Stereo problems. Need some help

[Hoffman5982]

Ok, so for the past month I've had a problem with my headunit. It would randomly turn off. about two weeks ago it turned off and didn't come on for the next week. After being fed up with it, I stripped my interior. I got a few other things done like paint the carpet and stuff. I cut the 2 rectangular plugs that go to the stereo. I removed all the the speaker and rear amp wires and have run my own wiring for the speakers. I used a multimeter and the stereo is getting power. I have a feeling that it might be the illumintation wires. Its the orange wire, but once it goes through one of the plugs it turns into a red/blue wire, and on the plug the wire that is right below it is the red/yellow, which doesnt connect to anything on the stereo. I just stop at the plug. I want to replace this wire all the way back to the source, and I can't find any schematic for it online. Does anyone know where it goes or what else might be causing this? It isn't the headunit because I bought a new alpine today. Also, when the headunit turns off, so does the clock light on the speedo, which is why I think its the illum. wire. Thanks anyone for you help
Modified by Hoffman5982 at 6:07 PM 10/21/2009

[Hoffman5982]

yay for help!!!

[the converted]

The illumination wire just tells it when to dim the lights. If your getting good constant and switched power, and the unit is properly grounded, then it's probably a bad radio.

[Hoffman5982]

I just bought a brand new one and I have the same problem, plus the light on the speedo clock goes out whenever the stereo goes out so they have to be related

[turbos4me]

Okay...Im thinking the wiring is pretty much the same on 95 to 98 and the illumination circuit is a closed parrallel set up...meaning you can't normally interrupt it unless you try. Can you dim the head unit with the illum dimmer wheel? No = you are either not in the illum circuit or you are halfway in and grounding the circuit out...go back over your connections until you can find a better feed and/or try feeding from the illum wires on the lighter, at least the little dual connector will give you an idea of what to look for...

[Hoffman5982]

Thanks, I'm about to go mess with it some more. Just for verification, I was looking at the wiring schematics in my Chiltons book and from what I understood, the black/yellow wire from the ignition is a switched power source. is this right? Right now I have everything but the ill. and front speaker wires re-done. The 12v constant is running to the battery with the 10A in-line fuse. If that wire isn't the switched power then please tell me. If you can't tell, wiring is extremely new to me

[zerepdivad]

You should be testing your wires with a multimeter and not randomly hooking stuff up just because the manual said it'd be that color. Pretty positive that black/yellow is your starter wire though.... is there a white/blue there?

[the converted]

You don't want an ignition wire, you want an accessory wire (BLUE). I'm still quite confused what you are trying to do and why you are running everything to the ignition harness.

[Hoffman5982]

I have a multimeter, and the only instructions it had was which pin went to positive and which went to negative so i'm figuring it out as I go. I'm not just hooking wires up to the ignition, I'm trying to find a switched source for the switched source wire on the stereo. What i'm trying to do is completely rewire the stereo because It obviously has a problem as it hasn't turned on in a month, and I just got a new one so it wasn't the headunit. This has all already been stated, and I also remember saying I've never done this before so don't try and make me look like an idiot. I've already admitted to being one when it comes to this subject. noone know why my headunit hasn't turned on. Someone said before it was a short in the speaker wiring, so I replaced all of that. It gets power, but I ran a new wire to the battery because these wires will literally break if I bend them. I thought it might be my ill. wire but obviously that wire really isn't that important, so I just wired it back up like it was. So now I just need to find the correct wire to connect the switched source wire to. Sorry for offending you somehow by connecting it to the wrong one. I wasn't just looking in the book, saw b/y and said "hey, let's connect it". Please be patient with me, we all have to start somewhere. Thanks

[zerepdivad]

Ok well then do you have a white/blue in your ignition harness? That should be accessory if i recall right or solid blue but i think thats s13s

Just to verify you have yellow going to battery, black going to ground, and the red is what you are trying to get correct? If so to just try out and be POSITIVE your radio isn't fried just tie in the red to the yellow TEMPORARILY AS JUST A TEST and make sure it still turns on.

An accessory wire should have 12 volts in the accessory position and drop to zero or close to it while cranking.

[Hoffman5982]

Ok well then do you have a white/blue in your ignition harness? That should be accessory if i recall right or solid blue but i think thats s13s

Just to verify you have yellow going to battery, black going to ground, and the red is what you are trying to get correct? If so to just try out and be POSITIVE your radio isn't fried just tie in the red to the yellow TEMPORARILY AS JUST A TEST and make sure it still turns on.

An accessory wire should have 12 volts in the accessory position and drop to zero or close to it while cranking.

yes that is what I'm looking for.

I will look for a blue/white. It can't be the headunit because I just bought a brand new one. and I think that's the problem because I would get 0v with the car off AND in the acc. position

[rabeatyourmeato]

why do you say just temporarily?

[the converted]

Otherwise it will stay on all the time.