Thread: Radio Install

Im having a little trouble with my radio install. The new harness is wired up and the antannae adapter is also connected. When I give contact, the radio does not even power up, as well as when I turn the car on. Im a little lost here. I feel like Ive done everything right and the wires have all been spliced correctly. Any help would be appreciated.

Dont use the black gound on the cars stereo harness,it will not work.
You will need to ground the radio to the car instead of that wire.
Try that,just hold it on metal and try to turn the radio on you will be able to test if thats your problem

I tried that. I grounded the black wire that goes directly from the new radio onto a screw and screwed it on to the radio mount but it still didn't do anything.

do you have a multimeter to check power and switched power?

You probably did already, but did you check the fuses yet?

I did and the fuse was fine.

I assume your previous radio worked fine? Is the radio you're installing new or used?

The previous radio, also an aftermarket one, worked fine prior to pulling. The reason for me pulling the old one out was because it didnt read CD's. The radio im putting in now, is used, however, it is in known working condition (was bought from a friend). The radio is getting no power at all and Im not sure why that is. I followed the online wiring diagram (from install dr) and also bought a spliced wiring harness off a forum member to have as a model and still nothing. When I plug in the new harness into the factory harness however, I do hear the speakers in the rear make a "thumping noise" once but goes away immediately. I also ran a ground wire from the new radio but still nothing.

This is an odd issue. I Had to ground my radio to the chassis to make it work. Well both I've had so far. Also some radios have fuses right on the back of them (like amps do), or an inline fuse. Sometimes those wiring harnesses can throw you off. I once had to splice 2 or 3 wires from the radio side into the acc wire to get everything to power up properly. The speaker wires are usually a no brainer, but just play around by swapping some of the power wires and see what happens.

At this point, Im just going to bring the car to an audio guy I know to have it fixed. Im sure it will end up being something really stupid.