I'm about to lose it. Spent 3 hours on this. (Spent probably 10+ hours on this) SOLVD

[MrPickins]

Did you read what I did? I put those two wires plus the ignition+red/yellow together. ALL OF THEM in one twist cap thing. It doesn't work if I just do it the traditional way... (I mean, it doesn't even turn on)

I tried to read, but this is barely coherent:

Guys wtf. The thing will make whirring sounds when yellow power and yellow red from. At are put together but won't boot unless all the power wires are all connected together. I mean four in one big knot. Wtf.......

I know you said you checked, but it sounds like you have a blown fuse on your constant 12v line.

You really shouldn't be wiring the switched 12v and the constant 12v together; the circuit wasn't designed for it. It may be fine, but it might cause major problems.

Buy a multi-meter ($10 at Home Depot) and check your voltages before you make this situation any worse...

 

[Doppel]

First two rules of working on cars:
1. Trying to do something the cheap way will usually end up costing more.
2. Trying to do something the quick way will usually end up taking longer.

Looks like you figured this out the hard way.

I learned this the hard at a many of us do.


Ex death is right, we have all done something like this, and probably worse.

 

[Safeway]

I tried to read, but this is barely coherent:



I know you said you checked, but it sounds like you have a blown fuse on your constant 12v line.

You really shouldn't be wiring the switched 12v and the constant 12v together; the circuit wasn't designed for it. It may be fine, but it might cause major problems.

Buy a multi-meter ($10 at Home Depot) and check your voltages before you make this situation any worse...

Connecting the two might drain your battery overnight and leave you stranded. Seriously.

Think before you do. Randomly connecting wires into a "clump" can fry your head unit and your car's electrical system. Don't randomly connect wires together unless you want to waste money.

 

[MrPickins]

Connecting the two might drain your battery overnight and leave you stranded. Seriously.

Think before you do. Randomly connecting wires into a "clump" can fry your head unit and your car's electrical system. Don't randomly connect wires together unless you want to waste money.

I predict the need for replacement smoke for the wiring harness. :hmm:

 

[alfa147x]

Damn, harsh crowd. Because nobody else here has ever done anything incredibly stupid before.

Though simple research and patients could have been a key part to his issue. :\

Everyone has done something stupid but there is a limit as how stupid!

 

[Raduque]

Wow. It didn't even take me 3 hours to go from stock stereo to fully wired for dual amps and an aftermarket head unit, INCLUDING running a new wiring harness for the speaker-level signals from the 4-channel amp, AND I didn't even know how much of the interior trim pieces of my truck came apart.

 

[Safeway]

When I did this to my old WRX, it took one weekend:

http://imgur.com/a/1ro0Y

Notice the multi-meter in the third picture? Yea. It helps.

 

[TridenT]

Putting together the red/yellow (acc or 12v ignition/ main power source) and the red and yellow wires from the receiver gets it to work.

If I connect the yellow from receiver to yellow red of car then it'll whir the cd thing but never display anything. I can't fix this shit seems! It also won't play sound either. It just whirs once then nothingness.

 

[foghorn67]

Though simple research and patients could have been a key part to his issue. :\

Everyone has done something stupid but there is a limit as how stupid!

hmmmmm..... :hmm:

 

[pcgeek11]

Did you read what I did? I put those two wires plus the ignition+red/yellow together. ALL OF THEM in one twist cap thing. It doesn't work if I just do it the traditional way... (I mean, it doesn't even turn on)

You are using wire nuts ( http://www.idealindustries.com/prodDetail.do?prodId=wire-nut&div=0&l1=twist-on&l2=wire-nut ) to install a stereo? Dude you need to follow the advice here and stop, disconnect everything you have connected.

Then please for the love of god take it to an installer that knows what he is doing before you burn your car up. They are going to charge you a premium price since you have fucked it all up now, but at least your car will not burn up.

 

[TridenT]

You are using wire nuts ( http://www.idealindustries.com/prodDetail.do?prodId=wire-nut&div=0&l1=twist-on&l2=wire-nut ) to install a stereo? Dude you need to follow the advice here and stop, disconnect everything you have connected.

Then please for the love of god take it to an installer that knows what he is doing before you burn your car up. They are going to charge you a premium price since you have fucked it all up now, but at least your car will not burn up.

Uh, they won't burn up... It's very little power.

Anyway, got the stereo working fully properly. I forgot about the fusebox inside the engine bay. Apparently that's where the 7.5A fuse for the constant power is.. It was broken. I replaced it. Now everything works when I have it hooked up properly. I'll just have to permanently connect stuff using some different things later.

I looked at the schematic for the wiring of the radio in the service manual PDF when I was at a friends place tonight... finally saw what I was looking for. Totally just forgot about that second fuse box... I was thinking for a long time, "how the fuck does this wire get power? It isn't power anything. it's dead as a frying pan" (grammatical and spelling errors included. I was nearly delirious after working on this for so long)

 

[exdeath]

I learned this the hard at a many of us do.


Ex death is right, we have all done something like this, and probably worse.

Well nothing this bad but I'll admit one...

When I was about 7-8 years old, I tried sticking a spare 8088 CPU into the 8087 co processor socket of my PC thinking it would benefit me in some way. I don't know, faster DOS game performance, dual processors (what you never heard of SMP support in DOS 2.11?), twice the MHz, etc. I don't remember what I actually expected... I was experimenting.

No fire or smoke and rather uneventful, but I was disappointed by my performance gains of exactly zero.


