Help with 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan Stereo Install

[pilotsoontobe]

Hi. I am not a professional. I have installed two stereos in two cars before this but that was pretty easy. Both cars were pretty new. I am now trying to install a pioneer stereo in my friends 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan and we have run into nothing but issues. We bought all the basics; a wire harness for the appropriate year, make, and model of car, A mounting kit, and of course, a stereo.

We removed the factory stereo without any major issues and proceeded to connect the wires from the new stereo to the wire harness. That went relatively smoothly. When we went to plug in the wire harness to the cars existing wire bundles, we started getting sparks from the cars ground wire whenever it touched anything metal. It sparked on the new stereo and the factory stereo. After figuring out that I was in slightly over my head, we decided to plug in the factory stereo and continue later. We did so, and now the factory stereo won't turn on. We bought a tool kit that included a device that plugs into a cig lighter and when it touches metal, tells you whether or not you have electricity or not. (Cant remember what its called) When I followed my string of wires, I found that I did have power flowing through my red wire. So Im pretty sure I have power flowing to the stereo when I plug it in, but Im not sure whats going on.

My questions:

1) Did I **** up the stereos when the sparks from the cars ground wire touched them?

2) What Am I doing wrong?

3) How do I fix this?

Also, to add more to the mystery, since the sparking incident, my friends power locks no long work when the car is OFF but still work normally when the car is ON. HELP ME!

Click to read more...

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

you blew a fuse.

refer to the owner's manual for fuse locations.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

it is hard to tell from your description why the fuse blew. usually it is when you mix up wires and the red or yellow touches anything metal. when you make connections, are you crimping , soldering, or taping? tape alone is not sufficient.

 

[pilotsoontobe]

We were mixing up various wires. (I admit it, I was stupid) Do you think that the sparks could have messed up the actually stereo head unit?

 

[pilotsoontobe]

Also, we used crimps then covered each crimp with electrical tape.