ARGH, stereo issues.

Well, after my Clarion DRB 3675 H/U bit it this week, I went to the nearest affordable audio-place(best buy) which is about an hour from here. I bought me a Kenwood MP435U H/U for about $180.00 after tax and was excited to finally have tunes again. Well, the free installation really wasn't free, they wanted $100 bucks for it, the bastards, so i decided to do it myself. I got the new harness in(I think all the wires are correct, the previous owner kinda messed things up, somewhere in between the speakers and H/U, the colors of the wires change.) Well, i got it wired in, and turned on the key, and the damn thing doesn't work! FTW? I can hear it running a little, and it will take and eject CD's, but the it looks like it's off, no display, the buttons aren't lit up, and no sound. WTF is going on? is my car's wiring shot? or is the stereo shit? I'm gonna have a few words with Worst Buy when i head over there in a couple weeks.

Double check you have the correct harness and that all colors match. Have you grounded properly?

I know shit about wiring a stereo in a car. I pay the money to have it done right. If its messed up and they do it then they get to fix it and not you. If you wired it wrong and fried the deck you are out the original $180. To me its easier and cheaper in the long run.

okay.. so make sure your 'illumination' wire is getting 12v.

if the radio doesnt turn on at all, its eithier
1) main power
2)illumination
3) ground


theres basically only those 3 important ones..all the others are:
speaker l,R speaker f,r they all have 2 wires each..so it looks like a bigass mess..but its not really that hard.

the same spearkers have the same color+white (usually) if you got a kenwood, yours should be exactly the same as mine.

going from one type of deck to the next is hairy since they dont follow the same wiring diagram.


easiest thing to do, get a DMM (if you dont have one..get a light bulb on two wires..it works if youre only checking 12v

when your acc is on, the wire from your car connected to th BIGGEST (i think it was orange) wire.. (thats not black) should give you 12v when you ground it to the chasis...

if its not, that may be your problemo.


if still doesnt work, post a pic..i should be able to sort it out..ish. :P


oh..make sure the contacts are all good too..are you using crimps solder or just tape?

Well, i got er workin. Only problem is it doesn't retain any memory when you turn off the car. When i turn it back on, it's back to the factory set station, default equalizer settings, etc, so i have to adjust it again.

Next on the list, 2 new 4 x 6's for the dash to replace the shot ones.

hey, that sounds like youre not getting power to the +12v.. dont connect acc to 12v.. the 12v is supposed to be always hot.. so it retains memory, etc. try see which line is getting 12v when your car is OFF too.. there shouljd be one wire.

Well, after testing all the wires in there, i determined that there were no wires that were hot all the time, so i ran a new wire to the battery(using an inline fuse of course) and now it works great. Also found why the tailights and dashlights kept blowing fuses. Apparently, the ground wire from the stereo was shorting across to the hot wire for the taillights, overloading the tail-light circuit. Found a new ground wire for the stereo and all is well. Also, what gives with the headlight closing motor being on the taillight fuse, while the switch to pop them up is on the headlight fuse?:screwy:
There was also an auxiliary cigarette lighter port(three power points, one unit) that has never worked in the time i owned the car. Found out why, he had wired it STRAIGHT TO THE LOVIN BATTERY with NO fuse inline. :banghead:

Took time to get that straightened out. I'm a happy man for the rest of the week. Will spend my time reloading shot into my shotgun shells for when Murphy comes back again.

haha nice. glad it all worked out man, murphy = guy who sold you car?

You ain't heard of Murphy's Law? You oughta look it up.

oh, lol him :P

i heard lots of him. had much experience with his fuggin laws too