Alpine Car Audio & Video Wire Harnesses for Universal

Frequently Asked Questions About Alpine Car Audio and Video Wire Harnesses

Universally compatible with any automobile's stereo system, these Alpine car audio and video wire harnesses connect a new car stereo to your vehicle's wiring. Offering connections for the power and speaker wires, they also provide connections for the new car stereo's ground and illumination wires. With these wire harnesses from Alpine, you'll be able to match the wires for each component to the car stereo's wiring harness.

There are several units available from Alpine that are universal, meaning that they are compatible with most car stereos. They are available in your choice of standard type or with amplifier integration.

The brightness of the display on many car stereos is adjusted by the illumination wire. Whether or not the vehicle's lights are on control this feature. Many leave this wire unconnected for maximum display brightness, and it's not necessary for the stereo to work. Should you choose to connect the illumination wire, however:

• Preparation: Start by disconnecting the negative battery terminal beneath the hood with a socket wrench.
• Locate the illumination wires: Find the orange cable coming out of the back of the stereo's wire harness. Next, find the corresponding cable on the harness adapter that's used to coordinate with the factory harness in the dash.
• Prep the wires: After stripping off an inch from the end of the illumination cables, insert them into opposite ends of a 16-gauge crimp connector.
• Connection: Line up the crimp connector's collar within the jaws of the crimping tool and squeeze firmly to fasten the wires within it.
• Remaining wires: In the same fashion, match, strip, and connect the rest of the wires in the harness as needed.
• Try it out: Turn the negative battery terminal back on after the wiring is secured. Turn on the car stereo and test this by turning on the vehicle's headlights. If the stereo display dims with the headlights on and returns to normal brightness when they're not on, all is correct.

Please keep in mind that each system setup can be very different. While not all harnesses adhere to the following code, most do.

• Amplifier and antenna wires: Blue is the antenna wire. Blue with a white stripe is the amplifier remote turn-on wire.
• Ground wire: The ground wire is black.
• Power wires: Yellow is the constant 12V or memory keep alive wire. Red is the accessory wire. Orange, or orange with white strip, is the illumination wire.
• Audio wires: Gray is the positive front right speaker wire. Gray with a white strip is the negative right front speaker wire. White is the positive front left speaker wire. The white wire with a black stripe is the negative left front speaker. Purple is the positive right rear speaker wire, and the purple wire with the black stripe is the negative right rear speaker. Green is the positive left rear speaker wire, and green with a black stripe is the negative left rear speaker.