alanbobalan

so i had a buddy of mine install a new head unit (just the stereo) for me a few days ago. it's not much, some piece of junk my brother bought for 80 bucks a wal mart like last year. but it's better than my old stereo that didn't work at all and hey... my brother gave it to me after getting himself a nicer stereo.

anyway, so after we get the stereo in... and after some trouble with some messy wiring and guessing games... we get it working. trouble is now my clock, horn, and hazard lights don't work. my guess is maybe a fuse got shorted out. any other insight as to what could cause this? they all worked BEFORE we put the stereo in. and they did blow the fuse on the power wire for my stereo a couple times while installing it.

i'm a real newbie when it comes to stereos/car audio/car electrical systems in general. hence the reason why i had a buddy of mine do the install. any comments or suggests would be greatly appreciated. my clock was so handy and i miss honking at people who don't know how to drive!

thanks alot!

green91runner

guessing you guys didnt pick up a wiring harness conversion? (woulda saved your fuses).. as for the rest, time for you to start looking for a blown fuse, or now loose connection, the stereo itself shouldnt of affected them..

dibble9012

does the new headunit ground through the mounts, or have a seperate ground wire, maybe when you hooked it up, you forgot to fasten the stock grounds too, just a thought.

alanbobalan

green91runner- no we didn't get a wiring harness conversion. i really don't know much about car stereos at all, that's why i had my buddy do it. is it possible the hazard lights, clock, and horn are all on the same circuit? maybe one fuse blew while they were wiring it causing all the above to go out. unless we blew 3 fuses? i don't know. haha. this really isn't my department.

dibble- i'm pretty sure the new headunit has it's own seperate ground wire. as a matter of fact, i'm almost positive. like i said, i had my buddy do it due to my lack of knowledge in this area. i was just poopin around watching them wire everything. (they also did rewire a bunch of stuff, my wiring was a big mess!) there's a wire running directly from the stereo into the battery. for some reason the stereo wasn't getting power unless we wired it this way. i also have a toggle switch for my stereo so i don't kill my battery. they blew that fuse about 3 times while installing the stereo and wiring it. guessing maybe another blown fuse or two is the likely cause?

green91runner

not to be rude to your friends, but it seems like they didn't really know what they were doing... when i changed out mine (never having done it before), i went to an auto store and picked up a wire harness conversion for $5, and then soldiered that one together with harness i got with my new head unit, then plugged both in, really simple.. only wire i have running to my battery is for my amp/sub...
they might of cross-wired something when they were 'rewiring the mess', killing your other intruments. easiest way, like previously stated is to start checking the fuses in the box under the hood and down by your pedals.. if no fuses are blown, unless you have a schematic, your going to have a hell of a time rewiring things how they used to be. (kinda why i dont like to have friends do things sometimes, then you have no clue how it used to be in the first place.. cause when you ask them, all they can say is 'i dont know'.)

good luck.

Bumpin' Yota

When rewiring DISCONNECT THE BATTERY!! This prevents blowing fuses, decks, amps, crossovers, speakers, etc... ARRGGG!!! Sorry just a pet peeve of mine (one of many..lol)

Ok I'm going to directly teach you how to wire up the deck. The deck they gave you should have at bare minimum 12 wires and most have more.

yellow, red, black, blue or blue/white, 2 grey, 2 white, 2 green, 2 violet some may also have orange for dimmer and illumination, and possibly pink for cell phone mute...

Yellow - constant 12 volt feed. This wire should have 12v at all times
Red - accessory 12v. This wire should ONLY carry 12v when the ignition is set to ACC or ON
Black - ground
Blue - remote turn on for an outboard amplifier (this is a 12v output from the deck used to turn on other car audio stuff)
Blue-White - this is the power antenna lead (this also puts out 12 volts to turn on your antenna mast motor allowing it to raise or lower the mast)
Orange - illumination
Orange-white - dimmer
Pink - cell phone mute
White - left front speaker postitive
White-black - left front speaker negative
Grey - right front speaker positive
Grey-black - right front speaker negative
Green - left rear speaker positive
Green-black - left rear speaker negaitve
Violet - right rear speaker postivie
Violet-black - right rear speaker negative

Now as far as what wire is what behind your dash I'm going to have to go to work and double check that.

