Please Help! Radio Ground Blown Fuse?

[FSTRDNU]

I bought a 95 TSI it has a factory cd player , not infinity though.
the radio, would always cut out, so i decided to investigate.

I replaced 10 amp fuse in radio, took everything out, put back in, NO radio anymore, not even a little bit like before, i cant get any buttons to work besides the display button, when i hold it down it would let me change the time, but i couldnt access the fm radio, or cd player, none of the buttons did anything, all i could do was change the time. so i went out and tried some more, i noticed a wire running from the cigerette lighter, and i looked like that ran into the radio harnes so i thought that could be the prob, i followed the wire, which later split into 2, one was a ground by the fuse box, and another went up in the steering wheel area, i unhooked it. and i touched the cig lighter with it, and it sparked. Now that wire was obviously something because, i have no dash lights, or the backlghts to the radio. O i think that other wire goes to the light on the boost gauge, ahh WTF
but the question is what fuse did i blow probably?
and why wont the radio work?

 

[TheRealist]

do you have your wire connected to the antena wire, there should be two blue wires on your cd player, one is remote and one is antena connect the antena wire to the blue wire that says antena on your *car cd player* if they dont say try both of them and see witch one works. IF it sparked your could have fried your cd player enless some how you had a fuse, if not your cd player is dead.

 

[eclipse_20g]

Any wires you unhooked, hook back up the way you took them off. Then take the car to a stereo shop as you are obviously not a stereo guy therefore shouldnt be messing with it. Its only getting worse and you have seen so far.

 

[FSTRDNU]

OK i got the lights on, i did a search, and found that it was the Tail light fuse i had blown, which was correct, now all the lights work.
on the Radio there are 2 plugs that go onto it, on is the main harness, and has like 50 wires on it, and the other loks like a antenna wire, but above that is a blnk spot, does something else plug in there?
DO the non infinity stereos require a code?

do the non infinity's have an amp, where are they located?

how do i ground the radio, i think that's the problem?

 

[TheRealist]

dont plug or do anything your not sure of, if there is an antena wire, and your cd has an antena wire witch should be blue plug it in your blue wire in your radio's blue antena wire, you radio should work now that you conected the blue antena wire on your cd player to the blue antena wire in your dash

 

[FSTRDNU]

I think your confused, i am using the stock CD player.

 

[nyTalonTsi]

Sorry to bring the thread back from the dead.

My new car has a similar issue. The night i bring it home, the radio worked fine. I turn off the car, come back to it and the radio wont work. I thought maybe the radio was fried.

I installed my alpine deck which i had in my old 2g tsi. I checked the harness made sure the wires were all right, then i connected the oem harness to the adapter. The radio turned on, but when i put in the antenna plug, the radio kept cutting off. As if theres a short, because everytime the radio came on, the cigarette lighter light would switch on.

Im at complete loss, ive installed many car decks before, but wouldn't say im a pro at diagnosing electrical problems. Any help is appreciated.

 

[PXHero]

You didn't need to bring back a post this old, especially since the only things you seem to have in common with this guy are "radio" and "cigarette lighter." Just ask your question next time, people here LOVE to help and share an enthusiam for DSM's!

As for your problem, since our cars do not have a ground in the harness, you have to find a good spot behind the radio to run a ground to. I would ensure you've found a solid ground first. If you have a VOM or DMM then check the resistance between the ground location and the negative terminal on the battery, or another known source of good ground *cough*cig lighter*cough* (test it there, don't use it for your ground source please)

If that turns out to be good, then take the car to your local stereo shop, because if your ground is good, then it sounds like you might have some "custom" wiring behind there somewhere...

Good luck!

 

[nyTalonTsi]

Yeah this is the best dsm or should i say auto forum there is. Been here on a year but don't regret it. Been tackling these annoying little issues, which at times i think to myself why did i buy another dsm? Lol.

There is electric tape on the factory radio harness that look original not to sure. I talked to the previous owner, who told me that he did have trouble getting it to work at first, which was a bad ground at the amp. It worked fine then all of a sudden nothing.

 

[PXHero]

Bad ground at what amp? Factory?

Also, the light around your cigarette lighter shouldn't be coming on with the radio, unless you've somehow managed to connect "switched" 12v to the illumination wire on the car side of the harness... That is assuming the wiring from the car is still factory and untouched.

I'm also hoping that your radio turning on when you connected the harnesses meant that the key was in the "ign" or "acc" position at the time of connection...

 

[nyTalonTsi]

Yeah, the factory amp. Car is all stock, but the factory radio just stopped working. I have not messed with the wires.

And yeah whenever the radio turns on the cig. lighter light comes on too. And yes im doing this with the key in "acc" or "on" position.

 

[PXHero]

You're absolutely positive that you have wired the harnesses correctly... color for color, yellow to yellow, red to red, orange (or orange/white) to orange (or orange/white), and are using the RCA's on the aftermarket harness because you have a factory amp... if you don't have RCA's on your harness and you have a factory amp then you are putting a pretty high signal to your amp, which could be causing it to shut off...

Also, what model Alpine do you have, and can you take pictures of the radio, harnesses, and area you're doing the install...

 

[nyTalonTsi]

The wiring from harness to harness is right. The alpine harness was already wired to the adapter that hooks in to the factory harness from when i had my old 95 tsi that worked fine. Its a older alpine unit from like 2001. I was checking to see if it was the factory radio that was fried or something in the wiring quicker. But like i said the factory radio worked fine one second, shut off the car and come back and it wouldn't turn on. No lights or nothing on the radio.

The previous owner told me there was a bad ground at the amp.

and are using the RCA's on the aftermarket harness because you have a factory amp... if you don't have RCA's on your harness and you have a factory amp then you are putting a pretty high signal to your amp, which could be causing it to shut off...

Im thinking this might be the problem. The alpine headunit stays on but when i plug in the antenna adapter or press the eject button it clicks off and on.

Im at work now. I'll get some pics when i get out.