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Fitting a CD player and Speakers in to R4

V

Verycherry

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I’m considering fitting a CD player and speakers in to my car and I’m not having much luck with it. I took a trip to my local Halfords and they charged me an obscene amount to fit it, they said it’s going to be a massive job!

I have a friend though that has offered to do it but I thought I would check with everybody else to see if there’s anything I should be warned about! He's fitted them before but not in a Renault 4!!

Where shall I put it for starters??? I have a GTL 1985, my friend has suggested underneath the dash on the passengers side for the unit and have the speakers either in the foot wells or the parcel shelf, where does everyone have there’s, if you have them at all??

Any replies would be great!

Thanks!
 
don't you have the plastic radio console?? if you don't have one try to find one if possible..makes it a lot easier

my speakers are near my feet, there you have some small space to fix them in a wooden plate or something.
or you can make some holes in the back(how is the thing called covering the boot of the car?? parcel shelf?)
wires you can easily fix through the centre(underneath the handbrake)
good luck
greetings from holland

cees
 
On my GTL there is a CD player in the plastic console below the gearstick and four speakers, two on the back parcel shelf and two on the shelves below the dashboard.

They were already there when I got the car but it looks straightforward enough to do.
 
I gather then that putting a cd player at the angle of the radio console doesn't cause it any problems. Bob.
 
I've had a CD player in mine in the past and it's been fine.

It's possible to mount a speaker just above the radio in the plastic radio console (indeed the console has a speaker grille) if you don't want to make holes elsewhere in the car. That's my plan for my next project.
 
Nope. Six years later and not a single problem, although I have been told that that angle does cause problems so maybe its not worth risking?
 
Thank you all for your replies! My Renault 4 doesn't have a radio console or any fittings at all, is this unusual for a 1985 model?

The person at Halfords commented on the angles as to where to put the actual unit, he said that having it mounted under the dash wouldn't be a good idea as there wasn't enough support to hold it without CD's jumping. I suggested having it drilled to the floor as my friend has his on the floor of his mini but he argued that legally he couldn't do that. The only thing he suggested was having it under the passenger seat which seems unpractical to me!

I don't know, I think I might just go with buying a bracket and having it under the dash as this seems the best idea!
 
can't you find a plastic console on the scarpyard somewhere??
makes life a lot easier i think. if not i would put it underneath the dash somewhere.but take a bracket then with a little movement in it, so the cd player can move when going over some bumps. a cd player can stand some but not all.
once i fixed a cd player on the bottom of the car in a seat marbella(it does net have a dashboard..) with a homemade bracket. worked fine

what a nice name..a parcelshelf..in dutch it is called a "hoedenplank"(a hat shelf) LOL
 
Just get a standard R4 GTL centre console[VERY easy to fit] .When the car was new these were fitted as standard and had stereo blanks as radio were extra's .The C.D at a angle make no difference whatsoever ! i do not have any at the minute but i will sort you out a guys number tomorrow who should be able to help .
 
mounting the speakers

I once placed the speakers (cheap 13cm ones) just beneath the door covers. There is liitle place there but can be done. The magnet itself holds them a bit but not sufficiently of course.
I glued the back of the speakers excessively and held them firmly against the door. There is a cross bar inside the door itself that keeps it from bending too much, it serves as a support for the speaker, but needs to be "adjusted" with plyers. After the speakers were mounted I marked the position of the speakers relative to the the door covers and cut them very carefully from the inside, not touching the cloth, just the board. Now the speakers are there but cannot be seen!
The cloth on the door covers makes the sound just a little bit duller, but your CD player will overcome that with a bit of EQing. Just don't make the same mistake I did, try to get the best speakers you can afford. It helps a lot, the 4s are way too noisy and having inefficient speakers will almost definitely dissapoint the listener.

Cheers
________
Expert insurance
 
Last edited:
Connection of a cd-car stereo

Hello, can anybody help me with electric wiring for a CD-car stereo in a R4 GTL...somebody told me that I can connect it directly to the fuse box...

suggestions...pics..


thanx
 
Being a sound engineer I would suggest that you don't mount it behind the door cover - though I suppose behind a fabric cover wouldn't be too bad. Behind a vinyl one would deaden the sound a LOT.

We have a GTL with a pair of Blaupunkt speakers sitting in the door cards themselves, they look fine. Personally I would mount them in the door cards, just buy some unobtrusive speakers and grills. You could do four, two in the front doors and two in the back ones.

