T4 Audio...

[bxl_lad]

My next project in the van is to sort out the audio setup. The previous owners in their ‘wisdom’, fitted a fancy Alpine stereo and installed some rather garish boy-racer type amps and screwed them to the side of the kitchen unit (this incidentally means the drivers seat no longer swivels around! – my main gripe!). I feel this installation is unnecessary and will unstitch it all (which will be a job in itself as you should see the amount of cable running around for this!) and replace with a more ‘traditional’ setup… But this leads me to a few questions (Any advice on these points will be greatly appreciated):

• Rear speakers in the overhead cubby: Were these a standard fitting to all 1999/2000 T4 Cali’s? There are speakers there now from the last owner’s intervention, but for sure the cable running to them is not the factory fitted cable and in the brown ISO plug in the dash there are only connections for the front speakers (only two pairs) – see pic. The cable they added only reaches the amps behind the drivers seat.

I can of course extend these to the radio slot in the dash – presumably its just a case of adding these into the brown ISO plug and connecting them to the new head unit?​

(Incidentally, I will replace the Alpine with something a little newer so as to give the ability to USB/SD based music).​

• If I put a standard radio into the dash (and lose the additional amps) – any advice on what kind of power output I need to be looking for in order to drive all the speakers in the van?

• On the subject of speakers – There are speakers in the front Doors and on the Dash – how should these be wired into the ‘to be’ traditional setup? Are they both considered as ‘fronts’ (the brown block has only slots for 4 pairs, not 6 speakers as there would ultimately be) – or is there some trick to wiring these (presume the door and dash speakers are different types?).

Also – the dash mount speakers – I can remove the grills, but there appears to be no screws holding in the speakers themselves – are these just a force fit and need to be pried out? Or is there another trick?​

• Finally (I think!) – Seems the standard radio is powered by the traditional ‘van’ battery and not the leisure battery… This means then that the key should be in the ignition. Has anyone powered their radio from the leisure battery – any tips/tricks? Good or bad idea?

Cheers!

 

[Chriswoody]

I can't answer everything, but I'll have a pop at some things.

The speakers at the back on the overhead cubby are standard, we often reset the balance so only these are on when the kids want to listen to their music! The dash and door speaker placements are also standard. Overall the standard set up isn't too bad at all.

The front dash speakers do just pop out if I remember correctly.

When I lived back in the UK and converted my own van, I fitted one of these radio change over kits. Worked really well, though it might be tricky to fit in the Cali.

I was going to buy another one and fit it to the Cali, but I have a kiwi friend here, who works in the Wolfsburg factory as an electrical fitter. Speaking to him about it and he reckons that I'll never drain the battery from listening to the stereo. I'm not 100% convinced, but there again, I never have drained the engine battery so far!

Sorry I can't help on the wiring.

 

[bxl_lad]

Thanks Chris, will look into that kit... interesting. Its not so much the point of running the vehicle battery down, more being able to have the radio on without having the keys in the ignition...
I find it strange though that my speaker block (the brown iso plug in the pics above), doesn't have the rear speaker connections in there - I can add them of course, but its what lead me to believe the rear speakers were a later addition in my van...
I'll pop the front speakers out and trace back the wiring

Cheers...

 

[bxl_lad]

Mission accomplished!
Managed to unstitch all the old cabling and amplifiers (see pic!) that the previous owner added and routed all the speaker cables back to behind the radio where they should be. All 6 speakers working fine and actually sounds better now with a 'standard' setup than with the amps...
I asked about the http://www.xtremevan.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=4995 (radio change over kit) that Chris recommended from Xtremevan, but they wrote back to say the 2000MY was too new for this?
Anyway, suppose we can live without it...
...But the new radio has a remote control so can lay in bed and change tracks

 

[Ben Jammin]

Hi, I also have a ‘94 T4 California which looks to have standard speakers in the rear overhead cupboard...without prising them out completely they seem to be 4” openings with the front grills measuring 5 3/4”...any ideas which I should buy for fitting without cutting? Saw some on fleabay that are 5.1/4”...any recommendations welcome thanks

 

[sidepod]

Regarding the slot in the dash. Don’t forget as you have a LHD T4, the slot is acutely a double DIN not the single as per UK RHD units.
All to do with steering column steelwork.
This allows fitting of a full size screen etc.

 

[Padraic]

Regarding the change over kit, is this to allow the stereo to run from the leisure battery?
I’ve run a feed from the leisure battery up to the dash and fitted a fuse box, then powered the stereo and usb sockets up front from it.
I’ve also wired a switch in the rear to allow the stereo to be switched on without having the ignition on with the key.