I gotta question for my maxi buds.

Here is the story on Sat. I attempted to add a new audio set up to the ole girl and after hooking the H/U it would not power on. Now the question is the some type of fusible link and where should I look for it? Yes, I've checked the fuse box. Also the security system now isn't working.

 

There are SO MANY ways you could have screwed things up, I don't know where to start. If it worked before you wired up the head unit, then that is certainly where your problem lies. Where did you hook up the bat+, the ign+, and the Grnd wires? Those would be the first places I would look for problems. I don't believe these cars have the old school fusible links in them. Even if they do, if you burn up a fusible link, you would certainly smell it burning, they make quite a stench when they go.

 

do you have a test light?
start tracing things backwards using the wiring diagram in the FSM

 

modern fusible links pop like a fuse, they don't melt a wire like the old ones

 

If your refering to the yellow(battery wire) and the red(acc) I wired the yellow to the yellow and the red to the red. The ground wire from the h/u to the h/u it's self. The cars ground underneath the ash tray. What is the IGN wire? The alarm was giving me problems before so scratch that too. It was just the dash icon thats missing.

 

The yellow (battery wire) is bat+. The red(acc) wire is IGN+ (actually it is ACC+, I shouldn't have called it IGN which stands for ignition). A circuit tester, or multimeter would do you a world of good here. You need to be certain that the red wire is getting 12v. only when the key is in the accessory or ignition on positions, and that the yellow wire is getting 12v positive at all times. You also need to verify that there is no resistance between the head units ground wire, and actual ground. If all three of those connections check out, perhaps there is a fuse in the head unit it's self that is either missing, or blown.

The way your worded the original post made it sound as if the alarm system problems happened after you installed the head unit.

 

it's really hard for us to tell you what's wrong. you have to let us know what you actually did. installing a "new audio setup" doesn't really tell us anything.

what did you install? new head unit, new amp, new speakers? give part numbers. did you leave any part stock?

i suggest you also post what you did in the audio forum. this way people can get an idea of what you may have done wrong.

what does this mean?

 

That part is troubling, if you don't have a good ground, it won't work.

My cousin had his stepdad wire his together and put the ground to the illumination wire so every time he turned on his lights, BAM, there went a fuse, (His interior lights, front corner lights and rear running lights) and eventually the fuse box started smoking...

I had to yank that off of there and fix it, are you sure you have everything wired right?

 

he is using the antenna as a ground since he didn't have one on the factory harness
the sentra and G20 in the fleet are both like that. no ground wire.

 

Bad plan in my book, find a good ground connection for that wire and see if that doesn't solve your problem.

 

good enough for the factory is good enough for me.

 

Your right guys.... Ok the only thing that is stock is the wire harness. The head unit is a Kenwood model 315s and it was in the car when I bought the car. I took that one out and put a pioneer in with no problems. I think the reason why the ground coming from the cars harness was by the ash tray was because they cut it to short. So I figured if it isn’t broke then why fix it. The reason why I put the pioneer in cause I wanted a remote and wanted to hook a system up eventually. That’s what I did and made sure I’ve hooked everything in reverse order. One question before I pull the multi-meter out what should I do if there isn’t anything coming out of the wire? Also those that wondered the reason why I mentioned the alarm cause the orange indicator light wasn’t blinking at the time.

 

any other advice?

 

I went back today and tried the multimeter and there isn't even an ampule coming off the battery wire. I put everything back the same way I took it off.

 

if you are sure you are using the meter right, try to find the harness at the other end of the wire and check for continuity and if you don't have it you need to find the short

 

Imma try again tomorrow hopefully its a better day. Checking with you I first set the meter to 20v, then pierce the wire with the red probe and ground the other wire? By looking at the wire it looks like it runs behind the front of the dash ( air and heat controls I could be wrong) Anyway it goes it looks like I have to take off the dash.

 

are you positive you didn't blow a fuse? you said that the car came with an aftermarket HU when you got it. the previous owner/installer may have added a fuse to the wire.

also, are you sure that the pioneer unit even works? a HU not powering up is a lot easier to fix IMO than not getting any sound out of it. that could be a mess to try and figure out.

 

Yeah I did check the fuse first. I wasn't too sure if the was a fuseable link though. IRC when I bought the car it had bose amp in the trunk. I don't now if the amp was hooked up but it was weird. As I sated before I've hooked everthing up in reverse order and this **** is frustrating me.

 

sorry, i assumed you'd already checked that. fuses are usually the first thing you check if something's not working.

check the fuses under your dash. i think there's a bose fuse that's 20amps and an audio fuse that 10amps.

check the harness for the HU. every aftermarket HU that i've installed had a small white fuse holder on the yellow constant battery wire. unscrew it and check the glass fuse.

 

are you saying there are two fuses in the head unit? I think it has something to do with the constant 12v battery wire. That's the only wire I am not getting any juice out of.

 

i'm saying there might be 2 fuses. the oem unit was fused at the panel under the dash. on most aftermarket HU's, they provide a fuse holder on the yellow wire because you're supposed to connect the yellow directly to the battery (a lot of people don't).

 

That does make since.... I guess I would hook it up this way. Is there an advantage of doing so? I really appreciate all your help thanks.

 

thats the idea, but i would not pierce the wire. instead i gently probe the harness terminal that the wire goes into. just don't be rough and bend/break the connector. also make sure you are testing it with the key on

 

LOL yeah that about somes it up then. When I tested it I only got 0.34v it should read 12.00 v right? I guess Imma take Maximal advice and hook the H/U batter wire to the battery via battery wire with fuse.

 

Grounding through the antenna might have been good enough for the factory, but the factory head unit didn't have the amplification built into it that an aftermarket head unit has. I always look for a good ground to wire the HU to.