I have a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera and just recently decided to add an aftermarket deck. The deck is a Kenwood KDC-2019 50 W x 4 channel head unit, and no matter how I hook up the power to it, whenever I turn on the headlights, with the stereo on, the dashboard will not light up and the tail light fuse blows immediately. After hours of fiddling and replacing many fuses, I could not get the lights and the deck to stay on at the same time. Please help me if you can, I am stumped as to why I don't have sufficient power to power both at the same time. Thanks! THINK
Replies (5)
swez on 06/9/2004 09:44:20
Did you buy an OEM/Aftermarket conversion wiring kit (WalMart for ~$12.00) for this install? Sounds like not... this harness really simplifies wiring and takes out the guesswork of where to tap power for the HU.
Hope you did not cut the OEM harness off as the factory radio may have pin out locations callouts for each function on the radio chassis. Hard to read them... but on my last Olds, had a list of each pin and wire color telling which functions the wires were used for.
Are blowing fuses as the circuits you tapped into for HU power, are being overloaded. A good chance you spliced the RED power lead into the rear tail light circuit. The new HU will work until you apply brakes. Then the HU/brake light combo will draw excess current and fuse will blow. Both tail lights and HU will be dead than.
Go get a conversion harness for your model vehicle, install it and rewire the HU as outlined in your install manual. These problems will go away in short order.
Swez
PS When wiring a ground, take black wire from HU and add a length of wire that will get you to the fire wall or floor pan. The OEM harness ground will not be adequate and if you add other amps later, noise issues will not be an issue to chase down either. That ground must be a bare metal connection that is same ground potential as the battery NEG terminal.
Thunder6824 on 06/9/2004 10:27:57
Swez,
Yes, I did cut the OEM harness off. I had good intentions, I took a trip to Tweeter and bought an Olds wiring harness but the damn thing didn't fit, so I decided to solder the connections directly from the wires to the aftermarket harness. What should I do now? Can I still make the problem disappear without adding a harness? There must be a way...
ttocs on 06/9/2004 11:41:23
there are two grey wires in there. One is the dimmer wire that will go from +7 to 12v with the lights on, and the other is the right front speaker I believe. You must have wired into the dimmer somehow. If you have a voltmeter it will test as a ground until the lights are on......
Thunder6824 on 06/10/2004 02:00:26
Well, so far I connected the head unit without affecting the lights...the only problem is that when teh car shuts off, so does the memory to the HU...so I think I just have to attach the yellow wire from the aftermarket HU to the main power, and hopefully this will let me keep my radio stations and clock running...thanks for all the help, appreciate it
ttocs on 06/10/2004 15:35:39
connect the yellow wire on the deck to the orange wire in the car.
Replies (5)
swez on 06/9/2004 09:44:20
Did you buy an OEM/Aftermarket conversion wiring kit (WalMart for ~$12.00) for this install? Sounds like not... this harness really simplifies wiring and takes out the guesswork of where to tap power for the HU.
Hope you did not cut the OEM harness off as the factory radio may have pin out locations callouts for each function on the radio chassis. Hard to read them... but on my last Olds, had a list of each pin and wire color telling which functions the wires were used for.
Are blowing fuses as the circuits you tapped into for HU power, are being overloaded. A good chance you spliced the RED power lead into the rear tail light circuit. The new HU will work until you apply brakes. Then the HU/brake light combo will draw excess current and fuse will blow. Both tail lights and HU will be dead than.
Go get a conversion harness for your model vehicle, install it and rewire the HU as outlined in your install manual. These problems will go away in short order.
Swez
PS When wiring a ground, take black wire from HU and add a length of wire that will get you to the fire wall or floor pan. The OEM harness ground will not be adequate and if you add other amps later, noise issues will not be an issue to chase down either. That ground must be a bare metal connection that is same ground potential as the battery NEG terminal.
Thunder6824 on 06/9/2004 10:27:57
Swez,
Yes, I did cut the OEM harness off. I had good intentions, I took a trip to Tweeter and bought an Olds wiring harness but the damn thing didn't fit, so I decided to solder the connections directly from the wires to the aftermarket harness. What should I do now? Can I still make the problem disappear without adding a harness? There must be a way...
ttocs on 06/9/2004 11:41:23
there are two grey wires in there. One is the dimmer wire that will go from +7 to 12v with the lights on, and the other is the right front speaker I believe. You must have wired into the dimmer somehow. If you have a voltmeter it will test as a ground until the lights are on......
Thunder6824 on 06/10/2004 02:00:26
Well, so far I connected the head unit without affecting the lights...the only problem is that when teh car shuts off, so does the memory to the HU...so I think I just have to attach the yellow wire from the aftermarket HU to the main power, and hopefully this will let me keep my radio stations and clock running...thanks for all the help, appreciate it
ttocs on 06/10/2004 15:35:39
connect the yellow wire on the deck to the orange wire in the car.
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