Hey guys,

I'm near done with my stereo install and am trying to iron out a few kinks that I have. I am putting a Pioneer 1400 CD deck in the glove box and leaving the stock radio in the dash so it looks original.

I replaced all four speakers and re-wired all of them, running wire up to the glove box where the head unit will be. All of the speakers work great, so no problems with any speakers. To keep things simple I used three of the existing wires from the stock radio and ran them up the glove box, (power, ground, and accessory). I figured out what they were using my volt meter and playing with the keys until I figured it out.

The CD player works good in the ACC. position on the ignition except when I turn the lights on the CD player goes off. The CD player will not work AT ALL with the lights on. Somehow the illumination of the dash is tied in with this wire that I used for accessory. When I turn the hazards on you can see the face of the CD player dim every time they blink. Also, my door buzzer sounds really screwy like it is trying to die, I wonder if this is on the same wire and there is some kind of short somewhere?

I checked my power wire and it has power to it all the time so it is okay. I figured the accessory wire was losing power when the dash lights came on, so I checked it. It shows 12V with the key in accessory, and when I turn the lights on it still shows 12V. What the heck is going on? Shouldn't the CD player be working then? Or could there be something wrong with my ground wire? It just looks to me like if the ACC wire has power then the CD player would still work right? Where am I losing power at?

I'm wondering if I could just run a new wire to the tab on the coil, or to something on the back of the alternator and use this as my ACC wire, because they are tied in with ignition.

Please let me know if anyone has had this problem or knows what might be going on. Or if there is a good way to just work around the problem altogether!

THanks in advance.
Jamie

 

Also, one other small observation. I programmed a station into my presets and then turned the lights on to see if it would still be in there when I powered the unit back on. I turned the lights back off, powered the Cd player on and its memory was reset again. ??? If the memory wire has constant power why isn't it remembering the presets? Would it do this if my battery was low? Just doesn't make any sense to me....

 

I would check that memory wire, and make sure it gets an input from an UNSWITCHED source - like the factory clock for instance.

 

What do you mean an unswitched source? could I use the clock and just tap into it for my memory wire? I still don't understand why the dash illumination is causing the Cd player to shut off when the wires are showing 12V with the lights on?

 

Sounds to me that you are using the factory illumination for a ground. Unhook the wire you have the ground hooked to, turn on park lights and check for power there with your meter. I installed car audio for 22 years and found people with this problem many times. Good luck!! Also I would just ground the deck to any of the metal near the console as all metal works fine for the ground.

 

cool.. That definitely makes sense. I will go out and check it after I get a bite to eat. I'll let you know how it goes....

 

there is not memory wire in the fac stereo, you'll have to go under the dash and run off the ign. and 12v constant wire, that will provide much less problems.

 

quagmireman,

a little fuzzy here, you said to run off the 12v constant wire? Wouldn't that be the memory wire? Or is there something else under the dash that I can tap into? Also, where can I hook up with Accessory wire so it gets power when the key is in the ACC position?

Jamie

 

This is exactly what was wrong! Got it fixed and it works excellent now! THanks for the great advice. Now i'm gonna build a little box to put the CD player in and then mount it in the Glove box and i'm done. THanks everyone!

Jamie