Ok, Hubby's got a nissan primera (cough cough) with one of those cool radios that only get classic hits :lol: . I brought a band expander for it, pulled the thing apart only to find i need to place a red wire from the new box to the radio "power source". Which ones the power source? theres like 20 wires going into the back of the darn thing. Hubby's answer was to put it in with the red wire, but theyre red with a black stripe, rainbow colours with grey spots and stripes etc. Anyone done this before? as i have to drive this car cause it's "too flash" for him to take to work and he drives my old ute (with a primo stereo set up) 8) . Thanks from a rock fan

Accessory wire. The wire that has a 12v feed when the ignition is on and turns off when keys are out

yep that's it. may even be labeled such.

no labels, which colour wire would i be looking for? Obviously the radio would need power but just locating it is the prob. Also does it need to be earthed to work? I only get between 5-5.30pm to do my thing so today i'll have more time to try the different wires.

http://installdr.com/Harnesses/Nissan-Wiring.pdf

If it comes down to it just use the power for your cig lighter that is accessory..

no labels, which colour wire would i be looking for? Obviously the radio would need power but just locating it is the prob. Also does it need to be earthed to work? I only get between 5-5.30pm to do my thing so today i'll have more time to try the different wires.

This is one of the reasons everyone should have a multimeter. Dick smith sells ones that are great for things like this for about $10.

Yeah we've got a multi meter, I'm just lazy thats all and they dont tell me much, well, i dont understand them. thought someone could save me 5 min of poking around. found the blue wire with the silver stripe worked.

The ac wire is what your looking for.

Nissan primera lol i did a head unit change in one last week.

The ac wire should either be a red or orange wire.

use the multimeter to test,put earth on metal frame of car and use red end to test wires.

Should read just over 12 volts when keys are on and 0 volts when keys are off.

test the wires until you find the right one.

If it comes down to it just use the power for your cig lighter that is accessory..

I second that It is a lot easier to use the sig lighter because it normally only has 2 wires (red and black)

yeah trouble is the cig lighter is on a different part of the console [sp?]

yeah trouble is the cig lighter is on a different part of the console [sp?]

Get a longer wire

If you don't have a multi meter try just using a light bulb and earth it to the car body.

I'm almost certain its the red wire. Just try it anyway, you cant do any damage if its wrong.

Depending on the type of head unit, the majority of "standard" sized ones only have 2 power wires, Accessory and Battery (i.e 1 thats works with the key (usually red) and one which works all the time (usually yellow). The rest are speaker wires, earth (usually black) or remote amp/electric aerial wires.

Because the band expander isn't actually creating power, it wont matter if you hook it up to the wrong wire. It'll either work or not. Trial and error.

Alternatively if ur not that keen, take a pic of what you can see. One of us should be able to work out one that'll work for ya