K11 New Alpine 9850ri HU not working

[Marco]

Hi, I am new to this forum but I have been reading it for a week. My girlfiend bought a 1994 (quite old) Micra k11, 998cc, which is in good condition but had the standard radio/cassette and 1 speaker blown off. We both have ipods and therefore decided to replace the speakers and the HU. I have already found very good advice on this forum about how to replace the door speakers, so today I made 2 x 6mm MDF rings, removed the original grills, and fitted 2 JBL GTO 6526 - 16.5cm speakers (however nobody mentioned that I had to drill new holes to fit them with JBL own grills (the standard would not fit the new spacer and the long tweeter)). Anyway, I also replaced the HU with the Alpine 9850ri, used Nissan to ISO connectors that I connected to the Alpine's ISO, but then the HU would not turn on. First thing I've noticed is that the Alpine's ISO do not have the orange wire going into it, but instead the orange wire end in a "bullet connector" (not sure if it is the proper definition). On the other end, The Nissan to ISO connector has the orange wire into the ISO end. The Alpine wiring diagram says that the Orange wire is the Dimmer. The HU sticker says it is the Lighting. I have read on this forum about the earthing problems, but could not be this un-connected orange wire the problem?

Also, if I had to connect the earth to the dashboard, what shall I do without cutting the ISO adaptors? Is the black wire the earth? or which one? ANy urgent help would be very much appreciated so I can use this Sunday (tomorrow) to fix it for good.

Thanks

Marco

 

[Retepetsir]

The dimmer just basically means that when your lights are turned on, the screen on the headunit will be dimmed to prevent it from blinding you at night!

The black one coming from the Alpine headunit will be your earth wire, and you will definitely need to connect this. You can connect it to the metal section that runs up the side of the centre console and right by the headunit (on the right hand side).

 

[Marco]

Hi Retepetsir,

Thank you very much for replying to my post.

Please let me ask you some more details. Baring in mind that I will remove the Alpine HU to install it in our new car (hopefully in April/May 07), I would not want to cut out any wire from the Alpine ISO connector. I would not mind instead to cut out the harness adaptor.

One thing is not clear to me if the normal black wire (negative/earth), already connected to the car, needs to stay there, or do I need to by/pass it and connect it ONLY to the side metal plate?

About the fitting of the HU, shall I buy the brackets intended for Japanese car installation? would that alone guarantee the earthing of the unit or still I need to connect the black wire (sorry to ask again :blush: )?

Also, do you recommend that I DO connect the orange wire by by/passing the harness adaptor?


(edited at 21.35)
Never mind, I fix it!

First of all I realised that the Alpine cables had the yellow and red wires disconnected from the iso end, and I had to connecte these through their own bullet connectors (sorry, but there was no light yesterday when I first tried...). Having Done that, I then cut of the black wire from the "Nissan" end of the Harness adaptor, and connect it with a screw to the original mounting holes in the dasboard (metal chassis). I did not connect yet the orange wire and surely I have too much light at night coming from the HU..

It now works and surely the sound is 100 times better then the original set-up. I have to say that Alpine and JBL still did not fail to impress me with their middle range products (the first set up with those two brands that I had the pleasure to appreciate was in the middle 80's in my older cosine Golf).

Thanks again