radio in mazda protege stops working when i turn headlights on...

[md2online]

hey y'all,

i have a 2000 protege es...and just replaced the cd player head unit...cause the o..e.m. one was going in and out of working (i'm pretty sure something got fried somehow)...

anyways...i put in a Panasonic CQ-C3400U...and i was gonna get a wiring harness to simplify things...but my buddy convinced me not to spend that extra money...cause he knew how to splice the connector that came w/ the cd player...

(doh) D'oH!

probably a bad decision for more than one reason...but i went ahead and let him do it...cause he got the wiring diagram conversion (of colors) from his dealership database...and had splicers to splice the existing wires to the connector piece that came with the cd player...

only one problem now...when i'm driving at night...and i turn on the headlights while the car is running...as soon as i switch on the lights...the cd sound goes completely (stops)...even though the head unit still appears to be running...is lit up...and everything...(btw...this happens exactly the same no matter what the audio source = radio, cd)...

not exactly sure...but i'm thinking it might have something to do with that dimmer wire or maybe the illumination...as the oem unit had a backlight that lit up when i turned on the headlights...

y'all seem pretty smart on this forum...i'm really hoping someone can give me some advice...cause i'm kinda wary about letting my buddy do anything else at this point...

whats the easiest ((and not too expensive)) way to fix this problem...???...and ideas greatly appreciated...

thanks a million!

bagelboyATL
<!-- / message -->

 

[haaswyk]

look for dimmer wire and disconect it ... usualy orange but check your wiring book that came with the new deck

 

[md2online]

but i think thats the problem dude...there are 2 wires that ARE disconnected and not being used on the new deck...and i think that is causing the problem...

heres what i found on a link that was on another post here...

says "Pin 10" in '99-01 Mazdas...

"-ILL : Controls panel illumination. No connection for bright, increased voltage dims the panel light."

(uhm) I'm kinda confused at how this is worded...but it almost sounds like when the driving/head lights are turned on...the voltage somehow changes to the CD/Stereo panel...

thanks for the response dude...in reply...those 2 extra wires (-ILL and TNS+) are not in use on my current connection...

any ideas on why this would be causing the problem i'm having??

thanks so much for your help...(2thumbs)

bagelboyATL

 

[haaswyk]

you currently dont have illumination hooked up at all? ..is that what your saying?
to make the unit work there are only a few wires you need .. the speakers of course wich ill assume are hooked up correctly .. and then the big 3 ... power .. constant .. ground

it sound allmost like you are drawing power from the illumination ..and when the lights are turned on its not enough juice to run the deck fully...

its hard to say .. do you have a digi cam? ... can you take a pic of the wiring ..

if not i would sugest tripple checking your power and grounds

 

[1sty]

says "Pin 10" in '99-01 Mazdas...

"-ILL : Controls panel illumination. No connection for bright, increased voltage dims the panel light."

(uhm) I'm kinda confused at how this is worded...but it almost sounds like when the driving/head lights are turned on...the voltage somehow changes to the CD/Stereo panel...

I think your on the wrong track, and your buddies an idiot.

First, you never just hack a harness and use a guide to splice in. You have to test each wire to make sure you have the right ones. The only wires a radio needs to work are power, ground, accessory power, and 1 speaker hooked up so you hear something. Thats it. If everything else was not connected it would not matter.

The illumination wire is a ground connection or nothing when the lights are off typicly. When you turn on the lights, the illumination wire becomes 12 volts. The head unit detect this voltage and DIMS. The illumination wire makes a aftermarket head unit dimmer when the lights are on, not brighter. The facory head unit has almost no lights normaly and dark text which means it has to back light for you to see it at night. A aftermarket unit is typicly lit better then a sign ion time square during the day so it will dim at night to keep from blinding you as it has constant back lighting. The dimmer wire is simply an adjustable voltage instead of a consistant 12 volts when the lights are on. The higher the voltage that the dimmer sends to the head unit, the dimmer it gets. Its not powering anything, its just to tell the radio tto dim.

Ok, that out of the way, you have something connected that should not be or you have a wire that is grounding out either from your head unit or ON YOUR HEAD UNIT. Any wire not reused from the factory radio harness should have no exposeed copper strands and should be either capped off or tapped up, by itself. You know your radio works normaly so reducing the system will be the best place to start.

Remove the radio.
Check all of the wires not used and trim them and tape them to cover them up so ther is no way on this earth or any other that they could ever short to anything.
Next, disconnet all of the wires except for the ones connected to the head units power(yellow), accessoty power (red), Ground (black), and speakers (Grey,white,purple,and green pairs)
All the wires that you just disconnected should also be capped off or tapped up so they can not short out.
Now tape up or cap off any wire form the head unit that you are not using. You should only be using 11 wires now totaly.

