I bought a new head unit for my 1992 accord. At first, for the first day or so it worked. However, soon after I began to have increasingly worse problems with it. It only works SOMETIMES. Seemingly at random, the radio will turn on, and then also will turn off at random. I even had one time where the radio came on and turned off in 1-3 second intervals for about a 30 second period of time, then shut off completely. I suspected a bad ground. Seeking to eliminate this possibility, I removed the head unit and put the stock one back in. It worked just fine. No problems. I figured the harness might have been improperly done, so I replaced that with the two halves of the metra wiring harness (the one from radio-metra and from metra-car). Snapped those together, connected the radio back up, nothing. The radio will not turn on at all.

To make matters worse, whenever I put the new head unit in, my clock will NOT work when the car is off. I turn the car on and it is at the same time it was when I turned it off the day before. Also, my ciggarette lighter works sporadically.

It is worth noting that I have also had a problem one time where the radio's power light was blinking in 3 second intervals or something like that JUST like the anti-theft light on the stock radio used to do. And I couldn't turn on the radio.

I am DYING to know what the hell is going on! I just want my new radio to work! Someone please help!

Is it possible that just one of the two necessary fuses are blown? I know that some head units will function weirdly if the yellow is blown but the red is still ok.

 

I would check the fuses first and then make sure ALL of the wiring is correct. A lot of times this can happen if you have the power and ground incorrectly done and they are touching each other just barely when you hit a bump or something. For the clock to be resetting you are definitely crossing some power somewhere long enough to take that out. I would completely redo the wiring and make sure it is correct. Also, if you are not soldering make sure you twist the pairs together, fold them back flat and tape them tightly. It would be best to twist them, fold them back, let a drop of solder soak in to ensure the connection, then tape if you know how to solder.

 

Where are the fuses located in the vehicle? I can't find them!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BBuncky2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Where are the fuses located in the vehicle? I can't find them!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Driver's side, under the dash I believe?

It sounds like you have a combination of problems, mostly with wiring. If you're using a different wiring harness than the one that came with the head unit, that might also be a problem. (I'm referring only to the harness the plugs directly into the back of the head unit.) I've seen many cases where the connection between the wiring harness and the deck was just horrible b/c they weren't using the original harness.

 

Ok I found the fuses but which one is the radio fuse? Also, which one is the backup radio fuse (I heard that there is one)

 

I am returning this peice of **** and buying a new one.

What brand do you recommend? I am returning the Panasonic 8301U head unit that I was talking about and am going to an electronics retailer to buy, extend the warranty on, and install for me.

 

just sounds like a wiring problem to me, either get it professionally installed or know how to do it yourself before you start b*tching about it being the head unit's fault

 

I was able to get help with figuring out what was wrong. We

were able to resolve the problem.

I figured I'd complete this discussion for two reasons:

1. Forums like this are of much more help if the problem's

resolution is followed through completely and documented as

such.

2. Surprisingly, NO ONE on the damn internet has even

mentioned a peep of this issue. That is kind of annoying

because it doesn't seem like it would be that uncommon. I'd

be willing to bet that there are plenty out there who may be

having the same issues that I did.


So the warranty lab here at Harman helped me to troubleshoot

this damn problem and at first, he (my work) couldn't figure it out.

He tried a continuity test, as well as other things and just

couldn't figure it out. Finally, we realized that in these

Accords, the security system is built into the car. Not

just the stock radio. This security system, when triggered,

cuts the normal 12 or 14 volts or whatever down to just 0.7

volts. The stock radio is set to realize that this means

that the anti-theft system has been triggered and shows a

"CODE" message on the front. Until you enter the correct

code, the car will not allow more than 0.7 volts from ACC.

My new radio was not turning on because of this. For a

temporary resolution (until we can route ACC around the

anti-theft system) we connected together the ACC and Battery

lines. This works fine except for the fact that the radio

loses all power when you shut the car off, meaning you lose

all of your settings. I am just biding my time until I have

time to get it done properly.

 

I've never heard of that before... Then again, I've never had any experience with 4th gen factory alarm systems. Hell, I've never seen a 4th gen with any kind of OEM security system.

I've installed audio systems on numerous Accords, with quite a few of them being 4th gens. I've never seen any kind of problem like this with a factory alarm system.

Congrats on finding the problem though.