Car audio ?

HawkShot99 · Jul 13, 2008

The radio in my car has quit working on me. Well actually everything on the "radio" fuse. I used a voltmeter at the fuse and there was power, but not at the radio end. So somewhere between the two there is a problem. I wrapped a wire around the fuse and connected it to the radio power wire, and the radio circuit works. However, when I turn off the car I loose all of the settings on the radio.

Is it the "constant 12v" or the "12v ignition switch" that stays hot when the car is turned off to keep the settings in the radio?

TBWdracula2003 · Jul 13, 2008

ummm sounds like you have a bad 12v memory ( constant ) line and does the switched wire work? if not either take it into a shop to have the electrical looked into or just run a wire from the battery to the constant and find a switched wire and tap into it and put a fuse into both.

or the long route of taking it apart looking through the harness at the lines and find the break and repairing it your self... i dont recommend doing it this way it will void your warranty( if applicable ) and cause nothing but headaches if you dont know what your doing

HawkShot99 · Jul 13, 2008

TBWdracula2003 said:
ummm sounds like you have a bad 12v memory ( constant ) line and does the switched wire work? if not either take it into a shop to have the electrical looked into or just run a wire from the battery to the constant and find a switched wire and tap into it and put a fuse into both.

or the long route of taking it apart looking through the harness at the lines and find the break and repairing it your self... i dont recommend doing it this way it will void your warranty( if applicable ) and cause nothing but headaches if you dont know what your doing

The switched wire is good. As far as I can tell the only bad wire is the power. What would be the difference of hooking to the battery, as compared to haveing it wrapped around the proper fuse that has power? are you saying that there is supposed to be power sent through the "radio" fuse when the car is off to maintain the memory of the radio and the car's clock?

If I go and hook the radio's "power" wire to the battery, can I still use the "switch" wire in the harness, since it still has power?

I am not that great at car electrical, had a friend install my entire car system, but he is no longer able to help, so on my own, and too cheap to go to a shop.

Thanks a ton, for the help.

Bubba700 · Jul 13, 2008

On a car stereo there are 2 power wires. 1 is the constant and the other is the switched and they do exactly what their names imply, when you turn the ignition off the switched line goes of and the stereo turns "off" ( think of it as sleep mode) but the constant is still suppling power to keep the mermory settings and misc. things running. Since your fused line is bad you can run a new line from the battery to the constant line on the radio and it will save you time in trouble shooting the bad connection in the wiring harness. If you do this be sure to pic up a inline fuse ( check the fuse size in the fuse box) to hook up in the direct line to the battery . Should cost you 5$ to do pretty simple fix.

HawkShot99 · Jul 13, 2008

Bubba700 said:
On a car stereo there are 2 power wires. 1 is the constant and the other is the switched and they do exactly what their names imply, when you turn the ignition off the switched line goes of and the stereo turns "off" ( think of it as sleep mode) but the constant is still suppling power to keep the mermory settings and misc. things running. Since your fused line is bad you can run a new line from the battery to the constant line on the radio and it will save you time in trouble shooting the bad connection in the wiring harness. If you do this be sure to pic up a inline fuse ( check the fuse size in the fuse box) to hook up in the direct line to the battery . Should cost you 5$ to do pretty simple fix.

Thanks:beer;

Wont let me rep you yet though.

TBWdracula2003 · Jul 13, 2008

HawkShot99 said:
The switched wire is good. As far as I can tell the only bad wire is the power. What would be the difference of hooking to the battery, as compared to haveing it wrapped around the proper fuse that has power? are you saying that there is supposed to be power sent through the "radio" fuse when the car is off to maintain the memory of the radio and the car's clock?

If I go and hook the radio's "power" wire to the battery, can I still use the "switch" wire in the harness, since it still has power?

I am not that great at car electrical, had a friend install my entire car system, but he is no longer able to help, so on my own, and too cheap to go to a shop.

Thanks a ton, for the help.

it helps a little because you can run a bigger gauge wire than stock that will supply it with more amps and more of a true 12V. i think stock in many vehicles is a 16 gauge wire and about 11.3 volts and that about a 12 or 10 gauge wire would supply about 11.7-8 volts no battery that i have found puts out a full 12V but the alternator puts out 14.4V so it will even out to about 12.6-8 V while running and if you have an amp hooked up it should give a cleaner sound through the RCA's

Bubba700 · Jul 13, 2008

HawkShot99 said:
Thanks:beer;

Wont let me rep you yet though.

Its all good, me and some buddies got car stereo bug in high school and did a bunch of installs for friends. What ^^^^^ was said about the gauge of wire is dead on also.

Ex-Member · Jul 13, 2008

Go right off the battery for high loads... run good wire to it too. The "remote" turn-on thing... ignition... whatever it's called... Yellow wire iirc.... That goes to a high-impedance input on the receiver so there's virtually nil current going through it. Power for the stereo comes from that always-on line from the battery.

Since the fuse blew, there's a short to ground on that power line. You could probably take that line out of service and pull a new wire, but like bubba said, run an inline fuse if you do that.

I ran a dedicated line to my 8800 a while back, best thing I ever did... when i'd key up on high power (50W) if anything else on the cig lighter circuit (like my power inverter on the other outlet) was on, i'd pop that fuse... got real irritating.

Inline fuse on the top edge of the pic:

HawkShot99 · Jul 13, 2008

Thanks a ton to the help. I went out and ran a wire from the battery and now I have a properly working radio!

Mule I never blew a fuse. Just everything that runs threw the "radio" fuse had problems. Clock reseting, heat/ac setting and of course the radio settings.

But thanks.

TBWdracula2003 · Jul 13, 2008

if you want to make it look stock its pretty easy, you take the in and out wire to the " radio " fuse and clip them as far away from the fuse box as possible then run the new wire from the battery to one side and the one from the radio to the other and connect them with some butt connectors and you will have upgraded your wire while keeping stock location

HawkShot99 · Jul 13, 2008

TBWdracula2003 said:
if you want to make it look stock its pretty easy, you take the in and out wire to the " radio " fuse and clip them as far away from the fuse box as possible then run the new wire from the battery to one side and the one from the radio to the other and connect them with some butt connectors and you will have upgraded your wire while keeping stock location

Its all hidden behind the dash anyway.

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