Mysterious Wire Sockets and Hooking up Radio to Toggle Switch

[Drsandman2]

I'm in the process of hooking my radio up to a duckbill toggle switch, but I ran across these two connectors, pictured below, next to the fuse box. Where do these go and what are they for? Will these power something while the car is running?

I want to be able to switch my radio on and off, it is quite bright at night and can be distracting. I also want to use it as a "freak out" switch when I want to instantly shut the radio off because of adverts, or a horrible song, or whatever.

If I am correct, I need to look for the yellow wire with the red stripe?


Also, I have taken apart my dash and replaced the "film" inside with red lighting gel. So, my dash is super awesome lit up red. To my knowledge, no one on the forums has yet tried this. I am here to say it can be done. I've also replaced a few of the bulbs in the dash with LEDs from superbrightleds. After I finish a few more adjustments, I will post pictures of the improvements I have made to my insight the past couple of weeks.

[jeff652]

Cool. Can't wait for pics. Not sure on the wires though

[Drsandman2]

Actually, there is a ribbon on the two pin wire connector that says Control Switch 6-pin connector only.

I've identified the power to the radio as the 2nd pin, yellow/red wire.

Might be easier to do a youtube video in a couple of days on how I did everything.

[DimensionDude]

I can understand your desire for a "kill" switch, some of the ads and songs can be quite annoying. However, if you kill the power to your radio completely, won't it lose your station presets? Perhaps a mute function would work better. Is it the stock radio or aftermarket?

The radio in my Insight is an aftermarket Pioneer unit with remote control. The remote has a mute button. I've seen "adapters" that will allow you to control an aftermarket radio with the steering wheel controls. Not a "plug and play" installation, but perhaps something to look in to.

The radio display should dim when the headlights are turned on. Is this not happening? I'm not sure what it will be labeled, but one of the terminals on the radio should be connected to the headlight circuit.

Kent

[Drsandman2]

I finished hooking up the radio to the kill switch. I have a very cheap aftermarket CD player with no remote. I don't really use the car for running around town, but for long trips so the station presets I have never used anyway. I'm not sure if they reset or not.

Hooking up the switch wasn't a problem. Just popped the radio out, clipped the yellow/red wire, spliced them to my switch, grounded it, and put it back together. The catch was that I wanted to power a small interior light that will illuminate my shift knob, also connected to the kill switch. The switch itself is also illuminated, it kicks. But that is for another post...

[DimensionDude]

Good deal.

After I posted, I had to make a quick run into town. When I got in the car I realized that the Insight doesn't have sound system controls on the steering wheel. D'oh! My other vehicle also has a Pioneer head unit so I guess I got them confused.

Is it bad when one confuses a Land Rover and an Insight?

Yeah, I have both ends of the fuel economy spectrum.

Kent