Hey Everyone,

I'm hoping that someone can help me out. I'm kinda troubleshooting this problem in a few different places but this is the symptoms.

A while ago I took a long road trip and on this road trip my car's battery died. I bought a new battery and 8 hours later it died again so I bought and replaced the alternator. The alternator was bad anyways but come to find out there was a short in my system on the electron battery fuse circuit. I just unplugged the fuse. When I would start my car I would then plug it back in and everything would run fine. Later that month my car got broken into and they stole my radio. It was an aftermarket radio but the speakers was stock bose. I tried puting a new radio in and everything lights up but no sound. I took my door panel apart and tested the wires and there is no power coming to the amp wires but the speaker wires are continous from the HU to the doors.

I searched for a couple of days on the forums for where the fuses would be for the stereo and amp and I checked the relays and when I check the electron battery circuit with my tester there is a 2.9 amp draw on the circuit with the car off and that is what drains my battery.

My question is if I change the speakers and leave the amp wires exposed will the car still have the short. Is there two different problems here or are they related? I hate electrical problems but do you think that there is a short on the electron battery if there is an almost 3 amp draw when the car is off??? If someone can check and see what the normal draw on that circuit is that would be great too. By the way I have a 93 DOHC 5 speed. Thanks everyone

 

the maximum draw a car should have when everything is off is a few milliamps.
and as far as your speakers not working, it's probably because you didn't hookup the amp signal wire to the radio.

 

I went to nissan today to pick their brain a little bit and they told me that the draw on the circuit should be .3 amps and he said that there is a short. Has anyone encountered this problem and want to point me in the right direction. That circuit has a lot of stuff on it. Seatbelts, dome lighting, airbag something, security, radio, and I have no idea where to start. Should I just unplug all those accessories and then test to see if there is still a draw. I'm affraid that the draw is from the battery to the fuse box and in that case unpluging everything will be pointless. I am no expert in electronics so any help would be appreciated.

 

do you have an aftermarket amplifier in your car?

 

i have the same problem, no sound from the speakers but my aftermarket HU i hooked up has power. After reading this thread, and reading what internetautomar saying about hooking up the amp-turn on wires, im guessing thats what i have to connect, because as of now they are not connected. The amp-turn on wires needs to be connected since the stock bose speakers has amps built into them right? But what about when i by pass the amps and install the aftermarket speakers, do i still have to have the amp-turn on wire and amp-ground wires connected? I dont have an external aftermarket amp. Help please.

 

if you are using the original bose speakers with the original amps you will need to use the amp turn on circuit,
if you bypass the original amps, then you don't need the amp turn on .

 

thanks a million internetautomar, i installed my new HU the 3 days ago and there was power to the HU but no sound to the speakers, i was very confused and kinda mad because i thought i did something wrong. Im gonna connect the amp turn on wires together and see if there is sound from the speakers, if there is sound then im gonna go ahead and intstall my aftermarket speakers. Do i need to connect the amp ground wire also?

 

when you hookup the amp turn on wire, it will handle the rest (the amp turn on wire is behind the HU, there are 2 , 1 for the antannae and 1 for the amps)

 

thanks guys for all your responses. I have some clarifications to address. I switched speakers in the car and they work fine however I still have a short on the electron battery circuit which is the 4th fuse from the bottom left. I took everything apart in my car except the center console and the dashboard and I cannot figure out what the short is. Any suggestions on how to find the short? I subscribed to the autozone fsm website but it didn't help much. thanks

 

Ok, I still have a problem and but I have some information that might help. I figured out that the amp turn on wire was the one that wasn't giving power to turn on the amp to get my stock bose speakers working but what I did was wire the amp turn on wire to the antenna remote wire and they seem to work however I still have a draw on the battery when the car is off on the Electron Batt. fuse. Do you think that the draw is coming from that amp wire that is not working correctly? Is there a way that I can test it. I bought a FSM and have wiring diagrams and stuff but it gets really confusing. Help! Help?? Help!?!!

Thanks
Maxeema

 

IF you are worried about a draw on the amp wire, couldn't you just remove the fuse completly? Or are you still running through it with the amps plugged into the head unit?

 

Well I have to remove the fuse every time that I turn the car off or else my battery will die. Then when I turn the car on if I want to listen to the radio then I put the fuse back in and I have power. This gets kinda annoying though because that circuit also controls other stuff like seatbelt, alarm, and other stuff so ya that's that....

 

does your radio lose it's memory when the fuse is pulled?

 

yep....that is also one of the annoying things....everytime I put the fuse back in I have to reset my stations until I get to my destination in which I have to pull the fuse again and lose all the stations.

 

well, my theory then is that you have ACC and BAT wires reversed.

 

reversed where? The components work just fine when the fuse is in but there is just a 3 amp draw on that circuit so that means that even though everything is working it is draining the battery. Maybe if you explain your theory a little better I can better argue and maybe better explain what's going on. Thanks for the help though. ;-)

 

the BAT wire is always supposed to be on and supplying voltage to the radio, regardless of whether the car is turned on or off.
The ACC (sometimes marked IGN) wire is only supposed to recieve power when you turn the ignition on or have the car in the accessory position.
If they are reversed (depending on the vehicle) you will normally have one of 2 symptoms
1. Constant memory loss whenever you turn the vehicle off and the radio turns off
2. Radio stays on even with the ignition off.

Your problem sounds like #1 to me. Comprende'?