A new stereo can reignite your driving life. After purchasing the audio system, you may ask yourself this question: How can I test my car radio to understand whether it’s working?
In case you don’t possess technical knowledge of how to do it, don’t worry. The simple steps outlined and explained here will offer you the support you require to connect a car stereo to a 12 V battery successfully.
Table of Contents
Steps of connecting a car audio system to a 12 battery
Before you commence the procedure, ensure that you have the right tools that are required for the job. You need screwdrivers, a panel removal, wire strippers, and an electrical tape. Because you’re connecting the stereo straight to the battery, it’s critical to protect the radio using a fuse. Remember, the audio system is expensive and requires enough safety in case of an electrical error.
Step 1: Battery charge
The first step is to ensure that the car battery has enough charge. In case the battery lacks sufficient charge, it’s advisable to apply a mains battery charger to recharge it. A battery without charge or insufficient voltage can’t power the radio.
Step 2: Examining different kinds of wires
Your audio system comes with separate stereo wire. Sometimes it’s challenging to understand what each wire is meant for. In case you find yourself in this situation, it’s critical to go through the manual that comes with the car stereo.
Your intention at this point is to find out the positive of the battery, ground wire, and the accessory positive. To make your work simple, you can use either use a test light or multi-meter. You can also use a wiring adaptor, which makes it easy for you to connect your car radio system to the vehicle’s clip.
At the back of the wiring harness, there are different wires in various colors. Yellow and red are for energy and memory while black is for ground. The remaining cables are used for connecting the audio system to external loudspeakers.
Step 3: Metal terminals
The metal terminals are placed above the battery posts and offer security and stability to the wires. Remember, vibrations can easily dismantle the connections.
Step 4: Connecting the wires
The red and yellow wires are connected from the audio system and bound to the positive terminal. Ensure that you strip the yellow and red wires of the stereo, and attach them to the corresponding wires on your Computer Power Supply Unit (PSU). Next, pick the black wire of your audio system, strip it, and bind it to the black cable of your PSU.
You can use a glass fuse to attach them together. You need to connect the black wire to the negative terminal on the vehicle’s battery. At this point, you may notice some sparks emanating from the battery while attaching the wires. This is normal and shouldn’t worry as it signifies that the battery has sufficient charge.
Step 5: Securing the connections
After attaching all the wires to their respective cables, you must make sure that the links are durable. The techniques that you can apply to connect wires together permanently include soldering, twisting the wires together and wrapping them using an electric tape and use of connectors.
If you want to solder the wires together, you need to have a soldering iron. Soldering makes your wiring durable and will stay for a long time. With soldering, your system will always get power with minimal interruptions.
The connectors help to put the wires together as the cables are twisted together and crimped with pliers. The connectors also give a permanent attachment.
Conclusion
Testing whether your new car stereo is working is pretty simple. However, many people tend to think that wiring a car stereo to a 12V battery is rocket science. However, that isn’t the case as you can easily do it yourself. This guide offers you the critical steps that you can follow to connect the stereo to a 12v battery which includes:
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- Ensuring that the battery has enough charge
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- Examining different kinds of wires
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- Connecting the wires
- Securing the connections
