# Wiring stereo direct to leisure battery



## whitevanwoman (Jun 24, 2012)

I'm fitting a car stereo in the back of my Transit and just wanted to check with regards to the wiring...

There are 4 wires, yellow, blue, red and black. The instructions say to connect the yellow to the permanent live feed (12v), the blue to the aerial, the red to the ignition key, and the black to the ground. 

My leisure battery is wired in with a Smartcom relay. I also have a little beer sized 12v fridge wired direct into the smartcom. I have croc clips off the battery to a female cig lighter socket into which I have a 3 way cig socket adapter with 2 x usbs (5 amp max - I know that one cos I've blown the fuse several times  )

I'd like to wire the stereo direct to the leisure battery but not sure if it needs to go into the Aux slot in the smartcom or whether it can by pass the smartcom and go direct to the battery terminals and if so which is the best way to connect the wires to the terminals? And will I need an inline fuse somewhere? 

So, in simple language please, where do I wire the yellow, red and black wires to? 

I have just realised I could be waiting a couple of hours for an answer  :sad:....   a certain football match is about to start  ....


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## Firefox (Jun 24, 2012)

Connect the yellow and red together, put an inline fuse (probably 5 or 8 or 10A depending on the wattage of radio) and take the wire from the fuse direct onto the positive battery terminal (I think there is a screw you can loosen where the charge wire from the smart relay comes and you can screw it in with that wire).

The black wire do the same onto the negative terminal of the battery and you don't need a fuse in that line.

The blue one you can just leave unconnected for the moment.

(not watching the footie, BTW!)


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## Funky Farmer (Jun 24, 2012)

I think you will find the blue is for an electric ariel


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## Firefox (Jun 24, 2012)

Yep blue is for the power ariel.

Connected up this way, you need to remember to switch the radio off after use or it will flatten the leisure battery. The red wire usually goes to an ignition feed so it switches off with the engine, but a leisure radio is a bit different as you want it on while the engine is stopped. The yellow wire is for permanent memory I think. Code and presets etc. Just connect yellow and red together and to the permanent feed in this case.


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## Bigpeetee (Jun 24, 2012)

Firefox said:


> Connect the yellow and red together, put an inline fuse (probably 5 or 8 or 10A depending on the wattage of radio) and take the wire from the fuse direct onto the positive battery terminal (I think there is a screw you can loosen where the charge wire from the smart relay comes and you can screw it in with that wire).
> 
> The black wire do the same onto the negative terminal of the battery and you don't need a fuse in that line.
> 
> ...


 But the end of the blue must be insulated


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## whitevanwoman (Jun 24, 2012)

Thanks Firefox, I'll keep you posted. 

Thanks Bigpeteee, I hadn't thought about the blue being live - doh! I'm not connecting an aerial at the moment, I just want to have some music, but I will probably wire in an aerial in due course. 
So I was just going to leave the bare wire dangling....  :scared:  
that's why I always check....  :help:
and why I ask for idiot-proof instructions :lol-053:

Btw, I now have a waste water feed to underneath the van through the floor, and my little dressing table / bedroom cabinet which I got from the village jumble sale years ago for £1, is now a water storage unit with potential as a sink unit in the Transit :dance:

On the down side...  

I've discovered that I've still got a leak inside one side of the van at the rear despite having sikaflex'd every seal / seam I could find :mad2:


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## Firefox (Jun 26, 2012)

I can't remember if the wires were stripped on the ends when we looked at Helwith, but basically the blue one would just give a pulse when the radio was switched on or off to tell the ariel to come out or retract. So it wouldn't be live all the time I don't think. But best to insulate it though as BPT says in case it dangled against something at an embarrassing moment ;D

Your bathroom sink is in a similar state to mine but I am getting one of these:

Ring Automotive RS1 12V Portable Shower: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike

I've got 25 litre water container under the sink...

So hopefully it will all be fully operational by lift-off


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## maingate (Jun 26, 2012)

On some vehicles the blue wire has power on all of the time if the aerial has a built in booster. I have just fitted an aftermarket radio in my car and had to fit an additional aerial adaptor which has a blue cable attached. This had to be fed from the radio, otherwise reception would suffer.


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