Hey I've got the stock bose system in my car, and just bought this car a few days ago knowing it didn't get any power. I figured it was just a fuse somewhere but I've check all the fuses that seem to be associated with it on the wiring diagrams i've found and their all good. as far as I can tell the radio relay is good as well, I hear something underhood click when i turn the key on anyways. Unfortunately I'm kind of stuck and don't know where to go from here. Help?

 

remove the radio and check for voltage at the constant wire and voltage at the ignition switched wire. then check the ground wire on the harness

 

I figured I would bump this as I am having similar issues:

OK, here is the backstory- I take the FD out for a nice spring drive and once I start up the car I notice the radio will not turn on. I have a 93 Touring FD with the factory BOSE.

I could not get the radio to power on after multiple attempts with toggling the power button. The clock, however, was still on and keeping current time on the display except I could not adjust the time. The headunit still lights up with the lights on as well.

So once I got back home I pulled the 30A "AUDIO" fuse located under the hood in the flip-up box. It was intact (verified by my multimeter) so I put it back in. I hoped back in the car and for some reason I attempted to power on the radio and to my amazement it worked! It powered on, played, everything was 100% functional. I figured the contacts on the fuse/holder were dirty or whatever and it was fixed.

Wrong. Next time I take the FD out (about 1 day later) no radio. Same thing, could not get it to power on whatsoever but the clock was still working.

I pulled the fuse again seeing if it would work but no luck. I even replaced the fuse with a brand new one and still nothing. I have checked every fuse in the driver side kick panel and all are intact.

I pulled the headunit out and probed the contacts on the harness, there is no power exiting the harness. I suspect the headunit is in working condition, but there is a fault with the harness or something.

Anything I might be missing? Any other fuses I could check or anything in the harness I could check? Any help troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated!

 

The 30A Audio fuse is just for the amps at the speakers not the head unit at all. you need to check the 15A cigar fuse but even then I doubt that one is the problem. From your description, it sounds like the radio is in its standby mode or more accurately 'clock mode'.
The radio has two positive power wires that run to it. One supplies all the electricity it needs to operate; the other acts as a wake up alarm for the radio and this wake up wire does no actual work; it only 'tells' the radio to wake up.
Your radio sounds like it is working (clock and lights etc) it just isn't waking up. So you need to look at the 15A cigar fuse or more likely the blue wire with a black stripe running to the back of your radio.
If your cigar fuse is fine and the blue wire with a black stripe has about the same voltage as your battery when the ignition switch is in the acc position; then the problem is in the radio itself; get a new radio.

I hope this helps and wasn't dumbed down too much.

 

Alright, I pulled the cigar fuse last night, it was intact verified by my multimeter, put it back in and now the radio works....wtf. I seriously think this car has a mind of it's own!

I didn't drive the car or run the radio for long so I will see if it works for long...