Stereo wiring mess! Advice

[Jackdawtown]

I took out the original stereo and revealed numerous wires and connecters. A nightmare to me! I've located the original loom plug which was covered in sticky sponge. Can I assume that when I manage to unplug it (the loom) all the wires which ran through it will be dead and can be left behind the new unit? There are some other wires which are seperate from the loom - will these be live? can they be left behind the new unit?
I'm hoping that all I have to do is plug in the ISO adaptor and aerial and ignore all the old wiring.
Tried posting photos but file too big

[g8dhe]

Once you have traced the added wiring back to the original loom, then its best to remove all the additional wiring as it will be unlikely to be of any use! Once you are back to the original Mazda plug (as you say often in a foam wrap) then what you need to connect is one of the adapators listed below. The only other cable needed is the aerial cable which will be in the same area and leads back over to the drivers side under the dashboard;

There are two types of adaptor depending on year;
from 1995 to around 2000/2001 it is PC2-10-4,
after 2000/2001 it becomes a PC2-78-4

both types are available on ebay,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=+PC2-10-4
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=+PC2-78-4

For details of the ISO standard see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectors_for_car_audio

[Jackdawtown]

Would it be ok to cut the redundant wires and tape the ends?

[g8dhe]

Not really, if its been added it just needs removing, normally its a case of follow the added cabling gently pulling and all the excess will come out its normally just pushed in and maybe taped at a couple of places as against the proper loom wiring which is wrapped in black loom tape and where necessary correctly supported. Cutting is NOT recommended as its to easy to get carried away and there are still separate wires which feed into a loom at some point.

[Jackdawtown]

Ok thanks. I'll try that

[hawko]

How did it go?
When i replaced my stereo last year i just left all the redundant wires in there since they all had proper connectors on i knew they wouldnt really do any harm.
Having said that if its an easy job tracing and removing, maybe i'll have a go