Car stereo installation troubleshooting help needed

[psteng19]

I've done car stereo installs before. This is my third one.
Car is a '96 Sentra. Replacing the stock unit with an old Pioneer DEH-P7200.

I hooked up the wiring harness to the Pioneer harness, pretty standard procedure. All wires match up except for the unnecessary ones (illumination, dimmer, power antenna, amp, phone/mute).
I turn the car to ACC, no power, no display, nothing.
I turn the car on, I get dash lights, test blinkers, wipers, etc. All accessories work fine.

Strange... I unplugged the Pioneer and hooked the stock unit back up and still nothing. Not even the time on the cheesy LCD that should come on.

Next thing I checked was the fuse box. The fuse looked fine, but just in case, I swapped it with the spare ones. Still testing with the stock unit and I still get nothing.

I doubt both HU's went bad at the same time. Power is not the issue either.

I must mention that when I did the installation, I did not unplug the negative terminal on the battery.
If that destroyed something, what must be done to fix it?

 

[nycxandy]

Ground wire hooked up?

 

[hevnsnt]

My guess is that you blew a fuse somewhere else... Get a multimeter and start checking..

 

[psteng19]

Originally posted by: nycxandy
Ground wire hooked up?

I assume that the ground connection from the factory harness is hooked up properly.
I didn't change anything beyond that.

Originally posted by: hevnsnt
My guess is that you blew a fuse somewhere else... Get a multimeter and start checking..

Besides the fuse in the dash, where else would there be a fuse for audio?

 

[psteng19]

Bump.

 

[NutBucket]

Try under the hood. BTW, that illumination lead does match up to one on the harness. On the Eclipse I installed in my gf's 98 the buttons now light up when you turn on the lights. They're off otherwise.

 

[deftron]

Does anything work on ACC (wipers usually) ?

You might have shorted some unused wire...

Did you tape up all the unused ones ?



Also, do Nissans have that weird power source to the radio thing like GM cars?
If so, your 12v switched wire will have to be fuse taped ..

 

[Oger]

Check for voltage with a meter or test light at the connector.

 

[spidey07]

yep, fuse somewhere. Break out the multimeter.

Next time disconnect the battery when you're messing with an install.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: spidey07
yep, fuse somewhere. Break out the multimeter.

Next time disconnect the battery when you're messing with an install.

Bah! That's an old wive's tale

 

[psteng19]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
Try under the hood. BTW, that illumination lead does match up to one on the harness. On the Eclipse I installed in my gf's 98 the buttons now light up when you turn on the lights. They're off otherwise.

I had a feeling there was another fuse besides the one in the dash.
There's two fuse boxes under the hood, but none of them say anything relating to radio only.
Any ideas as to what it might say?

Originally posted by: deftron
Does anything work on ACC (wipers usually) ?

You might have shorted some unused wire...

Did you tape up all the unused ones ?



Also, do Nissans have that weird power source to the radio thing like GM cars?
If so, your 12v switched wire will have to be fuse taped ..

All accessories work while on ACC, except the radio.
Keep in mind when I put the stock radio back in, it still didnt' work.

 

[Red]

Are you connecting the antenna? Nissan <b>does</b> have a weird power thing going on with the antenna.

 

[scorp00]

Check the harnesses. Connecting the aftermarket one to the stock one could have bent either the power or ground lead on the stock harness. Also make sure power and ground wires going into the stock harness are in there good. If you can't see anything wrong, you'll need a multimeter.

Also, are the radio's turned on? I know with my pioneer I have to hold the source button for a few seconds after it doesn't have power for a long time.