Since there isn't a factory wiring conduit running from the car to the door (because of the lack of heated mirrors, electric windows and the like) you'll have to make one for the speaker wires, though I should think simply securing the wires to the door and to the body would be fine - just make sure you leave enough slack for the doors to open all the way.

I'm not sure where you would get power from, but most head units want a constant live, a switched live (which only gives +12v when the ignition is on) and a ground. Usually, though, in cars where wiring is fiddly you can get away with attaching the both the constant live and switched live connections on the stereo to a constant live supply. This just means that the head unit is always "on", ie getting power, but you can put it on standby. The only problem is that some head units (not many, but some) use a significant amount of power even when on standby and this can flatten the battery over a couple of days. Best to just install it and listen for a slow starter motor when it's been stood for a day or so.

You should get a basic detailing of what wires do what when you buy a head unit, but in general you often see: (colours of wires coming out of the back of the head unit, or out of its little wiring loom)

Red: Constant live
Orange/yellow: Switched live
Black: Ground
Blue: Remote on send (for an amp, ignore this)

Then there will be 8 wires, usually green/purple/grey striped or similar. These are the +/- wires for the speakers themselves.

This is all hurriedly remembered so anyone, feel free to correct me, and I'll double check all this when I get home.
 
Thanks DJoptix..I checked all coloured wires an its fuction...but I'm feeling a little bit unsecure to put my hands on switch..so ..what about get power from fuse-box?...
 
Number 2 fuse (counting from right to left in the fusebox) has a supply that turns on with the ignition and is great for radios. If you need a permament source then there is a connection block that sticks out to the left of the heater (on RHD cars).
 
djoptix - you're an audio engineer? Me too! Well kind of - I work in noise analysis in the car industry, but my work is more to do with figuring out why there's too much road noise rather than making the stereo sound nice. I do appreciate a good sterio though - a lot of modern cars seem to do them very badly.
 
Can I join the club djoptix and Clementine?! I qualified a couple of years ago but don't have a job yet! I've got a little home studio (email if you wanna talk gear) which I'm building at the moment and I'm kitting my Vauxhall Senator out with some audiophile standard ICE -to use the boy racer term!.

As for wiring colours I believe they're all ISO standard (maybe not in Colombia though?!)

These are the colours for ISO adaptors available for stereos that don't have a standard ISO connector

Main positive power RED
Memory back up YELLOW
Electric aerial impulse BLUE
Dial illumination ORANGE
Ground BLACK
SPKR front left + WHITE
SPKR front left - WHITE/BLACK
SPKR front right + GREY
SPKR front right - GREY/BLACK
SPKR rear left + GREEN
SPKR rear left - GREEN/BLACK
SPKR rear right + PURPLE
SPKR rear right - PURPLE/BLACK

If anyone is interested I've got a set of 4 Motorola speakers taken from the Gordini 4. Two live in the front doors and two are in pods on the rear shelf, all with matching grilles.
 
For switched (+) there is SERV position on the R4 switch that enables radio to be on while ignition is still off, yet switches off when the key is removed. You don't need to fiddle with the switch, it is very easy, find the 4-way connector of the ignition switch, normally tied on the steering column, and disconnect it. You will notice that, on one connector block (on the car side of the wiring harness), one connector is blank, this is the switched (+) you want, you only need to run a cable from the radio to the connector block and also a male flat connector that will fit in the blank position.
 
I want to install a radio too in my R4. I bought a used radio. Better a good used one than a worse new for the same amount of €.

So I found on my 92 GTL the original radio connector & I'm going to tap a wire on the ignition key barrel. And of course I need to fit an antenna but this after the radio and the speakers will be fitted.


So my question is:
How to remove door covers without damaging them?
Yes, I know it's a simple question for 99% of members here, but it's still a head nut for me. And I want to know this before I start.
 
We use to have speakers by the apex panels (ones that come in a housing) on a bracket onto the chassis bolts - quite neat in a way.

Door panels seem relatively easy to remove BUT i would like advice on this tooo - the main clips around the top can be gently eased out (careful not to pull them thu the panel and damage the wood) the plastic ones at the bottom (that hold the door pockets) are trickier any thoughts ?
 
Do you have a picture of your installed speaker? And by apex panel you mean those panels under the dashboard?

I was thinking of putting speakers in the shelf (direct translation) that covers the trunk.
 
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