So, months ago, I was having battery drain on my car. Finally figured out it was something goofy happening with the stereo head unit. With that completely disconnected the battery works fine.

Well, I am getting tired of not having my stereo! No music sucks. So, I got the wiring diagram for the stereo circuit from GM and also go the wiring diagram for my head unit.

Apparently, I had something hooked up wrong previously.

When I first got my new stereo they were out of harnesses so I decided to spice and dice.

At this point, I have cut the entire stock harness connector off so all I have is stock cut wires coming out of the stereo dash area. I had then spliced all that into the wires that came out of the aftermarket stereo's harness. I have diagrams of both wire setups. Would somebody be able to look at these and tell me what needs to go where? Would be appreciated.

Basically, everything worked fine before, but after having the stereo in the car for a few months, the battery started dying over night - Dont want that happening again.

Chris




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

Oh - 2003 Cavalier LS Sport

The Sony diagram is at: http://129.33.22.8/SRVS/DATA/CISC/knowledgebases/hyperlinks/RCVS0071.JPG

and the GM diagram is at:

http://www.neoliquid.com/stereo.jpg

Thanks!




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

ok here we go
sony car

white tan

green yellow

violet light blue

grey light green

blue/white remote to yoru amp

blue for power antenna (if you have one)

red switched 12volt (couldnt find in gm wireing diagram?)

black black

white/black grey (thers 2 greys. use a 9volt battery with the tan wire to find the right speaker wire

green/black brown

vilet/black dark blue

grey/black dark green

sky blue to mute for cell phone use

orange/white other grey wire

yellow orange


hope this is what yoru asking for

OK - On my stereo diagram (below), it has a yellow wire and a red wire. The yellow is for "Constant +12 VDC" and the red is for "Accesory +12 VDC" - which one of those do I run to the "Battery (orange) wire coming out of my dash? I think last time I had both the red AND yellow wires going to the car.. could that have been my problem in the battery drain before? Thanks,

Chris





"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

Heretic -

I have the GM diagram in my post above that I uploaded:

http://www.neoliquid.com/stereo.jpg

I have everything pretty much still connected as far as the stock wires spliced to the sony wires - just the power wires are disconnected cuz I think I had them set up wrong last time (even though it worked perfectly until the stereo started to drain my battery)

Thanks though.. any more help would be awesome..




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

i get what yoru saying
yellow goes to orange. run the red to yoru switched wire. if you can't find it run it over to yoru fuse panel. think of it like a remote turn on lead to turn on the headunit.

You lost me - sorry. Yellow goes to orange - no problem. Dont know what a "switched wire" is. How exactly would I run that red to the fuse panel? What do I splice it into? Do I even HAVE to do anything with it? It seems that the red wire is an "Accessory" wire where I dont need to do anything with it... am I close there? Thx






"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

switched looses power when you turn your ignition off
to run it to your fuse panel, run it over to it, pull out a fuse ( i like using wiper blade fuse) stick the wire into there and push the fuse back in.

So - I HAVE to do something with the red sony wire? In this case, somehow attach it to the wiper fuse? How do I enter the fuse?

1) Pull out wiper fuse
2) somehow stick end of red wire into the backside of the fuse box??
3) shove fuse back in?...

Sorry, I suck at electrical stuff




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

shove it into the front that way the prong of the fuse holds it in and just run the wire in between the rest of the fuses

Hmm....

Your talking about the main fuse panel on the left of the dash board by the door right?

I dont understand how to run the wire between the rest of the fuses. The best thing I can see is to run the wire out behind the stereo area - across the pedals (above them) then under the left of the dash, up to the fuses and shove it into the wiper fuse area then shove the fuse back in...




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

And ... is it essential that I even do anything with that red wire? What will happen if I do NOTHING with the red wire?






"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

the red wire is what tells yoru deck its ok to come on and tells it to run off in conjunction with you turning yoru car on and off. you don't want yoru stereo on while your car is off do you?
and yes your right you can run it above the pedals to the fuse panel on the end of thd days. between the exterior of the fuses to keep it from poking out (the colored parts) and stick the end of it into your wiper fuse slot and push the wiper fuse back in.

Ok.. so let me ask this:

When I had my stereo in last - I would hit the "Off" button once to turn the stereo off (but that would leave the time showing) and then if I wanted it COMPLETELY off, I would push and HOLD the Off button until it was completely off - but without doing this fuse trick, it was still drawing power? Could that by why it was draining my battery until I completely disconnected the stereo?

Chris




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

i would bet on it.

your supposed to have a switched wire in yoru dash though. i think i remember mine being a skinny red wire but i'm not sure. if you have a voltage meter or a test light you can try wires out to find one thats hot while yoru ignition is on (back or forward) and not hot while its off.

Ok - so now your saying that if I find a wire coming out of the dash with the rest of the car's stereo wires, and one is hot when key is on ACC or turned all the way on, but dead when the key is not in the ignition, then I should run this Red sony wire to that instead of the fuse?




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

How about you solder on the the stock wire harnes that you hacked off,go to Wal-Mart buy a harness adapter solder it onto your deck harness plug the two together, all will be fixed.

Yea.. I could do that but I am not sure where the old one went. I gave it to my mom cuz I gave her my old stock stereo to try and put in her Blazer.




"There were some Luddites with some kind of PC-based, primitive [operating system], I think it's called Windows, who couldn't figure out how I got a TV on the plane." Trent Reznor referring to peoples reaction to his PowerBook G4 Titanium

yes run the red sony wire to the switched wire coming out of yoru dash IF you can find it.