NO WIRES ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE HARNESS SHOULD BE TWISTED TOGETHER. Be it head unit side or car side, NONE!

If you do this all and the head unit still does not play when the light circuit is switched on, then you need to either buy a multimeter (you should have anyways for this installation to trouble shoot or take it to a professiona)

you may have damaged the cars illumination circuit.

 

[1sty]

you currently dont have illumination hooked up at all? ..is that what your saying?
to make the unit work there are only a few wires you need .. the speakers of course wich ill assume are hooked up correctly .. and then the big 3 ... power .. constant .. ground

it sound allmost like you are drawing power from the illumination ..and when the lights are turned on its not enough juice to run the deck fully...

its hard to say .. do you have a digi cam? ... can you take a pic of the wiring ..

if not i would sugest tripple checking your power and grounds

Illumination works the other way, it provides ground when off and 12 volts when on. However, he may actualy have his stereos ground connected to the cars illumination. it might actualy be enough of a voltage difference to power the radio but not enough to let it play anything.

 

[md2online]

you currently dont have illumination hooked up at all? ..is that what your saying?

it sound allmost like you are drawing power from the illumination ..and when the lights are turned on its not enough juice to run the deck fully...

its hard to say .. do you have a digi cam? ... can you take a pic of the wiring ...

this sounds like it makes sense...considering what my problem is...

cause the deck keeps "running" when the lights are turned on...but the sound cuts out...

i do have a digi cam...and it records 15sec videos...with sound...this should be long enough for me to demonstrate what exactly is happening...and i'll also take pictures of the wiring...and send this to you...not sure if i can post a vid to this forum...but i'll post a link if anything...

thanks guys...i really appreciate all this help...

 

[md2online]

Illumination works the other way, it provides ground when off and 12 volts when on. However, he may actualy have his stereos ground connected to the cars illumination. it might actualy be enough of a voltage difference to power the radio but not enough to let it play anything.

this sounds exactly like what it could be...and thats what i figured initially...cause i know a little about voltage and polarity...just never really worked with stereo interfaces and wiring in this regard...

i figured maybe something was grounded improperly...but the 3 big ones...ACC power...12V...and ground are all corrected properly...

also...my buddy did look at how the connectors were hooked up and matched up the wiring for the speakers to his service manual database...for my car...with the color coding and wrote it down on the wiring diagram...i'll take some pictures real quick and post em here in just a bit...

thanks guys...

mike
a.k.a. bagelboyATL (Atlanta, GA)

 

[md2online]

***Sorry guys...yahoo is gay...the links are not working...i'll have to figure it out later tonight...thanks for your continued patience***

i do have a digi cam...and it records 15sec videos...with sound...this should be long enough for me to demonstrate what exactly is happening...

heres 2 links...

this one shows my car when i start it...if u can hear the music starting at the end...this is when i start the car with the lights off...the radio starts up and plays music fine...

video #1

the second one...shows my car playing music...then i switch on the headlights...then go back to the deck to show u that its still on and running...just no sound...but to get it working again...i have to turn off the lights...stop the engine...take out the key...and restart the car...with the headlights still off...

video #2

i'll take pics and post those later...as soon as i have time...but i'm late to class...

thanks guys...

mike
bagelboyATL (Atlanta, GA)

 

[1sty]

i figured maybe something was grounded improperly...but the 3 big ones...ACC power...12V...and ground are all corrected properly...

)

How do you know they are hooked up correctly? Matching a wire color to a book is not always accurate. Until you use a multimeter to verify the wiring I would leave that as the most likely cause becuase other then that its a blown head unit and possibly damaged accessory circuits of the car.

 

[haaswyk]

ok if you try everything 1sty said there ... and its still not working my sugestion would be bite bullet and have it looked at ... its seriously not complicated .. 3 wires are all you need ..

you have to have something hooked up wrong ..or your deck is just ******

 

[md2online]

i bit the bullet guys...

i honestly could not figure out what was going on with it...i tried all the advice y'all gave me...and figured it must be some kind of grounding thing with the dimming increased/decreased voltage...

i "bit the bullet"...took it to best buy...paid $60 for labor and parts to get the original connections hardwired back into my wiring...then went to circuit city and paid $40 for a "smart-conversion" kit that hooked into the original wiring on one end and into the back of my deck on the other...fit perfectly...solved my problems...$100 later...I can now listen to music at night with my headlights on...lol...I learned some very important lessons though...and hopefully this will be the only $100 mistake i make...

thanks so much for all of your help...i really appreciate y'all trying to figure out what was going wrong...

good luck and have fun...don't blow yourself up...lol...

bagelboyATL out...

 

[haaswyk]

smart choice ..costly ..but smart

 

[1sty]

All to save $15 on a harness.

What have we learned?