So 3 weeks ago when I got in my 97 ex the stereo (aftermarket) didn’t power up, few hours later when I git home and tested the 3 fuses, first under the dash (it was good) the one under the hood (also good) and finally the one behind the sony deck (also working) I figured that after 6-7ish years of being in the car the deck was finally done for so I ordered a new one. It came in last week so I wired it up using a new radio harness plugged it in and still nothing. I also have a 98 hatch so I decided to test both decks (me thinking that maybe the old one still worked and the problem was with the actual car) so I plugged in the old deck and it definitely still works (first pic)


I then plugged in the new one and it also worked without any problems (second pic)


so I figured the problem was definitely in the car so I checked the factory radio/cluster harness and it seemed fine at least from what I could see I also tested the power wires with a volt circuit terter and the red wire had power but yellow had no power, so just to eliminate the possibility of the problem being there I changed out the whole harness

But after going through all that the stereo still doesn’t work. The circuit tester is showing the same thing as the other harness red has power in the acc key position

and also in the on position


and yellow is still showing no power


I’m out of ideas and need a better mind to help me figure this out. Is there anything else I’m not checking? Has anybody run into this problem?

 

That YEL wire is the 12V constant wire.
You need power there at all times even with the ignition switch in OFF position.

Here is the circuit diagram for the EK
No.47 (7.5A) Fuse under the hood should be your constant wire power (WHT/BLU)

 

that fuse is good and has power to it (checked it with the volt tester)

 

If the fuse is good and still not getting any 12V to WHT/BLU wire, then your circuit is bad.
You can just run a wire from the battery to the YEL wire on the stereo. Just make sure you put a 10A in-line fuse on it.

If you don’t want to go all the way to the battery, you can also get 12V constant from the inside fusebox.

 

yeah I was thinking of going straight to fuse also at this point since I couldn’t find the answer. Thanks