Need Help: First-time installing head unit and damaged some electrical systems

[majinwu]

I was trying to install an aftermarket headunit and lo and behold I did not disconnect the car battery before I started. I already realize my boneheaded mistake.

Anyways, I'm having these electrical issues:

- If I reinstall my stock headunit, it does not power on when I turn the engine on

- When the engine's off, my power door locks do not work

- When the engine's off, my remote door locks do not work

- Whenever I turn my engine on, my trip mileage counter resets.

Other electrical systems such as lights and blinkers work fine when the engine is off. And when the engine is on, AC, power locks, power windows, lights, etc all work fine as well.

My friend who is familiar with aftermarket installation checked my fuse box and did not see anything getting wrong. He says that most likely I short circuited something, but it will be a pain to figure out where. He says I'll need to get a volt meter find where there's a closed circuit, but I don't even know where to start.

Does anyone know what I can do in this situation?

If all else fails, I'll just have to reinstall the factory headunit and bring my car in to a Honda dealership. My car is due for a 60,000 mile maintenance anyways, but I know they will charge an arm and a leg to fix my electrical problems.

Thanks

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[majinwu]

I checked my owner's manual and found out there are specific fuses that control the radio, power locks, etc. I'll check them again. Maybe that's the root cause.

 

[majinwu]

I checked the fuses for the Radio and the Door locks, they look fine... I didn't notice any burn marks at all. What else is there to check?

 

[fwb_1234 10+ year member]

Well did it spark at any time? I mean, you can actually do it live, it's just really dumb, cause it's easy to mix wires.

I wonder if the car has any more fuseboxes. Other wise, check very carefully to make sure no wires are touching behind your dash. Look very carefully. Perhaps you pulled something out of molex connector or something.

 

[crawlinYJ 10+ year member]

did you use a harness or did you splice into factory wiring?

if you used a harness, remove it, install the factory radio and see if the problems persist.

 

[bass-aholic 10+ year member]

im willing to bet its just a fuse you cant seem to locate.

 

[01 S 10 10+ year member]

im willing to bet its just a fuse you cant seem to locate.

x2

hopefully! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[JRock10 10+ year member]

what year and model?

 

[bl0ckd 10+ year member]

He says that most likely I short circuited something, but it will be a pain to figure out where. He says I'll need to get a volt meter find where there's a closed circuit, but I don't even know where to start.

x2.

Are any electrical components completely dead, or do they all just act funny?

 

[bamaboy 5,000+ posts]

I checked the fuses for the Radio and the Door locks, they look fine... I didn't notice any burn marks at all. What else is there to check?

fuses arent going to flame up and burn stuff //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

pull them out and go ahead and replace them, could look fine but have a bad connection in them

thats the only thing i can think it would be, everything in the car is fused, check the ones in the car and under the hood

 

[majinwu]

I only checked the 2 fuses which are meant for the radio and door locks. There's actually two compartments for fuses: one underneath the steering wheel, and one under the hood. I'll check all of them to make sure none are burnt out. All the fuses should be in these 2 areas.

I did not notice any sparks or any noise at all during my boneheaded installation process.

I used a harness. Right now I completely removed the headunit. It's just bare right now.

It's 2003 Civic EX Auto.

I donno if there are any components that are "completely dead". Like I said, when the engine is off, nothing works (door locks, remote control door locks, trip mileage counter resets). Once I turn on the engine, things work again. But the radio doesn't work regardless.

 

[csnut18 10+ year member]

Ok I have the answer for you. Their are certain main fuses that are in your underhood fuse box that are at the beginning of your entire electrical curcuit and are inline with the door locks as well as certain acc etc. In addition to any radio fuses you blew, you need to check that underhood fuse box and I promise you will find the culprit. The fact that the door locks stopped working is not something to be concerned about and I am certain that its a underhood fuse as this has personally happened to me before.

 

[majinwu]

Thanks everyone. Everything's fine now.

Turns out there was one fuse under the hood that was burned out. It's the fuse labeled "Back Up" according to the owner's manual. Replaced it with one of the replacement fuses and everything's back to normal.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

yup i was just going to say it is an always hot wire for it to do what you said it wasnt doing with the engine off. alot of guys with 90's fords blow fuses for the radio one is under the hood that not many people check lol