Hmm I'll save my 4th grade adventures of permanently staining everything in sight with ferric chloride PCB etchant for another night...

And if you think this wiring is bad, ever seen an 8 yr old with a soldering iron? :twisted: I think my connections had more oxygen and melted wire insulation in them than tin/lead.

 

[pcgeek11]

Uh, they won't burn up... It's very little power.

I'm glad you got it working. But you are so very wrong if you think it will not burn your car up. You can weld with a car battery. It may be only 12 volts but it can put out an ass load of amperage and melt every wire in the damn car. I've seen it happen.

Between myself ( I have been an electrician for for over 35 years), and someone that cannot even connect a car stereo properly, who would you believe?

 

[IcePickFreak]

Glad you figured it out, but seems like you didn't follow step 1 on that wiring schematic for the head-unit you posted... disconnecting the battery. Seems highly suspect when you suddenly had a couple of blown fuses when you had no issue with the factory stereo. Always always always disconnect the battery when touching any wiring.

 

[MrPickins]

J

Second fuse box, bitches. I was confused for a long time as to why the WHT/BLU wire was not hot AT ALL. It never would be. I was like, "This makes no fucking sense. I don't see where the WHT/BLU constant power/whatever type of fuse could be in the fuse box. So I guess it doesn't have one or just is included with the ACC/red/yellow one. OK... FUCK YOU TOO" Then later I looked at a schematic because I wanted to check to see for sure to see how this fucking contraption worked. Hey, what do you know... WHT/BLU has its own fuse. But it's not in the fuse box I looked at... It was in the engine bay fuse box. Yep... I totally forgot about that fuse box, but mainly I forgot because I didn't think it would ever be out there. Replaced the fuse and wired it all back up correctly and... There you have it. Stereo works great now.

Bitches?

So I successfully diagnose your issue without calling you a moran (like I should have), and you return the favor by referring to us all as bitches?

I didn't know it was possible, but I think I like you even less now.

 

[MrPickins]

You are using wire nuts ( http://www.idealindustries.com/prodDetail.do?prodId=wire-nut&div=0&l1=twist-on&l2=wire-nut ) to install a stereo? Dude you need to follow the advice here and stop, disconnect everything you have connected.

This.

You should be using crimp caps, not wire nuts.

The wire nuts are likely to loosen and fall off with the vibration from driving.

The last thing you want is to have a bunch of uninsulated wires sliding around in your dash.

 

[arcenite]

 

[Bignate603]

Damn, harsh crowd. Because nobody else here has ever done anything incredibly stupid before.

I know that I have and I'm sure everyone here has. However, I think some of us have a habit of doing stuff like this more than others.

 

[Safeway]

I know that I have and I'm sure everyone here has. However, I think some of us have a habit of doing stuff like this more than others.

When most of us do something stupid, we then stop with the stupidity once we have asked for and received sound advice. Trident, however, continued snowballing.

 

[alkemyst]

Holy crap what a train wreck. For a Honda Accord most stereo/big box shops should have that harness adapter on the shelf...you may pay $30 for it locally, but so worth it.

Plus with direct wiring, good luck ever getting your dash pieces out to do any work if needed without cutting things.

 

[Eugene86]

I'll laugh if Trident posts a thread in the next few days about how he can smell smoke and/or how his car won't start up.

What a fucktard

Yeah, see, that's an infraction right there. Absolutely no justification for this.

Zenmervolt - AnandTech Moderator

 

[Capt Caveman]

Bitches?

So I successfully diagnose your issue without calling you a moran (like I should have), and you return the favor by referring to us all as bitches?

I didn't know it was possible, but I think I like you even less now.

You should know by now that Trident is an ungrateful asshat. Give him advice he will ignore it and tell you're wrong. Or take it, not acknowledge it or be thankful.

And we have a twofer. I don't know where people got the idea that the rules against personal attacks didn't apply in The Garage, but consider this some disillusionment.

Zenmervolt - AnandTech Moderator

 

[TridenT]

This.

You should be using crimp caps, not wire nuts.

The wire nuts are likely to loosen and fall off with the vibration from driving.

The last thing you want is to have a bunch of uninsulated wires sliding around in your dash.

I bought some of those yesterday. It's what I plan to use. I got the twist caps to be a temporary solution so I could experiment without getting blown fuses.

 

[mvbighead]

You live and you learn I guess.

One thing I was told, can't remember by whom or when, was that your time is valuable. Take your hourly wage (or calculate what your yearly salary makes your hours worth), and then put it against anything you intend to do.

For me, playing with wires in the dash of a car sucks. It sucks big time. Playing with wires on the kitchen table with everything sitting in front of me is much, much easier. And, at least where I am at, I have about 15 different options including about 5 different Walmart locations that carry the car stereo wiring harness, and you can bet that I'd never even consider wiring a stereo directly into the dash. And, at any Walmart I've seen, those harnesses are usually under $10.

If you make less than $2 an hour, I suppose you got yourself a bargain. But I'd guess you're at least making minimum wage, and would suspect that you screwed yourself big time.

Cliffs - What someone else said, if you're trying to do something to save time, you'll only make it longer.

Next time, buy the wiring the harness, or wait until it is available.

 

[CraigRT]

+1 on wiring harness.
Just match the colored wires and be done with it.
I've only had 1 problem ever installing with a harness, and it was because the sedan and wagon versions of my car had 2 wires reversed for some reason (stereo shop had no clue) so I had to solve it myself, but that type of thing is very rare.