Hey there. You guys were so much help before that I wanted to ask another question before blowing too much money!
We have a 1991 Ford Escort LX. (Now in near perfect working order!)
There was no stereo and my wife found an old VW tape/stereo at the thrift store for 10 bucks so she bought it.
Now, it fits into the dash just perfect and the jack connects fine. However, the stereo has space for two small pin plugs in the back and the car only has one medium sized pin plug. (I don’t have the exact number of pins with me.
Is it possible to get the connections we need and fit it or will this stereo never work with the car? If I can get it fitted I would like to do that rather than buying one of the expensive stereos which are the only ones I can find that fit our car!
We need something under 40 bucks.
Thanks again!
Doubtful you’ll be able to find a connector. The only connectors I’ve ever found were when you tried to connect a aftermarket stereo. Those are plentiful.
You may have to do the brute force method…Cut wires…and splice together.
If the stereo needs the pin plugs to operate you’re probably out of luck. I don’t know how you’d make the connections without the proper plugs.
I have done this, but I don’t know if you will be able to for a couple of reasons. First, I was installing a Hyundai factory radio into a Volvo. So, different makes and models. Here is what I did. I went to the Hyundai dealer parts department and asked if I could buy the radio plug for an Elantra (the car the radio came out of) and they did indeed sell a replacement plug with about 4 inch wires hanging out. They also printed out a pinout diagram from their service manual.
I then bought a standard adapter plug for the Volvo at a regular car stereo store. It was then a simple matter of wiring the 2 plugs together so that one end plugged into the radio and the other into the Volvo’s wiring harness. The car still has that radio in it and still working 5 or so years later.
So, will VW sell you a radio connector for the radio you have? Will they give you the pinout diagram, or can you get it? The aftermarket adapter plug for an Escort is probably easy to come by. I forget how much that plug from Hyundai dealer cost me, but it was fairly cheap, like $15 or $20, maybe less. I would expect VW to be more expensive, but you won’t know until you ask.
The big advantage to what I am describing is that if you ever have an extra $100 to spend on an aftermarket stereo, you can just unplug this setup and plug the new one in, probably re-using the same adapter plug, or a new one if it comes with the radio.