My last radio died and I put in an aftermarket radio. When the radio cd player died, I noticed my alarm stopped working correctly and my power door locks glitch out. After putting my key in the ACC position or starting the car, the tach goes to 9k for about 1 second and then goes back to normal idle speed 900rpm's. The engine does not change Rpm, only the tach. My K-pro also acts weird since the old radio died. I put the new radio in and I wired everything up and doubled checked it. It did not power on. I busted out my volt meter and sure enough the constant 12V + radio wire is only putting out 0.5 volts. This is an uncut radio harness and I used a harness adapter. My conculsion is that the original CD player was not bad, it was an electrical problem causing it not to power on.

What is causing the 12v+ radio wire to not put out 12+ volts? It's not popping fuses, all the fuses are good. If it was a relay, wouldn't it put out 0 volts? Any help would be appreciated!

 

Check the whole wire itself and any connections on the wire. Did you use the same ground location when you switched stereos?

 

Yes. I'm using the same ground on the radio harness. I checked the ground on the harness and it's good. Thanks, I'll go through the loom.

 

Any update? If you have one post the wiring diagram. 0.5v is tough to go off of since it may not be 100% accurate.

 

That sounds like one of the power lines got shorted out somewhere on your chassis to me and also caused the fuse in the box in the engine bay to blow. I don't remember what # it is but it's a 7.5A fuse near the IGN fuse. Think the name is "backup". I would also check from the original harness going back. Their are some sharp edges back there it could've rubbed on and eventually cut it. That would cause it to be an intermittent problem.

Also, did you remove the + terminal from the battery while you were uninstalling the old radio and putting in the new one?