Radio Wiring question

[The Mad Hatter]

OK, while the Golf is down for IP repair, i've decided to upgrade the radio.  I'm putting a JVC kds14 cd unit in it.  Nothing special.  But, these newer units have 2 power wires, one leading to the battery, one to an accesory fuse.  Well, the 85 only has 1 wire, a lead to the battery.  So, anybody have a good suggestion where i can tap into a "hot when key is on" that will handle the cd player?  Any help is greatly appreciated!

[rabbitman]

I think there are some hot when key is on terminals on the fuse panel. I can't remember where I hooked mine but I don't think it was real hard.

[DCC]

You have two ways to do that:

1 - Run a cable from the radio to the fuse box, and hook it in any of the terminals that have hot-after-key, it's fairly easy.

2 - "Steal" the power from another hot-after-key cable. In my case (mk2 golf), I hooked the pressure gauge light to the rear glass heating thing switch (black - yelllow cable, I believe).

[somolovitch3]

Blk/Yel wire would be the X feed from the load reduction relay. Feeds wipers, heater blower, rear defroster, and thats it?

I have thrown another switch into the pannel there with a diode or two so I can have the radio on with the key off. Just rember to flip the swith back to off when leaving car. And I got my power from the defroster switch, and the 4-way flasher switch.

[the caveman]

battery power can come from the harness but you should also have a 22 gauge brown/red wire that is the key in signal from the ignition. look around it should be there, unless your car came from europe. that small wire doesn't carry much load, it's there just to light up the radio.

[The Mad Hatter]

i'm pulling the battery power from the factory harness wire meant for that.   I have a gray wire with a blue stripe that according to my wire diagram (bentley manual) goes to a "lite switch".  Is that a wire i can use as the "hot on key" wire?  Or should i just tap into the rear defroster wire?

[the caveman]

no that wire is for lighting. if the radio harness has a place for that, then use that. but no, there should be a brown/red wire floating somewhere. if you can't find it, and you want to do it properly, dig for the ignition switch harness, it'll be in there.

[The Mad Hatter]

Ok, i just went and looked at the radio harness on my car.  I have 3 wires (except for speakers), one gray w/blue (lite switch), one red w/white (battery), and one brown (ground?).   No luck finding a brown with red stripe.

[the caveman]

you will have to find that wire ,or something else that lights up with the key on. otherwise just wire both to your hot from the car harness, just remember to turn the radio off when you shut it off for the night- like i have to,because my truck is from germany with no seatbelt buzzer i.e. no ignition key signal.

[Luv My Volkswagen]

I just installed a radio in my 78 Rabbit. I had the same problem. You can get a tester at Radio Shack that will tell you if a wire is hot. What I did was test all the wires coming out of my ignition switch. There should be a wire that is hot only when the ignition is engaged. I just found that wire and tapped it with a connector, adding a new wire, and hooked my radio up to that. It works perfectly. If you still need help I can send a pic or something.

[Luv My Volkswagen]

Oh yeah the wire I tapped was brown with a blue stripe on it.

[zukgod1]

I'm a little late here.

1985 Volkswagen Golf Stereo Wiring
Constant 12V+ Red  
Switched 12V+ n/a  
Ground Brown  
Illumination Gray/Blue  
Dimmer n/a  
Antenna Left Front  
Front Speakers 3 1/2" Dash
Left Front (+) Gray  
Left Front (-) Black  
Right Front (+) Green  
Right Front (-) Black  
Rear Speakers 5" x 7" Side Panels
Left Rear (+) Gray/Black  
Left Rear (-) Black  
Right Rear (+) Green/Black  
Right Rear (-) Black