Hi ,

What would be a common cause for this? The deck powers up and plays fine but it is reset every time I turn the ignition off and doesn't hold clock time.

Do I have the Power and ACC wires mixed up? I thought they were right but I could be wrong.

I have the wire that comes from the radio relay (car side) and only lights up (with test light) when the ignition is on: >> going to the main battery power for the deck.

I have the "Always hot" power that runs through a (1A) fuse on the car side connected to >>> the "ACC" wire on the deck.


any help would be great!

Tee

 

Your wires are indeed backwards.

12v (constant) wire should go directly to battery.
ACC wire should go to the ACC (lights up with key turned on)

 

This honestly has to be a joke.


Yes, they are backwards. Did you use a harness, or did you ghetto rig the stock wiring?

 

Thanks guys I'll swtich them and try again.

No it is no joke unfortunatley.

Yes I had to "Ghetto Rig" the wires as my model of car does not have a wiring harness available.

 

Weird. What car do you drive that they don't make a harness for?

 

Ok I switched them to:

Battery wire (yellow) >>> to 12v (constant) wire
ACC wire (red) >> to ACC (radio relay) (lights up with key turned on)

Now the deck indeed gets the memory power when the ignition is turned off, and turns on ok but It blows the (1A) "always hot" fuse after a minute or two.

This makes sense that it would blow it since the main deck power from the yellow battery wire runs through a 15A Fuse. Then the current travels directly to an inline (1A) fuse? Of course it will blow. But when I have the wires switched it wouldn't blow but the deck would not retain memory.

I'm about at my wits end,,, what the heck?


P.s Drew its a 88 Jag XJ6 (I've already adressed the speaker wiring issue)

 

take it to a professinal, if you cannot hook up simple wiring...you should not be installing one...don't be cheap...

 

Westec please don't tell me to take it to a professional without knowing the history. I've taken to 3 professionals none of which had any clue what so ever as to the wiring or stereo procedure for my model of jaguar.

The 17 year old genius at future shop claimed he would have to build me a new deck mounting plate out of wood: wrong (I learned thanks to forums like this)

Another guy at a "professional" shop claimed there was no other way to pull out the deck unless he took out most of the dash: wrong again (forums)

the other guy pretty much just didn't even want to touch the car. And said I would have to sign off in case he messed up my electrical system. I mean seriously!

Try bringing in a jaguar to a car audio shop, its not fun. Everyone has a different opinion on how to take 10 hours to install a new deck. I've done most of it and I'm almost done. (It did take a lot longer than usual)

So please don't play the "don't be cheap" card. Money is really not an issue for me. I don't want some kid dismantling my car for no reason without proper knowledge.

If you can recommend someone in Vancouver with actual car audio knowledge that goes a little further than switching a wiring harnesses in a honda civic let me know and I really would love take the car to them. << Not just being sarcastic seriously let me know.

 

Don't be cheap, buy a multimeter.
If you are serious about doing anything yourself, a MultiMeter is your best friend. It will help you figure out what has power and when it has power, it will inform you of voltage drops, resistance levels etc. You can even use a multimeter to figure out which wires are for the speakers.
Do some leg work with a multimeter and you'll be golden.

My first car was an '89 Pontiac Tempest. The previous owner hacked the factory harness out so when I installed my CD player, I had to start fresh. I didn't consult any forums or outside help for wiring, my multimeter was my Guru.

 

Some decks use the constand for high current and some use the switched power.
The same may be true for how some factory systems are wired. Sounds like your jag was wired for the switch power to provide high current and the constand for low current.
A relay is the answer to all your problems.
Use the 1 amp switched power in your harness, to turn on the relay.
Provide battery power, with 10-15 amp fuse, switched by the relay to turn on your deck.
Easy for most installers. There is a sticky thread with details of how to wire the relay.
I used battery power with 15 amp fuse for constant and split that to a relay switched by the harness and interface, just becuse i didn't want to depend on GM's fuses. I use another relay switched by the deck remote to turn on the amps. And a third relay for turn signal clicker noise.

And, for the record, I do my own installs because i'd never trust any of the so-called professionals that i've had installs done by.