Noob Question - Basic Installation

[sammy5gs]

Hey guys...

I just replaced the head unit in my 1997 Camry with a newer unit. However, my car's wiring harness/adapter did not match the newer head unit's housing, so I started splicing and dicing. It all seemed fairly easy (all of the wires were color coded correctly with each other).

So, I hooked up everything, plug the battery back in, and I get no joy. I get a light where the power button is, but nothing else. I am thinking I must have cross-wired something, recheck, and nada. After some manipulation, I think I have diagnosed the problem to be the yellow car wire (from battery).

When I plugged in the unit's ignition wire (red) with the car's red wire, and add the unit's yellow wire, I get power, and everything is working fine. However, nothing is stored/saved as it relates to presets when I turn the car off. Presets/Time/etc are all gone.

In my limited knowledge, I thought that was the purpose of the yellow car wire (memory/backup/alternate). I am thinking I am not getting any juice from the yellow wire. Also, from my limited knowledge of these things (this is only my 2nd time doing this), I would have thought the yellow wire would have traveled all the way to the battery, but I am not seeing it connected (don't even know where it is from the dash to the battery).

Needless to say, any guidance you can give me in this regard as to confirmation if I am on the right track, and what I can do to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Let me know. Thanks much!

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[planet audio 10+ year member]

Well first of all what model is ur head unit? And as a side note they make harnesses for aftermarket HU to just plug into your cars harness.

 

[sammy5gs]

Jensen CD3610.

As far as the harness, I guess I will keep that in mind for next go around.

Any thoughts?

 

[planet audio 10+ year member]

Your car doesnt have a yellow wire? If so you should match the wires, if not connect your HU yellow to the red wire, or a constant power source. If it still doesnt save your presets then exchange it for a new one.

Also make sure your power wire isnt loose otherwise you will lose all presets if the power wire jiggles loose then reconnects.

 

[sammy5gs]

Your car doesnt have a yellow wire?

I do have a yellow wire, but what I said in my initial post was that I do not see it running all the way through to the battery, and did not know if that is typical or not.

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

First, any power wires behind the radio run to the fuse box, not the battery.

Second, factory wire color codes do not match up to aftermarket equipment color codes. The yellow wire in the car and the yellow wire behind the head unit may not (in fact, probably don't) have the same function.

If you didn't cut off the factory plug, go buy an adapting harness. If you did cut off the factory plug, dig it out of the trash then go buy an adapting harness. If you don't have the plug any more, it's time to get out a multimeter.

 

[blackMTXgold 10+ year member]

yeeeeeh, u mighta messed up ure cd player bad, ive seen it alot, like three of my friends cd players are like that now, because they hooked them up like that, and sorry to say, the only way ure goin to be able to have memory is by gettin a new one, and pretty much the only way u are goin to get it to work is hookin the constant with the turn on soooooo exchange it before the place where u got it at realizes that

 

[sammy5gs]

If you didn't cut off the factory plug, go buy an adapting harness. If you did cut off the factory plug, dig it out of the trash then go buy an adapting harness.

Ok - I got the adapter I cut off the car out of the trash - Is it just as simple as reconnecting the adapter to the car wires, and then going from there (adapting harness to the head unit)?

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

yea, reconnect all the wires accordingly. Then go buy the harness for your vehicle. This harness will allow you to directly plug your new harness into your factory harness. Then with the harness you buy there will be color coded wires that will directly connect up to the wires coming off your cd player. And no, you probably didnt mess up your cd player, it was just losing memory because you didnt have the constant power hooked up right.

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

There's a good chance you have one or more blown fuses in your vehicle fuse box. If you reconnect the harness and get everything hooked up, check your fuses if things still don't work.