Ok so ... my stereo was ripped off last week and I had an extra cd player laying around. I also found an old harness adapter that plugs into the factory plug and thought I would toss them in so I had some tunes. This is a basic headunit setup with no amp or subs and should be a no brainer but I am having issues.

I wired up the harness and everything works great ... until I switch on my lights and the headunit loses power?! I tried a few other things but its not working with lights on. No idea what is happening here. Maybe the wires of the harness are different from the deck. Its probably something minor that I am over looking.

This is what I got :

Off the Deck :

Yellow : Battery
Black : Ground
Red : Accessory
Blue : Remote



Off Harness :
None of these are labeled except the dimmer.

Yellow : ?
Red : ?
Blue : ?
Orange : ?
Orange w/ White line : Dimmer

I matched colors but there is no black wire from the deck to harness for a ground? While testing I used the Orange for a ground but obviously that was a no go as it wont work with lights on.

If someone could help me out here. I think my main issue is probably with that ground wire off the deck.

Thanks guys.

I thought yellow was the accesory?

any who, to make a ground just go underneath the steering column and you'll find tons of ground points but there should be a black ground wire in the harness somewhere

Yes, I always thought yellow was accessory too, but on this JVC its red.

But no ground on the harness which is strange?

Yellow is constant on every aftermarket radio I've ever seen. Are you saying there is no ground wire in the plug going to the radio you're putting in now? If so you need to get a new plug for it. If you are using the dimmer wire for a ground as soon as you flip on your headlights it switches to a 12 volt positive and the radio will shut down.


-Chris

There is no ground wire (black) on the harness adapter.

I will go out and purchase a new adapter. Obviously this was the reason I had it laying around.

Thanks for the help.