problems wiring up sterio

[speedingpenguin]

Best Buy had a good deal going for a pioneer head unit and a set of 6.5" speakers for $69, and having no radio OR speakers in my 'Manche, I quickly grabbed one.

The two wiring harnesses tucked behind the busted up tape deck corresponded to a wiring diagram I also found behind the tape deck, so I snipped and crimped away and wired up the Pioneer adapter.

Plugged the deck in and turned the key to "on", and nothing.

Unplugged the head unit, checked the fuse, it was fine.

Used a voltmeter to test the ground wire, the battery (memory) wire, and the Power/Acc wire, everything is perfect. 12.5v with the key "off" at the yellow battery wire, nothing at the "acc" wire. Turn the key on and 12.5v at the red "acc" wire, I used the ground wire to ground the voltmeter to so I know its a good ground, too.

Figuring the head unit was a dud, I exchanged it for a new one, plugged it in, same thing. Nothing.

Figured maybe the adapter was defective and one of the pins wasnt lined up right or something so I wired up the battery/acc/ground wires from the new harness, tested them, everythings good, but still nothing when I plug it in.

This is frustrating! Any ideas?

[lostissues]

hate to do this but did you turn the radio on? I don't want to sound like an @$$ I just know that with pioneers when you install them and turn on the car they don't do anything until you hit the source button or on button on the radio.

If that doesn't work make sure your wire are the correct ones, if you power the radio off the dimmer wire it does test right but it may not have enough juice to power the radio. or the dimmer wire may test like a ground until you turn the car on.

if you checked the fuse in the back of the radio then the radio should be fine unless it suffered some sort of catastrophic failure twice. did the switched or constant wires on the pioneer harness have in line fuses on it?

 

hope the info helps out.

 

Jonathan

[speedingpenguin]

I'll have to check for the dimmer wire, that may be the case. When i turn the key off, the volts on the ACC wire slowly go down like .2v at a time till it gets to like 1.5v, hmm...

[jeepman09]

I had similar issues and to solve them i had to run a seperate ground for the stereo, also i ended up running a hot wire directly to the battery as the constant 12v source was not strong enough for the head unit! hope this helps!! :cheers:

 

 

:Canadaflag:

[Ed in North Ga.]

I ran into this installing a few years back-

Today, "almost" all radio plugs and wires are universal- red/yello/green ect ect- all correspond to the adapter plug/radio-

but there was a time before that-we call it the change over- where the wires didnt match at all, even though the plugs did- red to black, green to orange, and you get squat- the ohms/voltmeter and a D cell battery saved the day- (battery to speaker wires to find which is where)

 

the only way to verifiy a radio`s good is to test it for power before the install starts- 3 wires and a battery- the acc/red to the positive and black to negitive - if it powers on, it gets installed.

 

some of the newer radios are insulated so well, that even though you ground the black wire it still won't cut on- the chassis needs a ground...thats usually the seconday use of the lug and nut on the back- it grounds the outside chassis to the ground wire, to the ground point-

 

Ive never trusted the stock power wires in my jeeps, I always have run new big power and ground wires, and have run a seperate relay just for the acc- I burnt 3 ignition switches before I figured out the acc can melt one if it has some serious amps running through it....I used to like toys, and all the toys used the acc. :doh:

[lostissues]

I ran into this installing a few years back-

Today, "almost" all radio plugs and wires are universal- red/yello/green ect ect- all correspond to the adapter plug/radio-

but there was a time before that-we call it the change over- where the wires didnt match at all, even though the plugs did- red to black, green to orange, and you get squat- the ohms/voltmeter and a D cell battery saved the day- (battery to speaker wires to find which is where)

 

the only way to verifiy a radio`s good is to test it for power before the install starts- 3 wires and a battery- the acc/red to the positive and black to negitive - if it powers on, it gets installed.

