' was displayed as expected.

This of course doesn't explain why RT2 still has the supposed mute wire in place, but I can only assume its part of all looms and at some point it simply ends before getting near the stereo.

Anyway, thanks for all your help and I hope this information may be of use to someone else (its been driving me mental!!)

Cheers,

Matt

 

Well played Matt ! The bluetooth is a really great addition to the car.

Very interesting about there being 2 different wiring options. I have the 2000 electrical guide and it only has one version of radio telephone, so this is great info for other non-USA users who may have the same issues as you did.

I'm going to go back to the original thread and make a post there to direct ROW folks to this thread so they can also get the benefit of your work.

Just out of interest, where did you mount your parrot display unit ? There's been a few variations shown here so it's always interesting to see something different.

You will now of course HAVE TO do the mp3 /ipod connectivity feature as well :-)

 

I have a CK3100 parrot, so it is a bit smaller than the CK3200 already described. I have mounted it on the dash just under and to the right (RHD of course) of the centre air vents. I managed to run the wiring to the controls without having to take any of the dash itself apart (other than the centre console itself of course) and simply stuck it to the wood with the supplied adhesive pads.

All in all a good result!

Cheers,

Matt

 

BTW if you want a copy of the wiring diagram I used sent me an email addy and I'll forward it on..

 

Yes, would be interested. Have PMed you

 

Actually I can't PM you as your profile is set not to receive private messages, anyway, email is scott at scottcorboy dot com

 

@ icarus

Hi I'm also in the UK, and have tried to install Bluetooth into my 2001 XJ Sov. It doesn't seem to have worked, but I see you have had success with it. Would you be able to help discover where I've gone wrong? And where the boot ground is. Ta, Stu.

 

Hi,

I'll be glad to help if I can.. how far did you get with the install? what problem(s) are you having?

Cheers,

Matt

 

I connected all the wires as directed, taking into account the ROW colour changes. As I said I did hav the Jag phone already there, I don't know if I have to use part of that loom too, I assumed not. I'm actually not getting any power flowing to my Bluetooth device either, despite following the guide from Jim Roal.

I have clearly missed something or not understood the wiring looms correctly.

Thank You so much for your help, it won't be forgotten!

 

That is strange, you should at least have power...

Are you tapping into the white connector (RT2) in the central console or the connector in the boot by the battery?