Head Unit Connections

I have an 02 XC70, its an ex-police and came with no head unit. It has quite a few plugs in the gap for the stereo, including the green and beige rectangular ones. I bought an ISO adaptor which matches these, but when checked with 2 standard aftermarket radios neither would power on. There is a grille on the dash, and as far as I can tell no amp under the seat. How can check what stereo was there originally, and can an aftermarket stereo be fitted if a pro-logic one was fitted originally?

First question (sounds daft but bear with!!) leather or fabric seats? If the car is a standard production car which has been butchered by the police to install radios etc, it will have leather seats. In this case, there should be no problem with wiring an aftermarket head unit to the original connectors. If the car has fabric seats it is a police spec vehicle from factory, ie - never had a radio fitted. As standard, there are 4 speakers installed in the police spec models so you can fit your own radios/comms gear and wire them up. I don't know exactly what wiring convention is used, but I presume it's the same as the standard production models. Did you get Volvo specific wiring adaptors or generic ones? It may be Volvo use different wiring than standard (...? help me out here people if anyone knows) hence the problems encountered. Hope thats of some help Chris

Funnily enough, cloth in the front leather in the rear no joke! But the door cards are cloth so i'm thinking the leather rear was a recent replacement. The adaptor was volvo specific, only a cheapo one off ebay but the connectors are an exact fit and colour match. There is another connector in the bundle though, along with a cd changer cable. This has 2 thick wires going to a small connector. The cables appear to match the iso layout anyway, 4 channels going into the one plug, then the power and illumination etc in the other

Hi Gents, I've just purchased an '05 XC70 that was used by Derbyshire constabulary and these have half leather seats, and the door trims/cars are plastic (or leather). Do you know if mine was a butchered or specially made vehicle? I was also told it is 350 BHP is this correct becuase the garage says it is a standard T5 engine. Many thanks in advance Dave

Fuses 

Have you checked to see if the fuses for the audio are in place? With many Volvo ad-ons the fuse is part of the installation, or they could have been removed when the radio was taken out. There are two which affect the audio in the console, one the main power and one the switched live from the ignition. Check the door/lid at the end of the dash, it visible when the door is open. The inside of the door/lid has a chart of fuse allocations.

Ex Police Cars 

I have never owned an ex plod car but have owned Volvo's for years, my daughters boyfriend purchased an ex plod though and we learned a lot in a short space of time well maintained ? Thats a point of view yes it had loads of parts replaced but remember the engine is left running at incidents to power lights, radios etc. Tuned, definatley not they do remove the limiter though. Fitting the radio was straight forward once he brought an Autoleads connector he brought two from ebay neither worked when eventually we tested them they both had faults in the power connector. The Autoleads one ordered from Road Radio worked straight away, so check the connectors carefully. Also check you have power at the green connector in the car assuming all fuses are in place.