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MG MGF Technical - MGF Car Stereo replacement

Hello,
My partner recently bought an MGF (97) which had the original tape deck in car. She bought herself a new CD player (Sony) which I imagined would be fairly easy to fit. Upon trying to set up last night I was finding no power at all for the new stereo. I have been told it may be because the new ster's have two power leads and I needed to change over a lead from one red route to another. I tried this also without any luck.

Any help or thoughts would be GREATLY appreciated.

Ta

Michael
Michael

This is odd - as the MGF has ISO standard connectors, which means, in my experience at least, stereos broadly are plug and play. Certainly this was the case for my Sony HU.

Have a look at Dieter's website - it shows the electrical diagram for the radio-cassette unit - http://www.lame-delegation.de/mgfcar.de/epc/717.htm

Three power cables to look at - Light green/white tracer, Red/black tracer and Purple. One of these will be a permanent live, and another a switched live... compare the cables at your car's connector to the wiring diagram hopefully supplied with your new CD player.

But before doing anything more drastic, I would suggest that it may be worth your while checking the fuses - it's just possible that one has blown when you removed the old unit and replaced it with the new...

Let us know how you get on
Rob Bell

Michael,
I recently went the other way retro fitting the original MG radio cassette and removing a chavtastic CD machine which had no instructions. I made a note of all the colours and usage. from memory there are two power leads - yellow which is a switched main power for the unit and a red permanently powered for the security code/station preselects etc.
Do you have a multimeter(hugely worthwhile and simple to use)?
The data is at home so post again this evening if you would like more details...
Charles

Michael,

If the two plugs fit the new head unit, then the systems should be compatible as they are to ISO standard.

As Rob says, check for a blown fuse.

Could even be the new one's duff???

While you've got the head unti out, it's worth while checking for any frayed wiring in the loom behind where the radio fits.

Good luck!

Sam
Sam Murray

Michael,I have had this problem before on some Rover group vehicles,is it a Philips head unit?.I seem to remember some units have an extra plug at right angles to the standard ISO sockets and this has the switched power feed in it(I think Charles is correct in saying its yellow or yellow/red).It is simple enough to alter the wiring to the correct configuration,but this non standard layout does stop it being a simple plug and play task,good old Rover group! hope this is of some help.Regards Steve.
Steve Smith

Steve,The extra plug at right angles on my Phillips 741 R/Cass is for steering wheel mounted controls vol/station/bass/treble/bal and is of course unused on a standard F.
The switched power feed is yellow and the permanent power is red on a 96 model loom - these are both in the horizontal ISO plugs. Any joy Michael?
Multimeter is still hugely recommended for this sort of messing about and they are well under a tenner at your local Maplins(even Halfrauds maybe)! Hope it is fixed now...:o)
C.R.B. Simeon

Simeon,last week I fitted a Nokia hands free kit into a 98 Rover 620 which had a Philips head unit,the switched power came into this extra plug as I had to cut this wire via a relay to mute the set when the phone kit was activated(there is no radio mute on some of these older sets).I know this works as I've written in my notes for future reference,as I am an auto electrician doing this sort of thing all the time.However I agree with you a minute with a meter or test lamp should fix the problem very quickly.Regards Steve.
Steve Smith

Oops, realised that I posted the wrong link earlier in the thread - here's the relevant page: http://www.mgfcar.de/schedules/sb7.jpg
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 29/06/2006 and 30/06/2006

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.