FoxHondaRider

I have a 94 Honda Civic LX. I was installing my Kenwood head unit and it wouldnt turn on. Plugged the factory one in and it works fine. Went to Circuit City to the audio department and they guy took a look he said you need to splice a wire to the white and blue wire because its only showing 3 volts and you need 12 witht he aftermarket head unit. Okay so I spliced it in, headunit turns on plays music had some fun playing around with it but it wont hold the stations. Once the key is turned to off and turned back on everything is reset. I assume there is a memory wire that needs to be on constant too? My next problem is my clock in the dash somehow decided its going to do the same and just keep reseting everytime I turn the car off. On top of that its very dim and hard to see unless you push the bar in and it lights up how it used to. What could be wrong here where my headunit and now the indash clock wont hold its memory? I checked the fuse for the cigarette lighter and radio i think it is and the fuse isnt cracked. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Notladstyle

you should not have spliced wires to wires.

you should run a clean ground(black) from the chassis and a clean power wire(yellow) from the ignition column. You can also run a clean accessory(red) wire from there but you don't have to.


You also might have the illumination wire from the harness connected to the ground of the stereo. This would lead to a reset when you shut the car off and also dim the clock display when driving.

FoxHondaRider

yeah the guy said to splice from the ignition over to the wire for the head unit harness. Rather than doing that I took a wire and from where the fuse box is there are accesory slots and plugged a wire from there and that was spliced into the wire they told me to in the harness. I dont understand about the illumintion wire connectedto the ground screwing it up because its a plug in harness. No wires were cut just a plug in and supposed to be play but it needed 12v and factory only had 3v coming in thats where i ran a wire from the accessory spliced into the wire only showing 3v to get the headunit to even run.

luke81

If you only had 3 volts then there is a bigger problem that needs to be addressed before you continue to hack away at your car. Instead of just jumping another wire from another source with unknown fuse ratings (or worse, none at all) you need to resolve WHY you only seeing 3 volts at the HU harness. Fix that, plug in your harness and it will work fine. Why risk damaging your car doing things the wrong way?
And yes, there is a memory wire that was clearly labeled in your instruction manual.

FoxHondaRider

The people that install all the audio systems at Circuit City told me that it was the problem. It makes sense that its the reason the aftermarket headunit wouldnt turn on but the stock one would. Kenwood has a 22 watt amp built in and OEM has nothing therefore Kenwood needs more volts. If I took my car to them to get it installed they would have done the exact same thing. I dont know what instruction manual you would be talking about I looked in the owners manual several times and all I see is crap about how to find a station with the stock radio or put a cassette in.

Largo

He is talking about the manual for the head unit. And all car electronics run off of 12 volts, so you are incorrect there sir. You may have received good advice, but without the knowledge to apply that advice, all that can be said is "You're doing it wrong"

NT_Hardcore

i would not trust the people at circuit city. iv had 3 civics, one being a hatch of the same yr as yours and i never had this "3 volt" problem when installing any cd player...

FoxHondaRider

so what could be wrong? I checked my fuses and I dont see any that are broke. I would love to know why all this is happening. 1st it wont turn on, then I get it running and when I turn the car off it resets everything and then the indash clock is dim unless the bar is pushed and it too resets when the car is turned off. I hate to have to take it to someone to have it installed but if it comes down to that I guess its the only option left if I cant figure it out myself. It has to be the powerwire/memory wire going to the headunit and for the clock I have no idea what would cause that to happen. Any suggestions on what to do starting fresh? I disconnected the wire I spliced into the wire showing low volatage that I ran from the accesory slots. Everything is disconnected and its back to the way itwas stock. What do I do now?

NT_Hardcore

id be more curious why the car is only "showing 3 volts" than why the cd player wont work. you may have a bigger problem

MCOR

??? Honestly, please take this to a professional/reputable shop and pay the $35 or whatever to get it wired up correctly. At the very least what you have done may just be annoying or knock out some electronics. At the worst, you may have some serious electrical problems that have been created.

Just my two cents worth. But we get a couple of jobs a week that started out just like this and most don't end up very pretty if not reconciled early enough...