Radio turning on and off

[krummel21]

I received my wideband and tried installing it like it is suppose to be installed. I ran the red wire to my power wire on my radio (blue) so it only came on when the car did. I grounded the unit to the chasis. I didn't think I switched any of the other gauge wires around but I must have. The other gauges are hooked up to the cigarette lighters power so they get power when the lights come on.

My problem is when turn the headlights on my amp turns on, I have no speedo or gauge lights, and the worst problem is that my radio doesn't turn on until I turn my car on, when Ido this though the radio starts booting up then turns off and does this repeatedly. My idle has jump to 2000 rpms. I don't know what is going on.

 

[krummel21]

I went to change the ground for the wideband gauge to the ground for the yellow (black w/ yellow stripe) and when I turned on the headlights the gauge turned off until I turnd the lights off. Why would it do this? Am I grounding to the wrong wire? Also when I would turn the key to the "ON" position there would be a sound coming from around the intake manifold. I haven't heard this sound before.

 

[luv2rallye]

I went to change the ground for the wideband gauge to the ground for the yellow (black w/ yellow stripe) and when I turned on the headlights the gauge turned off until I turnd the lights off.

What is this yellow (black w/ yellow stripe) wire and where does it go? Sounds like you're on the control side of a relay which gets switched to ground to activate the relay. Undo all these wires you added/changed and make sure everything works properly first before you start changing thngs again.

 

[krummel21]

So your saying I should ground that black and yellow wire to the chassis along with the stereo wire. Also where is the fuse for the lights on the gauge cluster. My warning lights work just not the luminescent ones behind the gauges and climate controls. I have ran the cables back to where they were and I'm not getting anything. When I turn my car on the radio cycles on and off.

 

[luv2rallye]

So your saying I should ground that black and yellow wire to the chassis along with the stereo wire.

No no don't do that until you tell me what this wire is used for or where it goes. The fuse for the stock gauges is the "tail lamp" 15A one in the engine fusebox but if blown your tail lights won't work. You probably blew the rheostat (light dimmer) as that has a black/yellow wire which is a control wire and you should not be using it for either power or ground.

 

[krummel21]

Why is the wire in radio area? What would you like me to do with that wire? I can see about tracing it, it's going to be really hard though. How can I see if it is the dimmer switch. The dimmer switch hasn't worked on the car since I bought it, it's always been one setting. Maybe it was an accident waiting to happen. What can I check to see if it is the dimmer.

What about the noise coming from the engine bay, it around the intake manifold and ends up near the drivers headlight. Don't think I have ever noticed that before.

The black and yellow wire is probly causing my amp to turn on when I turn the lights and off when I turn them off.

 

[luv2rallye]

Why is the wire in radio area? What would you like me to do with that wire? I can see about tracing it, it's going to be really hard though. How can I see if it is the dimmer switch. The dimmer switch hasn't worked on the car since I bought it, it's always been one setting. Maybe it was an accident waiting to happen. What can I check to see if it is the dimmer.

What about the noise coming from the engine bay, it around the intake manifold and ends up near the drivers headlight. Don't think I have ever noticed that before.

The black and yellow wire is probly causing my amp to turn on when I turn the lights and off when I turn them off.

If the black/yellow is the rheostat wire don't use it - it is not a true power wire nor is it a true ground. I'm not sure what you are looking for but if you want a power or ground, you must go elsewhere. Everyone blows their rheostat and has problems like you describe when they use that wire. You can see if it's the dimmer wire by unplugging the dimmer and doing a continuity check on the black/yellow there to the one in question (disconnect battery first to be safe). If 0 ohms it is - if anything other than 0 it isn't. Don't know what your noise is. As I said you need to get things working back the way they were before you changed the wires first.

 

[krummel21]

Yea I was using that as a ground, which it obviously isn't. I'm going to have to hook that up elswhere. Where do you think that black and yellow wire is suppose to connected to. How do I check to see if the rheostat blown?

 

[krummel21]

I figured out the rdio problem I just have to figure out how to fix the gauges.

 

[luv2rallye]

Ok pull up a chair.

There really is no test for the rheostat. If it's connected properly and there's power to it and nothing changes when you turn the knob with your lights on, it's blown. The only test would be to swap it with a known good one or try yours in a different car.

For a real ground, connect to a screw/bolt that goes into the metal chassis or metal structual part of the dash. Many devices use this as their ground (or negative connection back to the battery/alt).

Ok now for the ironic part - are you sitting down? Are you ready? Now don't get mad for me not telling you this earlier. I didn't want to confuse you any more than you already are (and I did tell you correct for where to not connect the radio ground).
IF, and I repeat IF, the black/yellow goes to the rheostat (and you can find this out by doing the continuity test I described earlier), the rheostat is supposed to connect it to ground when it's in full bright position. But at all other positions it puts resistance there to dim the dash lights (which the other end of the black/yellow goes to). So that's why you connot use it for a real ground (like a radio). The resistance would cause very strange and unpredictable things to happen to an electronic device (eg. radio turning on and off).

Now, many dsmer's WHEN (quite often) they blow their rheostat don't want to pay the high $ for a new one (the 2g rheostat is actually a circuit board with transistors and stuff so it's pricey - the 1g is an actual rheostat but you cannot use it in a 2g. The 2g just kept the name the same). So they remove the rheostat and connect the black/yellow wire to ground - yes you heard me - ground. This will make the dash lights always be full brightness when they go on. But if you don't mind that, it beats paying out a lot of $ to get adjustable brightness. Get it? The only catch is if they ever do replace the rheostat and don't remove this ground connection - kiss the new one goodby! Of course the car eventually gets sold and the new owner decides to buy a rheostat....

So if your dash lights don't work because of a faulty rheostat and you will never replace the rheostat and that black/yellow IS the wire on the rheostat, you can remove the rheostat and ground the black/yellow for full dash lights brightness. I still would advise AGAINST using the black/yellow for any other ground however. It not only has the problem I mentioned but it may not be big enough for the current draw of any added device.

Did you get all that?

 

[toybreaker]

The noise you hear from the intake manifold area when you turn the key on is most likely the idle air control valve. It opens up when you key up the car, in preparation for a higher idle at start up.

 

[krummel21]

Alright thank you I spent a lot of time obviosly trying to figure out what was going wrong. After talking to you I knkew that was wrong and switched the ground and the radio worked fine but no lights. Thank you for that post because I now have lights and everything is working great. Sorry I didn't post right ack have been really buisy. Just ticks me off that I spent all of the time trying to fix something. Especially when I connected those 2 wires because they looked like they were suppose to go together and were just getting loose. Thanks for all the help.

Krummel21