Sony Xplod HU problem

So i hooked up one of my buddies HU's into my 97 cougar and it took forever to get it to power up and finally my buddy noticed oddly enough that the yellow and red wire have to be touching to power, but its a constant power source so when i turn the key on or open the door the HU stays on, so i bough a toggle switch and some copper wire and hooked it up to that, so now i can manually shut it on and off, has anyone ever heard of anything like this before?:screwy:

yellow is constant power, red is switched power. If you connect the yellow wire to a switch, then every time you turn off the switch you will lose your memory. The better way would be to connect the yellow wire to the power side of the switch (the one where the power wire from the car is connected) and connect the red wire to the other side of the switch.

the radio fuse might be blown causing the radio to not come on when the ignition is on. You could always wire the red to a switch power wire like in the ignition

Checked the fuses and their fine, i think i'm just gonna leave it alone, its kinda convenient having a toggle switch.

I find it hard to believe that the harness kit if wired to the radio properly didn't provide power to the unit when plugged into the factory harness. You did use a harness kit right?

Well yes but theirs a catch, i used a sony Xplod harness from a different HU but they're were both newer model Xplods, are they're different wires that come from the harness that goes into the HU?

const power = yellow
sw power = red
ground = black
amp remote = blue/wht strip
illumination = orange

Almost ALL headunits have used this standard for like 20 years but it is possible the harness is wired wrong

mine does the same thing, but only on radio. if a CD is in, it powers off. it did the same thing in another vehicle as well.

make sure you have the right harness, and it's wired correctly

Its a Sony, personally i have a Sony in one of my Jeeps and its a pos. I hate to be negative. but the volume turns itself up randomly. Ill be driving paying attention to the road and then bam its like im going from easy listening to a rock concert and it pisses me off. Personally, id rid it and get a different brand, get a brand that wont do that. I have a cheap cheap Wal-Mart VR3 that will out do any Sony Xplod crap Sony has. And this is just a temp cd head unit til i get a dvd indash back. Personally man, your probably be going to spend money on a new head unit soon down the road, so id just save time and junk it.

anyone else agree with me?