Derek The Great

So im driving the beater (1994 Grand AM) home from school with the radio (Alpine - 9835) up all the way listin to some AC/DC when suddenly the radio just cuts out (wouldnt turn back on either...) and as soon as that happend the lights came on, and stayed on as well as the ABS light, which only used to come on if you braked really hard in slippery conditions.. When i got home and took the key out of the ignition, i got the warning chime... and the lights were still on so i pulled the fuse to the chime thing so the lights and that wouldnt kill my battery.. What the hell might be my problem? i checked the radios harness for melted wires but couldnt find any, my best guess is that sum module thing for abs probally melted and took out the radios power with it im stumped and advise would be sweet
Thanks
Derek

ddn69

i dunno id say wire your power wire from your cig lighter as a constant source. thats what i did....Best buy said I had to wire from my trunk in my caddy **** that/.

Derek The Great

well i could do that, but then id reduce my car to junk status... i want to get my interior lights up and running again...

ddn69

well your interior lights, head lights whatever shudnt have anything to do with your power for your radio however somehow it happened to in your car....Your gonna have to track down whats going on....

ScrapMaker

theoretically, if somehow the illumination wire was shorted... I think that could cause dash light problems...

Derek The Great

dash lights are workin as norm, its just the abs light stays on full time now as well as the interior lights but the power to the radio has been cut off sumhow...

88TATBI5.7

radio fuse this happens to me sometimes when i use the cig lighter when the lights are on. im going to wire my cig lighter to another fuse

Derek The Great

I checked the fuses though, and they were fine, it like power was just cut, not a surge... argh im stuck with my crappy cd walkman & sony headphones from highschool... nvr thought id use that thing again....

88TATBI5.7

so you dont have cig lighter & radio? but int lights on all the time. my radio and int lights are on the same fuse. your going to have to trace and test the wires of that circuit. the lights on could be from the door jam switch, but that has nothing to do with the radio.

Derek The Great

hmm havent checked if the lighter works or not but again this is a 94 grand am fyi... well why did the abs light come on at the same time the radio died and interior lights came on for good... not to mention with that alarm fuse in i will get a chime any time i turn the car off, as if to say i left my lights on or door open with the key in... odd... ill prob end up dumping it off on shop or sumthing.. too complex for my small tool supply and limited knowledge..

88TATBI5.7

yeah eletrical problems are a pain in the *** to figure what went wrong good luck

Derek The Great

ya ill just end up payin like 200 bucks in labor for the instalation of a 20 dollar part

Derek The Great

ok ive tested the wiring harness with a testermobber and im getting voltage at the harness, from both the switched (red) wire and constant (yellow, memory) wire. so maybe my radio took a dump, ill go drop it in the bird when i have some time (college sucks) to get the for sure answer on that...

Derek The Great

so i tested the radio by puttin it in the bird, and it works... even though when i tested the harness in the grand am i had power, for some reason it doesnt work in that car...

88TATBI5.7

check the ground see if thats good.

Derek The Great

if only there was an easy way to get to it without havin to knock the car outta comission for a while, thats the beater and my tools are limited...

88TATBI5.7

you can test for ground with either the test light or a volt ohm meter. for teh test light hook the clip to 12 volts and put the pointed end into the ground wire for the radio. if the bulb light the ground is good. if its real dim bad graound and if it doesnt light dead ground. hope this helps and good luck

Derek The Great

i do have a test light, and i couldnt get the clip to cling to a 12 volt connection, maybe i could try the cig lighter but i dont kno where the neg or pos is... so i just ended up puttin the clip on the red connecter and keeping the pointed part on the black wire. when i did that the test light lit up bright, and when i switched the clip to the yellow wire it lit up dim, i think thats right because the yellow is just memory. what doesnt make sense is that ive got power but the radio doesnt work.
So what i then did was i unplugged the adaptor from the grand am and put it on the firebird's harness and tried the radio, it worked...

NEEDAZ

It should have been just as bright on the yellow wire as it was on the red wire. It sounds like you problem is on the yellow wire. Do you have volt meter? It soulds like you have less then 12V on the yellow wire, and that's not going to work.

Derek The Great

o... hmm i didnt test it when i connected the harness to the firebirds so well where does that yellow wire lead because that could also be the source of my interior light problem...