1992-1998 Ferrari 456GT and 456GTA Stereo Guide (iPod and more)

Reviving an ancient thread....but what I am trying to sort out today is my factory stereo....my symptom is that it only plays for a short while...5 minutes or so...after start up of the system...then the radio (and display in the console) flashes off, then on, then off, then on.... and stops playing. I also found that the front speakers no worky..... so today I removed the panels and found that I have several cut and taped wires.... and a Cerwin Vega 2 channel amplifier..... so my question is...does anyone have a wiring diagram for the stereo system so I can see where/how to reconfigure the original wiring and then work from there. I searched all over and could not find a diagram anywhere.... my apologies if I have just missed a search result somewhere! Thank you in advance!

 

As far as we know, no one on the forum has any "traditional" type wiring diagrams for the 456. The Workshop Manuals which are available to us only show connector "pinout" and connection diagrams which are very hard to use (especially for the beginner). I made some diagrams for the 456M, but apart from the speakers in the doors, I have no stereo-related diagrams. I may be able to piece together a diagram for the front speakers for the 456M, but not for the earlier non-M cars.

e.g. Driver's side connections for the M car:

456M Driver's Speakers Wiring (Front) Version 1

Unfortunately, the original diagrams are riddled with errors. Some can be resolved, others not without looking at the car itself. The main door connector is an example of this.

You may have to rotate (or "mirror") the connectors mentally to see which wires match up on the male and female sides, especially where there is a wire colour change at the connector.

 

Here's a diagram for the 456M's passenger's side front speakers:

Ferrari 456M Passenger's Speakers (Front) Version 1

The key wire colours for the passenger front side are Red-blue amd Black-blue, although the tweeter wiring changes from Black-blue to Black-red.

Again, there are discrepancies between one diagram and another in the workshop manual.

 

Thank you Gavion!

So it's like a mystery, wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a conundrum......this will be fun!!

 

Sorry I meant Qavion! Great diagram. But to your earlier point...456 vs 456M....456 is a deeper mystery!

 

Reviving a very old thread. I have a 1997 456GT with original Sony stereo and CD changer that are currently working fine (famous last words). I also have a Sony XA-300 sat here in the box, and currently most of my interior is out - thanks to a leaking heating matrix - and so it seems like now would be an opportune moment to carry out this mod.

But I have one quick question. When this guide was originally written by Jet-X in 2008, I imagine MP3 playback was from dedicated iPod style devices, rather than from the iPhones/Smartphones that we all have now. For my moderns, I use Tidal or Spotify on my phone - usually through CarPlay or Android Auto - and this is where most of my music is. So, can I use a current generation (no dedicated headphone jack, thanks Apple) iPhone with this XA-300 set up or am I wasting my time?

Any thoughts/experience would be welcomed on this one.

Thanks,
Graeme

 

So looking further into this, it looks like my best route is to buy an adaptor for the iPhone that allows me to take a 3.5mm headphone jack from the lighting output of my iPhone 13 and run that into the XA-300 as a standard Aux input. Seems the USB on the XA-300 is only USB 1.0 so not likely to transfer music from the smartphone to the stereo.

Something like this Belkin 3.5 mm Audio + Charge Rockstar - Apple (UK) or this Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable (1.2m) - White - Apple (UK) (but longer than 1.2 metres)

Does that sound like a fair/reasonable summation?

 

Yes, I have the XA300 in the trunk and ran an aux cord up to the front. You'll need an adapter, or you can go bluetooth with a module that plugs into the XA300 to which you will pair your phone.

 

Thanks for the response.

Do you have any more details on the bluetooth adaptor/module etc?

 

Really any aux-adapter bluetooth module will work. You can get cheap ones on Amazon, or better ones at any stereo shop.

 

Now it's my turn reviving this thread! Just signed the deal on a 1997 456 GT with the original head unit still in and while I do enjoy my CD collection, I would like to have Bluetooth music from spotify to the car. Whilst googling I stumbled upon the Becker Mexico Pro MP3 BE7938. It looks like a more modern version of the head unit the 550 and 456 GT M have in there as stock. I tried to find out more about this unit, but couldn't find anything. Does anyone know more about this one/have experience with it, and if it would do the job in a 456?

 

The 456M uses a different and more traditional radio setup than the 456 GT. The 456 GT effectively just has a shallow spot for a radio faceplate in the cabin which then connects to the actual guts of the radio in the trunk. This makes it so there aren't any great drop-in replacements. With a quick search, I couldn't find pictures of the Becker unit's depth, but if it can fit into the 456M and 550, it's unlikely/impossible to fit into a pre-M 456.

Also, congrats on the purchase! I got my 456 just about a year ago. (⬅️me living the example of "How do you know someone owns a Ferrari? Don't worry, they'll tell you.")

 

EDIT
There are usually two approaches:
1. Get an Alpine UTE-73BT. It has a detachable faceplate which fits into the 456's center console, and it will do pretty much anything you need from a modern radio. The hassle is that you would need to fabricate an extension cable from the face plate back to the body of the radio which you'd place in the trunk. Two ethernet cables have enough wires inside and come pre-bundled so to be good donors, but you need a "soldering guy" to connect all the tiny wires to the tiny contacts. I don't have a link handy, but I believe you can find a thread here or on another Ferrari forum of someone who paid a shop in England to do it and had good results a few years ago.

2. As detailed in the earlier pages of this thread, you can insert a Bluetooth-to-analog audio adapter into the middle of the radio business in the trunk or run a cable from the cabin to the analog inputs in the trunk. Hassles: the adapter needs power (whether a battery you charge every now and then or a switched power source that won't draw current when the car isn't running), and it may need you to press something on it to initiate the Bluetooth connection each time it powers on.

Actually, there are three options:
3. Get a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, and throw it in the center console or back seat when you're driving the car. It's the least satisfying option, but it's the most immediate and doesn't risk something (usually very old, very brittle plastic) breaking where there aren't replacement parts available. I won't tell you how to live your life, but when you have your car, you'll quickly get a sense of just how hand-built it is, and how fiddly some of the almost-30-year-old bits are. For better or worse, sometimes the least satisfying approach is the best approach.

 

Here's the Ferrari Chat thread with some pictures and info for this approach: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/456-stereo-upgrade.338422/

And another one: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/456-gt-radio-project.629255/

 

I purchased an XA-300 to add Bluetooth to my 456 GT (mostly for Google Maps directions on road trips), and eventually got decent results with an AudioControl ACX-BT1 bluetooth adapter and a PAC-SNI-1 noise insulator, which you may or may not need depending on how decide to power your bluetooth adapter. I documented my setup in detail in this thread.

Do let me know if you have any questions on this.