need diagnostic help depserately

**honzrr** · 01-20-2007, 06:58 PM

my GF recently bought me a sony xplod cdx500gt mp3 deck and a set of speakers to go with them. i installed them in my 1993 jeep cherokee sport and everything went ok. then i realized, after i made all my wiring connections and had it working, that i had to secure the unit in the dash. i didn't know you could just pull the plug with all the wires in it out of the back, secure the deck, then plug it back in. so instead, i disconnected all the wires, secured the deck, then re-connected them all. a dumbass move, i know...

Uh Uh Uh, You didn't say the magic word !

anyways, it was OK until...

two wires quickly touched together (red and another one - maybe yellow or orange?) and there was a little zap/spark. my interior dome light in the truck went out immediately and there was no power on the deck anymore.

i tried using a test light on the red power wire (where it goes into the back of the deck) and there's power there. i looked at all the fuses and they appear to be OK. i then checked the bulb on my dome light in the truck and it's intact too.

anyone experience this is or know what the heck is going on and can help with some advice? anything i can do to fix/diagnose the situation would be great. i hope i didn't blow the deck... and if i did, why wouldn't my interior light still work? man, if this happened, she's gonna kill me...

lastly, if i need to bring it in to get looked at, should i go to the jeep dealer or to a car audio place? i'm in the vancouver area.

thanks!

**gospeed.racer** · 01-20-2007, 07:08 PM

Well, first off you say you have power on the red wire, you should only have power when the key is in the run or accy position

Now check the yellow wire and see if it has constant power

Then check for ground

If you have all those, it should turn on

As far as the dome light goes....not sure what the dome circuit has to do with the radio, unless the original kept the radio on until the door is opened? That part confuses me. If the red wire touched the yellow (constant 12v) then it could have zapped something. Does your cigar lighter work? Its usually the same fuse as the dome light. Maybe thats what you (or Jeep) tapped into for the constant 12v?

**honzrr** · 01-20-2007, 07:19 PM

i'll go out and check these now... but i have a dumb question - how do you check for ground?

i previously connected the black wire out of the back of the deck to the black wire out of my dash. is that it? i think the connections may have been OK, since the unit powered up and worked prior to my little, uh, accident.

i'll go check now anyhow.

and so you know, the door and radio had nothing to do with each other. this jeep is the bare bones version. dunno if this makes a difference or not.

thanks...

**honzrr** · 01-20-2007, 07:34 PM

here's how it went:

1) have power on red wire when key is turned on, just like you said
2) yellow wire had nothing (checked orange/striped too for the heck of it and nothing)
3) don't know how to check for ground
4) the cigarette lighter works fine (did it with key removed)

does this help? any other ideas? kinda feels like progress...

thanks,

steve

**gospeed.racer** · 01-20-2007, 07:38 PM

so you have a switched power but no constant...sounds like you blew a main fuse. Check the fuses again. Use you probe on both sides of the fuses and see if you have power on only one side. Specifically check the dome light fuse.

The ground is likely not the issue, so for now we can forget about it

Orange is typically the dimmer wire, to dim a stock deck.

**honzrr** · 01-20-2007, 07:53 PM

i checked the fuse in the back of the deck - it appears intact, but i'm not getting any light on the test light from it. so, to compare, i go the the fuse box under the dash and find another 10 amp fuse to test.

i pick one, it doesn't work.

i pick a second one and it works.

i take a look at the other one again and pull it out from the fuse box - it was in the "BATT" location and it is BUH-LOWN! funny, i pulled and checked them all twice the other night and it was fine i thought.

so, i took the fuse i pulled out of the back of my deck and jammed it into the BATT location in my fuse box and tested it. test light shined up nice.

i guess i need another 10 amp fuse for the back of my deck and maybe this will solve it? i don't have any laying around, so i'm gonna shoot to the store and see what i can find.

thanks a lot and i'll post again in 20 minutes when i'm back!

**honzrr** · 01-20-2007, 08:31 PM

thanks gospeed.racer! you rock!

put in the fuses, now my interior and glove box lights work and, more importantly, the deck works too. suh-weeet!

too bad they sound a little less than what i expected. time to get some new rear speakers and maybe a sub and small amp in there.

thanks again, you were a great help!

steve