2004 Jetta Radio Intall ?

Knoxville · Feb 7, 2009

Time to upgrade the factory radio/tape/CD player on my 04 Jetta....

A couple of quick questions...

On the Alpine CD player that I bought, it has a larger Yellow wire that is for the 12 volt power continuous. The Red wire is the hot wire for the ignition switch that will turn on the head unit when the key is on or off.. The wiring harness adapter has a yellow wire on it for the power, but no ignition wire that I can tell of.

1) Should I run a wire from the fuse box up to the red wire that is hot only when the key is on?

2) I had one wire on the harness adapter that I'm not using, the blue Power Ant wire. Would that do the same?

Is there anything else that I need to do?? I have the adapter plate for the dash with a hold already drilled for the Ipod cable to route through.

I know, try it and see, but I don't have the car right now. I hope to pick it up tomorrow and I want a speedy install without having to figure a bunch of things out.

Thanks.

Knox

pyankura · Feb 7, 2009

The best suggestion that I can give is to buy the adapter from Best Buy and now you have a schematic for what all you need to connect. Their is a gray wire I believe that is the communication for your radio. This is strange I know but you must cut it from the VW plug. Leave about and inch from back of plug so that later you can reconnect if need be. Even though it is not used it will still give a cel sometimes. Very strange but true.

Knoxville said:
Time to upgrade the factory radio/tape/CD player on my 04 Jetta....

A couple of quick questions...

On the Alpine CD player that I bought, it has a larger Yellow wire that is for the 12 volt power continuous. The Red wire is the hot wire for the ignition switch that will turn on the head unit when the key is on or off.. The wiring harness adapter has a yellow wire on it for the power, but no ignition wire that I can tell of.

1) Should I run a wire from the fuse box up to the red wire that is hot only when the key is on?

2) I had one wire on the harness adapter that I'm not using, the blue Power Ant wire. Would that do the same?

Is there anything else that I need to do?? I have the adapter plate for the dash with a hold already drilled for the Ipod cable to route through.

I know, try it and see, but I don't have the car right now. I hope to pick it up tomorrow and I want a speedy install without having to figure a bunch of things out.

Thanks.

Knox

JASONP · Feb 7, 2009

Don't cut anything in that harness.Get the proper wiring adapter from wherever you get it,pre-wire on your bench according to diagram and installation guide for head unit.
If you cut the OE wire harnes you will get communication errors,when trying to diagnos,and radio will not turn onwithout key being on all the way.
I replaced mine 2 yrs ago and when I shut the car off(key all the way back)the radio remains on till the key is pulled out

pyankura · Feb 7, 2009

Ah, yez Zhiz it why I zuggezted to cut 1 wire. Zhiz 1 wire iz de CAN line from Zhe factory hernezz. Zhiz 1 wire left in zhe factory harnezz is for connection to zhe factory radio. If zhiz 1 wire iz not cut, it can make izzuez when connecting to zhe ecu when connecting aftermarket radio. We have zeen zhiz zeveral timez and we find if zhiz wire iz cut, it makez no problem to connect to ecu. I was not zuggezting to cut all, zhis iz nightmare and no like. But leave about an inch on factory harnezz to reconnect later if get rid of car. Maybe it makez like antenna but zhis iz true. Maybe not alwayz but why pull radio out if it iz.

Seriously, don't cut it just remove pin and wire form the harness if you can.

JASONP said:
Don't cut anything in that harness.Get the proper wiring adapter from wherever you get it,pre-wire on your bench according to diagram and installation guide for head unit.
If you cut the OE wire harnes you will get communication errors,when trying to diagnos,and radio will not turn onwithout key being on all the way.
I replaced mine 2 yrs ago and when I shut the car off(key all the way back)the radio remains on till the key is pulled out

Knoxville · Feb 7, 2009

pyankura ????

Z = T

Z = S

I can read what you wrote, but why make it complicated? Is that supposed to be humorous?

I'll make it work, I'm not cutting any wires on the factory harness until I see a CEL. Then I'll worry about it. I'll talk to a mechanic tomorrow. I just thought I could get ahead of the game....

I can extract the pin from the factory harness if it needs to be removed. Tape it up and then I could always re-insert it.

Knox

weedeater · Feb 7, 2009

the newer cars do not use Ignition for turn on, they use the CAN bus which means a computer sends it a signal. In older cars there was an Ignition-Hot terminal on the fuse/relay panel up under the dash, drivers side. I believe it is marked 'I75'.

The Blue Power Antenna wire from the new RADIO will be needed to power the antenna adapter you bought with the radio. You DID get one, didn't you? Because you'll need it to power the antenna amplifier located in the base of the antenna on the roof.

Knoxville · Feb 8, 2009

Yes, I did get the adapter that plugs into the VW harness. So Power Ant hooks to the Power Ant for the amplifier. Thanks for that bit of info.

I'm left with one wire now.....

The red switch wire on the radio. The wiring diagram on the radio shows that it needs to be hooked to a power input which is on when the key is on. Could I hook it to the blue Power Ant wire since it should only have voltage when the key is on?? I'd like to get away from running a wire if possible.

As far as getting the factory radio OUT of an 04 Jetta... Any special tool needed?? I'm thinking so, but can that be engineered?

Will a tool that pops them out of a say 2000 jetta be used?

Thanks.

Knox

JayT · Feb 10, 2009

You should run the red wire (switched power) to the fuse box. If memory serves the yellow constant power wire will be for the preset memory/clock etc.

ditto on getting a wire harness

fossill · Feb 11, 2009

Why do they have to make the wiring to the radio so complicated? To deter you from buying an aftermarket unit. Sure aint for theft resistance. Who'd want to steal one of these oEM units anyway?

CoreyS · Aug 21, 2019

I know this conversion is 10 years old, but I just purchased a 2004 VW Jetta and was running into issues with installing an aftermarket radio and getting power to the radio. I've found many instances of people running wires to the fuse panel to get switched power to the aftermarket radio. I was uncomfortable with the idea of pulling a fuse out and just cramming a new wire in behind the fuse and putting the fuse back in. Just wanted to share that I found an item at Fleet Farm which will expand one fuse slot into 2 and allow for a safe extension of the single fuse slot. This seems much better than just shoving an extra wire into the fuse slot like I've seen many images of people doing.

Littelfuse MINI Add-A-Circuit Fuse Holder w/ 5 Fuses
https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/littelfuse-mini-add-a-circuit-fuse-holder-w-5-fuses/0000000312417

Hopefully someone finds this helpful.

2004 Jetta Radio Intall ?

Knoxville

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pyankura

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JASONP

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pyankura

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Knoxville

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weedeater

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Knoxville

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JayT

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fossill

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CoreyS

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