Stereo Installation

When I first acquired the car, the radio had been stolen along with the centre trim surrounding the heater and radio controls. A replacement trim was obtained at very reasonable cost from MR2 BREAKERS, BARRY GILLOTT (0976 693697), These guys are in Nuneaton, but part arrived via post with no problems.

The radio cut out in the '86 MR2 is non standard in that it is too small to directly accept the "Euro" size standard car radio cage. I chose to fit a Blaupunkt unit and this is supplied with a cage that needs to fitted into the vehicle dash.

The original Toyota hole can be enlarged very neatly as follows.

Remove the trim surround (two screws at the top, un-plug the pilot lamp wires) and looking from the rear you will see that it is basically a plastic molding covered with a vinyl leatherette style fabric. 

Carefully peal back this fabric from the inside of the radio aperture and fold it down on the front of the panel. This needs to be done slowly and carefully as the fabric will easily tear. It helps if the area to be peeled back is slightly warmed using a hair dryer, taking care not to melt the plastic!

Once all the appropriate area is now at the front of the panel, temporarily stick it down with sellotape to keep it out of the way.

Using a small craft knife, you can now cut back the exposed plastic edges of the radio hole until the radio cage can be easily inserted from the front of the panel. 

Fold the fabric back to its original position and fit the radio cage in from the front. There is no need to glue the fabric down as the cage will hold it in position without difficulty. 

To secure the cage in place open up as many of the various tongues in the cage with a screwdriver such that the cage can not be removed. Be sure though not to obstruct the rectangular area of the cage in a way that could impede the insertion of the radio unit.

Connection and installation

Originally the '86 MR2 had a very advanced for the time, radio installation. The head unit (bit that actually fits in the radio aperture) was connected to a main amplifier situated behind the trim on the left hand side of boot area. A sub woofer amplifier and speaker was located under the driver's seat. By the time I acquired my vehicle, the radio head unit had been replaced, but stolen,  the rear main amplifier removed and the sub woofer unit disconnected.  

A new Blaupunkt "Paris" system was purchased from www.bluespot.co.uk  (Blaupunkt systems at very good prices) along with an adapter plug system necessary to link the radio into the MR2 wiring. I also treated myself to a remote control unit that fits on the steering wheel. 

I believe the wiring loom that I connected the radio to, is the original and on this assumption, these are the connections.

Left Speaker  +                                           YELLOW/BLACK            (First Colour =main, second =tracer)

Left Speaker  -                                            WHITE                                        

Right Speaker +                                          RED/BLACK

Right Speaker -                                           BLACK/RED

Permanent Battery feed (non ignition)      BLUE/BROWN

Battery feed via Ignition                              PINK/BLUE

Ground (chassis)                                        Connect to nearest good Chassis ground.

A test meter is a virtual necessity when installing any electronic system, but if not available a test lamp (12v bulb with leads attached), could be used for checking the wiring loom, but do not poke around the radio itself with this. Speakers are best checked with a test meter on a low ohms range. As well as showing about 4 ohms resistance, you should hear the speaker click as the test leads are attached. Once the wires have been checked out remove the battery negative connection before connecting the ISO plugs up to the existing wiring.

ISO Connector

The connection arrangements are shown here. Connect these to the wiring loom as labeled above. Note that the illumination lead should be connected to the green lead of the pilot lamp connection. 

Speakers

I personally don't feel the need of 100 watts of bass and the existing dash mounted speakers supplemented by an additional pair mounted in the doors is perfectly adequate. The door mounted speakers are a worthwhile addition. They are easy to fit, there is a suitable recess towards the front of the door and all that needs doing is to cut holes in the door trim and feed the wires in the rubber boot into the car body. 

Sub Woofer

The Toyota Sub woofer unit, under the driver's seat has not been used in my current installation. An examination of the unit shows a relatively small speaker rated at 10 watts max, so it did not seem worthwhile trying to make this work. I believe it is connected to the dash board speakers via a built in cross over unit and the control, presumably off/on, is via two green wires in the radio loom as described above. If any one has connected this and found it a good thing, a 'mail would be appreciated. 

Having made all the connections as above re assemble everything and re connect the battery.

The Blaupunkt unit I have has Key card security which has a nice feature that if the car radio is stolen, Blaupunkt replace it for free so long as you haven't left the card in the radio!

Mail me with any questions.