cardoza

I have this Pioneer head unit laying around that I started putting in today, and for some reason my car was getting come weird electrical signals. I was getting no constant current from the battery, only the on/off current coming through the blue wire. I found out that if I put both the power (red, on/off) and the battery (yellow, constant battery) lines on the blue line that I could get the head unit to turn on. I was then wiring the speakers up using butt connectors (trash) just to make sure everything worked before I soldered them and got all of the speakers to work. Then I was messing around with something and my driver's front speaker stopped working, it was working before so I tried connecting the wires again and still got no signal. So I went to do it again and then my entire head unit stopped working. I tried reconnecting it the same way that I had previously but it's not working either.

Is there any chance that it's just my battery going a little dead after me working on the car for so long? I don't think it is because my car started right up.

Another problem that I've had is that there's a short in my dash that makes it reset to 1:00 every now and then. I found that when I rubbed the wires that are supposed to be the battery and on/off wires together the dash would light up and reset to 1:00, not sure if that has anything to do with it.

So basically, anyone have any tips? Like I said everything was working really well and then it all went to shit. Also would anyone in the area experienced in audio be interested in installing my head unit if I can't get it? My car has no physical harness, just the wires that go into it.

End long post.

CLIFFNOTES

1.) Constant power wire getting no power, but on/off is.
2.) Right front speaker quit working, then complete head unit turned off and won't turn back on.
3.) Short in the dash that I can recreate my touching the on/off and battery wires.

jachien

i don't know what "blue" wire you're talking about. But i think the blue wire is just a signal and it will always be just on or off. not a constant power like "red".

ATXRB

I had a similar issue with my s13. the constant wire is red with a black stripe but my constant wire stopped working for some reason so i just bypassed it and ran a new one from the battery and it works fine now.

live2c2morrow

Check your fuses.

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"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Confucius

ATXRB

^ simplest things first for sure, hahaha

Luvs2slide

Blue wire is the remote wire...like for an amplifier. When you turn the key to I think on/ACC the blue wire sends a signal to the deck to turn on. Think of it like an off/off switch.

Sounds like you have some wiring gremlins, and posibly some shorts in the cd player/speaker wiring. I hope you are taking off your neg battery terminal.

GL

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cardoza

Got the unit in, but I'm just running it off a constant wire that I ran directly off the battery and have both the switched and constant power lines for the head unit running to that wire. Not really a big deal I just have to turn the head unit on and off manually each time I get in or out. I have no idea what's going on with the switched blue wire, it's getting some power which makes me think it's not a fuse problem, but it's nowhere near enough to turn the head unit on. The car definitely has some wiring gremlins does anyone know what the deal might be with the clock on my dash?

cardoza

Oh and yes, always remove the negative terminal... I like cabin fires and all but decided to avoid it this time.

ATXRB

hook the switched wire (red) to the blue wire, hook the constant wire (yellow) to the wire you ran from your battery, that should make it so you don't have to turn on your head unit when you get in the car. the constant wire is for memory like a CMOS battery for a computer, it lets the head unit have enough power to remember things like EQ settings, radio presets, the track that the cd was on, etc.

This will help. Radio Wiring Diagram - Car Forums and Automotive Chat

cardoza

Yeah I know that's exactly how I was doing it... I'm not sure if you looked through the thread but my switched power wire is getting very little power.

ATXRB

yep saw that

Nathanfrisp

@cardoza Do Pioneer stereos still deliver? I know back in the days they did. What about now?

Sorry for being off topic. I'm hunting for a good head unit for my car. I'm in research mode for a few months now. I'm more lost than ever.

Don't get me wrong the net is filled with hyped up product reviews. At the moment I'm looking at Pioneer but nothing is set in stone. Along my journey I've came through a website. It's a lot different from those over-hyped blogs. It seems to be the real deal because the reviews are critical. So much so that it has put me on the fence. Just look at this Pioneer double din review and you will have questions as well.

At the moment I've shortlisted the pioneer avh-601ex. How bad is the Bluetooth lag? And what about the AppRadio is it DOA?

I'm open for suggestions.

S14rebuild

Way to go...u joined zilvia, just to bump a thread that is 9 years old.! Congrats..