Have a short somewhere, what do I do?

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

OK. I'm an impatient person and did something very dumb. I cut into a few wires from my HU and put them back in without insulating them. I thought I could space them out so that they don't touch each other since it was only going to be a short test.

Long story short, my HU doesn't turn on at all anymore. Is the problem definitely the HU and not in the car somewhere?

If it's the HU should I get it repaired or just get a new one? I don't really like my current one anyway. How much would the repair cost?

The fuses are all good btw.

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[Big Dee 10+ year member]

find the short and fix it.

Yeah along with impatient I'm kind of stupid //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif.

Where would the short be? I figured it would be in the HU itself, like a resistor or something.

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

fix your wiring and go from there. did you check the fuse on the hu, in the fiseboxx and under the hood?

Well the wiring is fine. All I did was strip some. I just needed to cover it up with some electrical tape. Done.

Also all of the fuses are fine. I checked under hood, HU, and dash.

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[2loud4u 10+ year member]

Grab a dmm and check and see if the deck is getting any power.

Second check your ground wire.

If both check out ok you probley fried your deck and will eather need to send it for repair or get a new one.

 

[noob with an RS 10+ year member]

check your RADIO/ACCESSORIES fuse. is there a fuse in-line iwth the deck's powerwire? a fuse in the back of the deck? you had to have blown a fuse somewhere. either that or you melted something to the point where there is an open in a circuit. worse case scenario- you have a fried deck because the stupid deck didn't come with a fuse and for some strange reason the car's RADIO fuse didn't blow. i bet 90 dollars it's a fuse that you're overlooking.

 

[EzekialPhoenix 10+ year member]

run power wire directly from the battery to the radio's harness. Then, connect the constant wire the switch wire and that power together, so 3 those three wires are touching. Ground the radio somewhere reliable. If the unit powers on and works fine, the problem is the wiring. If it doesn't, the problem is the unit.

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

check your RADIO/ACCESSORIES fuse. is there a fuse in-line iwth the deck's powerwire? a fuse in the back of the deck? you had to have blown a fuse somewhere. either that or you melted something to the point where there is an open in a circuit. worse case scenario- you have a fried deck because the stupid deck didn't come with a fuse and for some strange reason the car's RADIO fuse didn't blow. i bet 90 dollars it's a fuse that you're overlooking.

I have checked the radio fuse under the dash, the fuses in the engine compartment, and the fuse in the HU, and I rechecked them all about 5 times.

I didn't see any fuse in-line with the deck's power.

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

run power wire directly from the battery to the radio's harness. Then, connect the constant wire the switch wire and that power together, so 3 those three wires are touching. Ground the radio somewhere reliable. If the unit powers on and works fine, the problem is the wiring. If it doesn't, the problem is the unit.

What kind of wire to use for the power? 16 gauge speaker wire ok?

I don't recall seeing a constant or switch wire, what does the switch wire do?

The radio should be grounded already, should I ground it again somewhere else?

Thanks for your help. I'll do this once I really understand you.

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

ftp://inform.kenwoodusa.com/MANUALS/KDC219.pdf

Here is the manual. It has the wiring diagram in it. I don't see any "switch" wire.

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

is there a fuse on the back of teh radio ? check that..

the "switched" wire is RED from the radio harness. it gets power when the key is on

the yellow is constant it gets power all the time, (used for the radio memory)

you need these two wires to make the radio turn on. (also ground the black wire to bare metal NOT in the dash area.)

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

is there a fuse on the back of teh radio ? check that..
the "switched" wire is RED from the radio harness. it gets power when the key is on

the yellow is constant it gets power all the time, (used for the radio memory)

you need these two wires to make the radio turn on. (also ground the black wire to bare metal NOT in the dash area.)

Thanks for the info.

Shouldn't the radio be grounded already? Why would I have to reground it somewhere else? It was already running for a couple years in my car.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Doesn't mean it was PROPERLY grounded.

Sometimes, a radio seeks ground through the FM antenna plug-in... which is bad... but will allow the radio to work.

What you need is a DMM, and you need to test for voltage and ground on the wires. The ones AZBASS mentioned.

nG

 

[Big Dee 10+ year member]

OK thanks guys.

Friday I will buy a DMM and start testing. I'll give an update then.

 

[audiobahnuser18 5,000+ posts]

i actually recently just had this problem make sure to check all of the fuses one fuse in my fuse box wouldnt let me turn my hu on just sayn check em all might help