QuestionI am not sure if you remember me or not, but back in mid August you were helping me install a stereo into a 01 pontiac sunfire. I am really sorry it took me so long to get back to you. School started up and we kind of let the stereo go for a while. We hooked everything up, and I think we are really close to having it. When you take off the face plate you can see the red security light blinking, and when you hit the reset button I can hear it spinning to check for a stuck disk, but when you turn the car on the stereo doesn't start. Even if you hold down the power button. We tried to trouble shoot for ourselves but no luck. I was wondering if there is anything you think we sould check. Thanks so Much and again I am sorry it took so long for me to get back to you.
Andrea
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I found the constant positive as well as the switched positive, but I found two ground wires. There are two black wires that worked as the ground wire.
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Thank you so much in advance for your help. I went to walmart today. They didn't have any digital meters, so I purchased and analog one with the needle. it has a dial on it with numbers in the AC V, DC mA, DC V, and OHM. Then there is a reading screen with a needle on it. And yes there are only the cut end of wires hanging out of the dash. Thanks Andrea
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My husbands car stereo was recently stolen. It was an after market stereo(pioneer). We have another after market stereo(aiwa) that used to be in my car. I tried to talk to the personel at a local installation place, but I don't think they understand me plus told me I need a $120 part. All I want is to hook up the wires that are hanging out of the dash to the ones that are hangon out of the back of the stereo. The ones from the stereo are the newer kind that have the black stripes on them while the ones coming from the dash are the older kind. It is a 2001 Pontiac Sunfire. I looked up on the the translation between the types of wires, but it seems that they don't all match up to what the internet said. The gentleman I spoke to said the wires needed to be tested for their function. How can I do this myself, and what are my next steps? Thank you so much for your help.
Answer -
Sorry you had your stereo stolen, believe me I know what that's like! DONT go to a stereo shop, they're going to rip you off. you can do this yourself, its not that hard and I'll be happy to coach you through.
First thing I would recomend is to get a meter. you only need a very basic one, I got a very nice one for $18 so shoot for that range. walmart, auto places, homedepot, etc.
once you get one (or if you already have one)let me know. we can use this to test all the wires there and connect them up to a new unit. do you have a new unit yet? and the wires that are hanging out of the dash, is there any type of plasitic plug there or just bare wires? try to look in as far as you can and see if there's a connector that can be removed to leave a clean wiring harness.
Let me know. you wont have to spend anything extra to do this.
looking forward to your next message.
Answer -
ok well digital would've been better but this one will do the same job.
You want to set it to DC V and make sure the 2 wires are in the right holes for DC V if it has multiple places to put the wires like alot of meters have. We'll call the 2 meter wires leads. for each one of these tests please make sure the leads are pluged into the right holes if applicable. Leave the car off and the key out for all of these except where I state you need it. make sure there is bare metal on the ends of the wires so we can put the meter on them and make sure the bare parts dont get against eachother at any time. there are ALOT of steps in a step by step explaination so we are going to get this done over 3 emails probably. so lets get started,
First we're going to search for the ground wire.
With the wires hanging out you should find a black one or the darkest one. this should be your ground. touch one wire from the meter here (it doesnt matter which one) and touch the other end to a solid, metal, unpainted part of the car (usually the door hinges or bolts inside the door work well. The meter should read 0 volts (needle tilted all the way to the left, (at rest position), if so move on, if not let me know.
If the meter reads 0 it's safe to test the ohms so switch your meter to "ohm". with the leads not touching anything the meter should be tilted all the way to the left in rest position and if you touch the meter's 2 leads together the needle should go all the way to the right. if not let me know.
now touch one lead of the meter to the same black wire and the other lead to the metal in the car. the needle on the meter should swing all the way to the right, if so congratulations! you found the ground! if not repeat the above process on more of the darkest wires until you find one that it does. remember to set back to DC V for the first test and set back to ohm for the second test. if the meter needle swings on the first test DO NOT test ohms just move on.
Assuming you've found your ground, tag it with masking tape with a - or neg or ground written on it or some kind of label so we know what it is.
Next we're going to try to find constant posative. Set your meter for DC V again. and put the black lead from the meter on the ground wire we found before. put the other lead from the meter against the remaining wires, one at a time and watch the needle. ONE and ONLY one of the wires should make the needle move and if you can read the DC V number should be around 12.5 volts. test all the wires cuz you should only find 1 not 2 or more. let me know what you find.
tag this one as constant posative and move on
Next you are going to find the switched posative. assuming you only found 1 wire that was posative in the previous step. put the key in the ignition and turn it to the on position, you dont have to start the car just turn it all the way to the postition before it would start. perform the same test as the one you just did and now you should find a second wire that provides 12.5 ish volts or so. while holding the meter on this wire and ground turn the key back and forth and your meter should go between 0 and 12 as you turn the key on and off. if so you've found switch posative! label it and move on.
The remaining wires are the speaker wires and are pretty easy so let me know if we get this far or if you need additional help figureing out the 3 power wires.
GOOD LUCK!!!
Answer -
ok well great! if you're sure there are 2 grounds you can either use them both by just tieing them together or just use one if the ground is as thick as the power wires, if the ground is thinner I would recomend using them both.
The remaining wires should consist of 4 pairs of wires. each color should have a wire that is solid and another wire with the same color that has a black stripe. so you should have maybe a green and green with black stripe. and a brown and a brown with black stripe as an example.
see if you can find 8 wires in 4 pairs like that, these should be your speaker wires. put the meter set on DC v across each pair and make sure there is no voltage. then switch your meter to ohms and measure each pair. they should read about 8 or 4 ohms.
Next take a good AA battery and quckly strike it across each pair, dont leave it on long just tap it. (DONT DO THIS IF VOLTAGE WAS PRESENT IN THE FIRST TEST HERE!!)
each pair should go to a speaker and when the battery is touched on a pair you should hear a click coming from the speaker that is associated with that pair. label it as to front right front left rear right rear left.
there really shouldnt be any wires left but if they are you should just be able to cap them off and not use them. One is probably a dimmer wire so your lights in your stereo dim to the dimmer in your car. I usually dont bother with that. and if you car has a power antenna that goes up automatically with the radio being on let me know, we'll have to find that too.
now that you know all the power and speaekr wires you should be able to match them up to a new unit!
Good luck and let me know how it goes please.
Answerhey, nice talking to you again!!
wierd, from reading the old responces it sounds like you found the switched posative. well....
It sounds to me that the yellow wire going to the cd player is live. this wire is repsonsible for all functions while the car is off which is what you are describing. it also sounds like your ground is good since the yellow wire wont work without that.
This leaves the red wire (well usually red) to the cd player. the red wire carries the power when the key goes into the "run" and "on" and sometimes "acc" positions. I would bet that if you connect the red to the yellow the cd player will work regardless of the key (DONT leave it like this or you will come back to a dead battery!)
how about you use the meter on that red wire and see if it goes posative only when the key is on to confirm and let me know.
