ZX radio adaptor, wiring & speakers.

David W · Unread post by **David W** » 02 Apr 2004, 19:19

This hasn't come up for a while so just a reminder...
Just got round to buying a facia adaptor for the ZX so I can replace the rather weedy standard stereo with a decent Sony unit.
Genuine facia adaptor was a few pence under £10.50 from Citroen parts counter. A search on the net would lead you to think the usual price was £29.99 plus postage, because that is what most of the online outlets want. Used ones even fetch £15 on Ebay!
David

reblack68 · Unread post by **reblack68** » 02 Apr 2004, 20:16

It's a similar story with the Ford Escort one. It's £12 for a pretend one from Halfords or under £4 for the real thing from Ford.

tonyb1 · Unread post by **tonyb1** » 03 Apr 2004, 00:59

I paid 15 quid for mine and 20 for the adaptor lead, well worth it though, my Sony CDX3000 beats the old Clarion hands down

Stuart McB · Unread post by **Stuart McB** » 03 Apr 2004, 01:44

It's not like people on this site haven't mentioned it before. I paid £10.20 from Citroen for mine after reading this site. I've seen them on E-bay for £20. Go figure. The one I did want but couldn't get was for my Xsara VTR when I changed the head unit to a Sony. Went the local main dealer and was told the Citroen had stopped making the adapter plate. So ended up making my own.

David W · Unread post by **David W** » 03 Apr 2004, 14:12

Fair point Stuart but I hadn't seen it mentioned for a while and was amazed the online guys were still up to their pricing tricks.
So what have you guys done in the way of speaker upgrades, I just mean for the "average" guy not the 500W 12" gear!
Ours is an Advantage with the standard Citroen unit and just two speakers in the front doors. The holes are there in the rear doors behind the trim, as are the wiring plugs. The front speakers are 20W, look a bit cheap, and have an angled tweeter in the middle.
My Sony stereo I'm fitting is a few years old but with excellent sound, a fairly reasonable 25W x2 or 15Wx4.
Wondering if it is better to upgrade the front door speakers to some better quality units and fit dash tweeters, leave the fronts and add rear door speakers...or do everything to get a 6 speaker setup (like my SX Xantia which sounds fine as standard).
Comments appreciated.
David

rossnunn · Unread post by **rossnunn** » 03 Apr 2004, 16:59

When i fitted my new headunit I was really impressed with the standard speakers. But after a while I noticed that they weren't as sharp or crisp as I would like so have upgraded to a set of 170W Components.
Changing the headunit really makes a difference!
My Mother has a Xantia and the standard speakers are pretty good, and there just the fronts! - Im accualy suprised she's made them last this long!
Has anyone heard the sound system in the new corsa's? Again I was really impressed with that. Factory Speakers certenly come along way.

Stuart McB · Unread post by **Stuart McB** » 04 Apr 2004, 20:55

I have the Avantage model and was thinking about putting rear door speakers in. Your right that the holes are cut in and the wiring is there, but thats were it stop's. On mine it only seems to go as far as the plug in the door not any further, not down the door pillar or in to the car so I would have to get the trim up etc to fit, so have left it for time being. To check just pull the rubber plug from the door pillar and check the wiring. If you have only 2 wires then thats for the central locking. S for the front door speakers they sound OK but I am an old f*rt who only listens to moderatley loud music or so the wife says.

David W · Unread post by **David W** » 05 Apr 2004, 00:31

Ahh, that's worth knowing Stuart. Wonder if they are all the same?
Sorted the speakers but not changed the head unit because...
My replacement has lost its block connector years ago and now all the wires are brought to a terminal strip. So the quickest way this weekend would have been to cut off the two standard Citroen plugs and lead each wire to the appropriate terminal on the stereo's strip.
But the thought of re-wiring it all if I put the original Citroen stereo back!!!
I was sure you could get an adaptor lead that has two sockets to receive the Citroen plugs and then approx 200mm wire tails so those could go to my terminal strip.
Now I can't find any reference to such a lead on the net. Anyone used one?
David

Dave Burns · Unread post by **Dave Burns** » 05 Apr 2004, 01:01

Hi David, go to http://www.maplin.co.uk and type iso connector in the search field.
There are two types, one is the loom to head unit (female) and the other is the head unit to loom (male), I think you will need the male version, the site doesn't refer to them as male and female, thats just my assumption.
Dave

DomF9 · Unread post by **DomF9** » 05 Apr 2004, 03:05

I have changed my Citroen head unit for a Sony CDXL480 (cheap n cheerful at £90) and fitted two Pioneer 6x9s in the rear parcel shelf. I've kept the original mids in the front doors to retain 4-way sound. I must say that the 6x9s really do make the difference, as they give enough bass to back up the front speakers without going to excess. That said, my other half has been two cars behind me in traffic and swore she could hear my music over everything else!
If you take your car to anywhere reasonably decent, they should be able to reconnect the block connectors for you and supply you with the head unit to loom lead. It should be male one end (to go into stereo) and female the other(to accept the male block connectors from the ZX loom). Hope that helps.

David W · Unread post by **David W** » 05 Apr 2004, 13:56

Thanks.
Dave,
Those Maplin "tails" are just what I need. Now I've seen them I might try in Halfords when I'm in town later, at least I know they exist and have a rough idea of price. Also I was reminded I need a Din-Standard aerial adaptor which I noticed on the website.
Dom,
I have loads of speakers saved from cars over the years including some Pioneer 6" bass units....but the good lady uses this ZX and would have little respect for unplugging the speaker leads before taking the parcel shelf out for larger loads!! I've decided to upgrade the standard ZX front speakers to some expensive bass/mid units I took from a BX years ago (same fit) and put stand-alone JBL tweeters on top of the dash each end. I'll not worry about the rear speakers in the original door bottom position because they are very low and the sound will get lost if anything is in the rear footwells.
It's a bit hard to explain but my replacement stereo is quite old and had the arrangement where the wiring was a permanent fix to the unit and there were connectors (cut off years ago) at the end of these wires. So what I need (and what Maplins have) is the female socket to take the standard Citroen plugs (that normally go into the back of the Cit head unit) and then just end in wire tails that I can connect to each appropriate wire on the Sony stereo with a terminal strip.
David

Sl4yer · Unread post by **Sl4yer** » 09 Apr 2004, 01:05

I've been to the local Cit dealer today to get a facsia adapter for the Volcane (and also a new set of parcel shelf strings).
They knew nothing about the adapter, couldn't even find it. They said they bought theirs in from a local motoring superstore, and they couldn't imagine the part could be cheaper from Citroen!. ****ing useless as always! [:(!]
Looks like I'll have to pay Halfrauds £20 for one.

David W · Unread post by **David W** » 09 Apr 2004, 01:30

Tell the Citroen guys to put in part number 8212EM, I've got the packet for the one I bought last week in front of me...they even had it in stock!
Pay no more than £9.81 plus vat.
The more I hear on this forum the more I reckon we've got the best Citroen parts counter guys in the UK. They'll help or find anything for you.
David

Sl4yer · Unread post by **Sl4yer** » 09 Apr 2004, 02:43

OK, thanks for that David. [:)]

rossnunn · Unread post by **rossnunn** » 09 Apr 2004, 18:54

On my 3 dr Eleation there is a plug half way down on the passangers side that has two grey wires, could these be rear speaker wires? I have noticed one grey wire goes forward and one towards the back of the car???