I'll post back tomorrow on what the specific wire colors are for your vehicle. However since the elected to do a hardwire, you will need to silver solder all connections and ideally put some RVT inside of some shring wrap and permanently insulate the connection. A nice layre of electrical tape will also work.

After doing all of this, it's time to hunt for blown fuses. After they are all replaced, then reconnect your battery. Be aware that you may have a "dome" fuse under hood that could have popped.

Bumpin' Yota

Ok I could not check further back than '88, so here are the wiring colors for a 1988 toyota 4runner... So keep in mind that these colors may not be correct for your application. However deducing what is what is easily done with a 9volt battery and a DMM using the information I gave you in my previous post.

12v contant - Blue/Yellow
Accessory - Gray
Ground - Brown
Power Antenna - Black/Red
Illumination - Green
Dimmer - Blue/Yellow

(To differentiate btwn this wire and the 12v contant use a test light or a DMM to make sure that the 12volt constant wire is carrying 12v at all times. This wire (dimmer) will carry anywhere from 12v to 0v only when the lights are on pending how you have your dimmer dial set.

For your speakers this will take some work...

Left Front Positive - Pink
Left Front Negative - Purple

Right Front Positive - Light Green
Right Front Negative - Purlple

(You can differentiate the two purples form each other 2 ways - with a 9v battery or with a DMM. If you have a 9v battery put one of the wires on one pole of the battery and the purple wire you think the correct one is on the other pole. If you have the correct purple, a speaker will make a POP sound. If not nothing will happen and try the other purple.)

Left Rear Positive - Black
Left Rear Negative - Yellow
Right Rear Positive - Red
Right Rear Negative - White

Intrepid

I installed a head unit in my tacoma when I got it, I used all the proper adapter and harnesses as prescribed by radio shack, and later that night I noticed that I had no dash lights whatsoever. Turns out everything was installed right I just pinched a wire unrelated to the radio somewhere in there that made the fuse blow.

alanbobalan

green91runner- they rigged it that way because they didn't have time to rewire everything and do it the "right way." this is just a head unit my brother gave me. he bought it at wal mart for 80 bucks. it's a piece of junk. sometime soon here, i plan on buying a decent head unit and new speakers. then we're going to go back and rewire everything and do it the right way. they rigged it this way just to get the head unit working for now so i can have some tunes.

bumpinyota- thanks so much for all the information! i'm probably going to print that out and keep it with my other "manuals" and whatnot for my truck. oh, and i noticed today when i was trying to charge my cell phone, my cigarette lighter doesn't work either! arghh! my phone was dead and i had no way of charging it till i got home. i learned something new here though, i noticed one thing they didn't do was disconnect the battery while rewiring what they had to rewire and installing the headunit. and it's getting annoying not having a horn, i can't even honk if someone cuts me off or almost hits me. is it possibile they blew 4 fuses? or are all of these all on the same circuit?

intrepid- thanks for the input. i know it has to be something lame like a pinched wire or a blown fuse. everything worked before i got the headunit installed. poop. i miss my horn.

Bumpin' Yota

Does your dome light work? If not, check the "dome" fuse under hood. next check all fuses in the kickpanel.

alanbobalan

dome light? as in the lights on the dash? or the deck lamp in the rear cargo area? or the overhead light in the cab? i have two like "reading" lights in the front, one pointing to the driver seat and the other pointing to the passenger seat with 2 buttons for each light. then another overhead light in the cab that lights up whenever the doors are open. but for some reason it only lights up when the driver door is open. when the passenger door is open it doesn't light up... but it was like that before i had the head unit put in and it's not some i'm really worried about. haha. i have bigger problems then that.

msw0085

the dome light is the overhead light that lights up whenever a door is open. Your passenger door probably doesnt activate the light becuase of 18 years of bumps, rocks, and mud and whatever else has jarred the wiring loose. Your BEST bet is to just take the whole deal down to a car stereo place and let them have at it. It shouldnt take more than an hours labor when you know what you are doing.