Car Stereos: 1997 Firebird aftemarket stereo problem, pioneer cd player, amp fuse

Question
I recently purchased a 1997 Firebird Trans Am with a Pioneer CD player that would quit playing after 30 seconds or so. I replaced it with a Kenwood and the problem persists. I spliced in the Kenwood to the existing wiring adaptor by color code and the names on the wires. The deck will play for awhile and then power just seems to go away. If I turn off the car and come back later the deck will play again for awhile and then power goes away. I triple checked all wires, visual only, and when the deck plays all speakers and deck functions work. The flashing LED on the deck continues to flash even though the deck seems to have no power. Am I missing something?

Answer
Hi Mark,

It's an odd problem, but it's not too hard to track down the source of the trouble:  if your Kenwood deck's LED light is flashing, but it won't power up, then there's probably something wrong with the red accessory power lead.  This is the connection to the vehicle's key-switched power source; it sounds like it's losing power after a short time, for some reason.  The issue probably lies somewhere in the vehicle circuit.

In your place, I probably wouldn't bother trying to track down the source of the problem; instead, I'd just find an alternate connection point for the accessory power lead.  In your car, I think I'd disconnect the red wire from the radio harness, and extend it down to the wiring coming from the key switch itself.  The accessory power wire in the key switch should be a thick, brown wire; it should be fairly easy to get to if you remove the panel under the steering column.  I'd suggest tapping your deck's accessory power wire directly to this ignition switch wire, although you'll want to put a 5-amp fuse on your new wire near the tap point.  If you don't want to mess with the ignition wiring, you might be able to tap into an existing fuse or outlet at the vehicle's fuse box.

If the problem's in a vehicle circuit, then connecting directly to the key switch accessory wire should bypass it neatly.  The only disadvantage is that if your Firebird is equipped with the Retained Accessory Power feature that keeps the radio on until you open the door, switching the accessory power connection will stop that from working.  

Hope this helps!

Brian