Car Stereos: No power to deck, nissan vehicles, fuse box

Question
Hey, i just took out my aftermarket deck, an bought one off my buddy. I hook everything up right and have power to everything but when i plug in the wiring harness i have no power to my deck, but there is power in the wire.. It's really starting to tick me off, and if you could give me a soultion that would be awesome.

Thanks, Thereon

Answer
Hi,

It sounds like you're using some type of voltage tester or multimeter to check the power at the back of the deck.  If so, be sure to check both the yellow wire and the red wire; you need to have 12 volts on both wires before the head unit will power on.  Also, you'll want to check your ground wire.

Some vehicles are designed so that the head unit is grounded through the mounting brackets.  If yours is like this, then the deck might not work when you plug it in without the deck mounted, but might start working again once it's screwed into place.  Head units in Nissan vehicles often work like this.

If you're testing the wires with a multimeter, be sure to connect the black probe to the head unit's ground wire, then test the voltage on the red and yellow wires.  If you get voltage on both power wires, and the deck still won't turn on, then check the deck's built-in fuse; if it's good, then the deck may be defective.  If you're not getting power on both wires, you'll want to check the fuses in the vehicle fuse box, as well as the ground wire connection.

Hope this helps!

Brian