 

some of the newer radios are insulated so well, that even though you ground the black wire it still won't cut on- the chassis needs a ground...thats usually the seconday use of the lug and nut on the back- it grounds the outside chassis to the ground wire, to the ground point-

 

Ive never trusted the stock power wires in my jeeps, I always have run new big power and ground wires, and have run a seperate relay just for the acc- I burnt 3 ignition switches before I figured out the acc can melt one if it has some serious amps running through it....I used to like toys, and all the toys used the acc. :doh:

 

best way to test speakers is with a tone generator. batteries is a quick and dirty way to do it but should not be used all the time. a lot of new vehicles have lots of safety equipment in them and also a lot of sensitive computer systems. Sending voltage to some wire can damage electronics or even worse blow out air bags which could be very dangerous.

as for the grounding I have never encountered a radio that needed to have a wire run from the radio chassis to ground. most vehicles stock ground wire will provide enough to run the radio perfectly fine unless the vehicle had the stock radio bolt into the car using metal brackets where it would receive a chassis ground. the bolt on the back of the radio is used for support purposes.

as for running new power wires while it it nice it is not necessary. there are not many radios that needs to have a separate power wire run. the only one I can think of is some of the older Alpines. even in my own car I have a touch screen with a separate brain and a few accessories attached and it is running fine off the stock wiring. if you are tapping power off the radio harness for things like satellite radio, ipod adapters, radar, whatever else all at the same time then yea you should run a separate power wire but you should also just make a new circuit and allow the stock radio wires to power just the radio.

 

Jonathan

[project88mj]

did you check the fuse under the dash? :dunno:

 

it took me a day or two to figure out how to get mine to work as well

 

i would take the plug for the head unit and run all new wire for power and ground

 

i used the clock (don't have one) hot wire for power when the truck is off

i stuck a new wire in the raido fuse plug spot with a fuse so when i turn on my jeep the radio turns on

 

and backed out a nut somewhere for a good chassis ground

[Pete M]

I had similar issues and to solve them i had to run a separate ground for the stereo, also i ended up running a hot wire directly to the battery as the constant 12v source was not strong enough for the head unit! hope this helps!! :cheers:

 

I had a similar issue in my 88 that was fixed by running a separate ground.

[tugalo]

Ditto on adding an additional separate chassis ground

[Ed in North Ga.]

I ran into this installing a few years back-

Today, "almost" all radio plugs and wires are universal- red/yello/green ect ect- all correspond to the adapter plug/radio-

but there was a time before that-we call it the change over- where the wires didnt match at all, even though the plugs did- red to black, green to orange, and you get squat- the ohms/voltmeter and a D cell battery saved the day- (battery to speaker wires to find which is where)

 

the only way to verifiy a radio`s good is to test it for power before the install starts- 3 wires and a battery- the acc/red to the positive and black to negitive - if it powers on, it gets installed.

 

some of the newer radios are insulated so well, that even though you ground the black wire it still won't cut on- the chassis needs a ground...thats usually the seconday use of the lug and nut on the back- it grounds the outside chassis to the ground wire, to the ground point-

 

Ive never trusted the stock power wires in my jeeps, I always have run new big power and ground wires, and have run a seperate relay just for the acc- I burnt 3 ignition switches before I figured out the acc can melt one if it has some serious amps running through it....I used to like toys, and all the toys used the acc. :doh:

 

 

as for the grounding I have never encountered a radio that needed to have a wire run from the radio chassis to ground. most vehicles stock ground wire will provide enough to run the radio perfectly fine unless the vehicle had the stock radio bolt into the car using metal brackets where it would receive a chassis ground. the bolt on the back of the radio is used for support purposes.

 

Jonathan

 

I had 2 that wouldnt ground - wish I still had them- both were Sony XR series-

the bolt "is" for support on rear mount stockers- its also the absolute best place to tap a ground if the radio does not have a pig tab with screwhole for the chassis ground- the JVC I have in now actually sparked when I slid it in, after wiring it to the harness- there be a good ground there on that one!

 

ever since those 2 sonys, Ive always regrounded from the lug- just easier I suppose. I was a quick and dirty installer for too many years. :)

 

my main beef with using OEM hots, is the smallness of the wire- I like bigger wire with a better fuse.

[lostissues]

my main beef with using OEM hots, is the smallness of the wire- I like bigger wire with a better fuse.

 

Ha, you should see the new toyota wiring, and I'm sure there are more that use the same thing but the switched wire is around a 22 gauge wire.

[Ed in North Ga.]

my main beef with using OEM hots, is the smallness of the wire- I like bigger wire with a better fuse.

 

Ha, you should see the new toyota wiring, and I'm sure there are more that use the same thing but the switched wire is around a 22 gauge wire.

 

noooo way- I won't touch any of the new stuff. I got out just in time.

give me the usual 12 wire plug and I can do it in a few seconds- when they start wiring the hvac/airbag/ect through that harness I head out the door.