How is everyone? Sorry for the long post.Also posted in the Aftermarket forum.


I want to try to install a stereo into my girlfriend's wagon.This will be my first radio installation. I pulled the JVC CD from her old volvo which was a '88 240. Here are my concerns:

1. Are the wiring from the '88 240 sedan the same for a '90 245? The stereo in the '88 sedan was located in the lower dash.I will be using the same harness from the jvc to connect to the volvo wires. I did write down which wires were connected to which from the color coded wires but they seem to be different in the '90 wagon. The '90 245 will be installed in the upper dash area. I could not remove the radio because one of the screws is a torx/hex screw. Looks like a six point star.

2. I removed the glove box just to see what i have to do when I noticed that there is an amp powering the stereo. Will this have to be removed? What about the wires to the amp? Is there a general color code diagram that will explain what color wire is what and it's function? I just want to be sure so I won't screw up/short out anything.

3. I am not sure what size are in the front doors('90 245) but I want to take the speakers I removed from the sedan and install them into the wagon.They are some Infinity rs speakers which i think are 5.25 in. How do I remove the rivets in order to install the 5.25 in speakers? Thanks for the info.

Front door speakers are 4.5" stock - no aftermarkets are exactly comparable. To put in 5.25" speakers, you may have to cut some metal in the door frame to fit the speaker in. Also, the door panel opening will probably not be large enough if it is the same as in our '81 244 (I think they are interchangeable). The rivets will have to be drilled out to remove the speaker (carefully) and then use screws to attach the new ones. If you decide to go with smaller door speakers (4"), be aware of the following - they are smaller than the factory speakers, so you will need to fabricate a template from 1/8" abs plastic to match factory holes and drill a new set of holes to mate up to the new speakers and a cutout for the magnet/voice coil assembly to fit through. This is what I am dealing with right now.

As the other posts said, crutchfield is very good. If the OEM speakers were wired with bullet connectors, it would probably be a good idea to put bullets on the new leads from the speakers to mate up to the factory wiring.

Best of luck!

i recently installed a cd player in my 91 240, removing a perfectly good stock radio/cassette. the amp will no longer be required. you can leave it there or remove it. the DIN cable (connecting the radio to the amp) can stay there also. btw, the amp was for the rear speakers because the radio wasn't powerful enough to drive them.

Go to Crutchfield.com they have all the adapters,both for the electrical connectors, speaker wiring connector and the speaker adapters for installing the speakers in the door holes.

just tell them the make, year and model car you have. they are very good.

Addressing your question about the factory amp (#3): The amp connects to the stock Volvo head unit with a DIN connector. When the stock stereo is removed, the amp will no longer be needed, and for that matter won't connect to any aftermarket equipment that I know of.

Best of luck with the install.

The doors will handle a 5.25 w/o cutting provided you use the the new speakers grill plate (speaker sits in it and then mounts to the panel).This places the speaker above were the stock one was and gives the frame clearance. It will flush mount at the top but not the bottom due to the curve in the door panel. Center the speaker in the hole, and drill new holes. The gap at the bottom of the speaker can be made up with wood, plastic etc. I used high quality neoprene weather striping. If you apply it carefully and trim it nicely, its barely noticable. Ive done 3 240s now and they all look excellent. Have fun.

Taylor, do you have a picture of your front speaker installation? I plugged in new JVC 5.25" speakers in the stock door location, but I will have to finesse something to get either the JVC or the Volvo OEM grilles to fit. Sounds like you mounted yours higher - but I'm not clear on what you did, and a picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words.

Smitty, placement of the speaker is everything. You must move it around to get a sense of were center is. The frame will be very close to the hole and the wire terminals may need to be bent to avoid contact. The new hole to be drilled will also be close to the edge of the sheetmetal. I will take a few pics tomorrow and hopefully post them to my web page (never done it before) if that fails I can email them to you. Update tomorrow. Cheers.

Thanks! Looking forward to seeing them.

I posted the door/rear speaker images on the gallery.(oops, dbl post). As you can see, the speakers in the door fit on top of the panel rather than inside it. The trim ring rests on the panel at the top and below and the gap is filled w/ neoprene. If you check the specs of 5.25 speakers on the Crutchfield site, you can get a feel for the size variations for different 5.25 inchers. Mine have a cut-out diameter of 4 5/8" and a depth of 1 3/4". This is close to the max as far as a no cut fit is concerned. If your speaker doesnt use a trim ring, a spacer may be needed between the speaker and the door panel (to keep it flat on the panel )The rear speaker only needed to have the headrest mount trimmed to fit. The new holes were drilled in the deck panel (fiberboard) carefully and screw clips/nuts used since screws alone wont hold. Hope this helps. Its worth the trouble for the huge increase in fidelity. I added a 8" tube sub behind the passenger seat, on the floor w/ a quick disconnect plug. I can pull it out and toss it in the trunk if I need the floor space for a passenger. With this added, the sound is superb. Good luck.

You can use the old amp if you want to convert the Din plug to RCA connecters, but it probably is not worth it if you have one of those new high power cd players. It would put out way more power than the 15 to 20 watt Volvo power amp. I am using them because I have old head units that only put out 8 watts, and I am too cheap to buy a new power amp.