Ok, I figured that out
When I was looking for ways to do this I couldn't find anything via a search on this forum. so I'll post what I did along with some other information cos it might be helpful to anyone else looking for info on this here
Apologies for the length of it, just trying to impart as much info as I can
It's over ten years since I had to fit an aftermarket radio into a car and I figured stuff had changed, so I did some reading
[I could end up saying stuff that's obvious to people less long in the tooth than me, apologies in advance for that]
In the Fiat Grande Punto [GP], standard iso connectors aren't gonna work most aftermarket radios using iso connectors because the stock radio gets it's power via something called canbus, not through the wiring in the car's iso connector
[meaning the car's connector won't provide power to most aftermarket systems]
Anyone interested can google canbus for themselves
The relevancy to fitting an aftermarket radio into the GP is that we need a way to give it power, I found a couple of things on ways to do it, surprisingly little tbh, and not one of them gave a definitive way to get an aftermarket radio working and have it save stations etc
So, we have two scenarios
Scenario 1
Just to make it power up and use it, your radio will typically will need two live 'feeds', these can both be 'ignition' live feeds, which as implied by the name, are only live when your ignition is actually on,
Using this scenario, radio stations, playlists etc would not be saved. This is because no power is going to the radio when the car is off and everything gets cleared from it's memory
Scenario 2
To make it power up and save stations etc, you need one permanent live (so it constantly gets power from the battery even when the ignition is off) and one ignition live, it would then save your stations etc because of getting permanent power from the battery
Scenarion 1
The simplest way to get scenario 1 working that I could find began with a trip to halfords for an adapter with a wire trailing out of that I could connect to an ignition live
Tthis turned out to be one that's labelled for a citroen/peugeot, part/model number PC2-32-4, cost around £8
I then pulled up the gearstick gaiter so I could access the 12v lighter socket and pulled out the connector to it, identified the live as being the red/white wire - use a tester if you have one!
Ran the red traling live wire from the halfords adapter, down behind the console, in past the gearstick to where the lighter socket sits
You won't be able to run the cable through there without removing at least one panel, I removed a few that were no help at all, what I eventually did that let me get my hands in there was
Remove the panel in the driver's footwell that has the vent in it, there's a star bolt on the side of it right at the back that if you don't remove it, best of luck fitting it back
Just take the bolt out, and completely remove the panel, it'll make life easier
I had to then lie at right angles to the car with my chest on the driver's seat, left arm in through the opening where the radio goes, using that to feed the cable to right right hand that's up behind the console now the vent panel's not in the way
Then with your hand that's up behind the console, feed it through towards the back of car past the gearstick, it's not as easy as it sounds
It's then ready to connect to the [probably red/white] live ignition wire that goes into the connector for the lighter socket,
but for the sake of tidiness, leave that for now. If you were to connect it now, in all likelihood your radio still wouldn't power on anyway
There should be a diagram either on the radio itself or in it's user manual [if you don't have either, google is your friend], this will tell you which colour the radio's permanent live is, commonly it's apparently yellow and it was on mine
To achieve scenario 1 all you have to do now is connect your radio's permanent live to the red ignition live trailing from the halfords adapter, it will mean you have two ignition live feeds to the radio and this why stations etc will not be saved, because there is no live feed unless the ignition is on
My radio had a 'spare' permanent live which I assume is provided for when canbus is used in the stock system, this made things very simple
All I did was cut off the spade connector and bared the end of the cable [cut off some plastic], this allowed me to then just use a scotchlock connector to connect the end of my spare permanent live cable to the trailing red ignition live wire from the adapter
If you don't have a spare permanent live, get a bit of cable [off another car at your local scrappy?], bare both ends of it it, scotchlock it to your radio's permanent live and the adapter's red ignition live
Once you've done that, and double-checked you did it right, pull out the slack in the red adapter cable at the area the lighter socket's connected (don't pull it tight, just remove excess), cut off the excess and scotchlock it to the [red/white] live going into the lighter socket connector
If it doesn't come on, you either did something wrong or this method just plain don't work for your radio
Push the radio in and refit any panels
Scenario 2
The only difference to Scenario 1 is, instead of scotchlocking the radio's permanent live to an ignition live on the car, you attach it to a permanent one, this would mean the radio's memory doesn't get cleared when the ignition is off, thus allowing your stations etc to be 'remembered'
I've seen some suggestions on the web of how to get a permanent live that'd make ya crease with laughter ... you'd have to dismantle half the car, do your own websearch, or just read on
A permanent live is basically 'something that works when you're ignition is off', when you look at your radio you see a button with a red triangle on it for your hazard lights
Given that if your hazard lights only worked if your ignition was on, they'd be pretty useless as hazard lights, so that's pretty much a guaranteed permanent live
I didn't have enough time the day I did this to pull the console apart enough to get at the hazard lights connector so as I said earlier, I haven't actually done this but I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work
If you want to try it, connect your permanent live from the radio to the permanent live into hazard lights connector
If you don't know what live means, what baring a cable means, using scotchlock connectors is all about, never removed and replaced dashboard/console panels, then you should probably not even think about trying any of the above without supervision by someone who has/'does
I'll probably get round to trying a permanent live from the hazards myself sometime, if/when I do I'll post whether it worked as expected or not
