Aftermarket radio wont turn on

mannyfreskko

New Member
I have a 97 Honda Civic DX. The guy who owned the vehicle before had a competition sound system in the car. He gutted out the system before he sold it to me. Well today I tried to install a new pioneer deck I just bought but it wouldnt turn on. Attached are some pics of the deck wired up and the old harness. Help pleaseeee. Also this is the first time I've done something like this so if you see anything wrong lmk.
 

Attachments

nd4sped

Moderator
Registered VIP
Registered OG
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Well it appears you don't have the ground wired up from the first image and that alone will keep he circuit open not powering the system.

Also those shitty wire nuts are garbage. Go ahead and take the extra time to solder everything and use shrink wrap to cover the work.
 


HeX

Authoritah, respected.
Staff member
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
Its not easy to see if you connected all the wires to the prope colors. Pull up the wiring diagrams for the car and radio then confirm its all correct. Also, those wire nuts are definitely not for automotive usage. At least use the proper butt connectors. That alone could be the issue.
 

nd4sped

Moderator
Registered VIP
Registered OG
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
mannyfreskko said:
Can i use butt connectors instead?
Click to expand...
Butt connectors will work but allow air to contact the wires which can cause corrosion over time and then connection issues. If you use the butt connectors get the crimp tool to crimp them down properly and again shrink wrap to seal the work.
 

daperez13

Respected
Grab a voltmeter, connect the harness to the car without the stereo and check for voltage on the black and yellow wires. You should get 12v or close to that, then check the black and red wires with the ignition in the "on" position (car off), you should also get 12v. If you don't, check the fuse on the car. Make sure none of those wires touch each other or any metal or you will blow the fuse. If all of this checks out, connect just the black to black and yellow to yellow with red and see if the stereo powers on. If it does, move the red to red and finish making the rest of your connections. If it doesn't, it's probably the radio. Check the fuse on it if it has one.
 

Joe Mason

Respected
Registered VIP
Butt connectors at a minimum should be used. Then, as mentioned above, you need to test with a meter to see if you're getting the 12 volts to the radio. Turn the ignition to "on" and put the negative lead of your meter on the ground and the positive lead on the power. Black and red basically. You might even want to start at the car side harness and make sure you have power and ground there too. If the stereo has been mucked with like you're saying there is the possibility of all kinds of things being off or rigged. Good luck and please let us know your findings.
 

mannyfreskko

New Member
I tested the harness from the car and I didnt get a reading so I replaced the fuse, checked again, and still nothing.
 

Joe Mason

Respected
Registered VIP
mannyfreskko said:
I was wondering if these wires might have anything to do with this?
Click to expand...
Trace those back and see where they go. Do they get power? As far as the car harness, that's gonna be key. I would check continuity from the car side harness to the speaker leads in the doors next to see if the harness has been bypassed entirely. It'll be beneficial to remove a lot more bits from the dash to get a better idea of what's going on back there.
 

HeX

Authoritah, respected.
Staff member
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
Like I previously suggested, pull up the wiring diagrams and confirm its done right. Remove any seemingly unnecessary wiring and treat it like youre looking at this for the first time. It seems like youre just dancing around the obvious until you retrace the wiring, which is such an easy issue to resolve.
 

daperez13

Respected
Since those two grey wires are not original to the car, we cannot tell (from that picture) where they're connected to. Can you sneak the camera in there a bit further and take a picture of the cables they're being spliced to? Take your voltmeter and test those two for voltage. They may just be speaker/subwoofer cables.

Where were these two blue wires connected to on the car? It looks like that's your power source since they're spliced to the black and red.
http://www.clubcivic.com/forum/attachments/20151219_172320-jpg.26679/

Take a picture of the harness on the car, without the harness from the stereo. Is it intact or does it have the black, yellow and red missing?

Was the fuse blown before you replaced it? Also check for a secondary fuse either in the engine bay or inside. Normally, these would just be used for amps but you never know.
 

mannyfreskko

New Member
It wasnt blown but i replaced it anyway cause I had an extra fuse laying around. The harness is intact. And those two blue wires not connected. They were cut. I have some more pics. I also tested those loose wires but there was no continuity. The one with the blue wire spliced to it has a blue wire running towards the trunk of my car and the one with the black wire spliced to it has a black wire running towards the battery i believe.
 

mannyfreskko

New Member
I seen this wire running from the fuse box and i put a screw on it and hooked it to one of those holes next to my thumb in the pic. Then i tested the black wire again and saw -12.6V running through it.
 

Attachments

You must log in or register to reply here.


Top