I put a radio in my 87 Sport Coupe and cant figure out why it wont keep memory, everything turns on and off like it should but all the presets and my settings go back to default every time the car gets turned off. I was told the remote wire (blue) is the one to keep the memory. Thanx for your help

 

If you are using an aftermarket stereo, the blue wire is the remote wire for an amplifier, it turns the amp on and off with the radio, or it could run a power antenna.

More than likely you have a red wire and a yellow wire: The yellow should have constant power, the red should turn on and off with the ignition.

 

That's what I was thinking too. There should be two wires to supply power to your headunit. One is switched (by the ignition) and the other is continous (regardless of ignition position). And like 1bad86z28, the blue (remote) wire is to supply voltage to an accessory, not to the headunit.

It's very likely your headunit is only supplied power by the switched wire. Thus everytime you turn off the ignition, there is no continous power to maintain the memory. Your car's wiring harness should have both types of wires and your headunit should also have two wires to be connected appropriately.

Let us know if you need help identifying what/where they are.

 

and if you hooked power to the blue one you probably have burned up the lead inside the radio (for future information)

 

Yeah, that would not be good!

 

OK I need to bump this to the top for a quick question. I have figured out the problem in my car and it was just a mix match of wires. On my buddys 92 RS (just to let you know, his wiring harness was cut off so we had to hard wire his radio) I found the wire that has a small amount of voltage (like .6 volts) and his wont keep memory. Is that enough voltage to keep memory because he was told he needs to rewire one from his battery. Also, if we do have to do it that way do they make some kind of resistor or something to cut the 12 volts down to like 1 or 2. Thanks

 

Both power wires will have 12 V...it looks like someone really played with these cars if they are hacked up (the '92) or if you have an aftermarket stereo not working...check out this page and go to GM/Saturn,

http://www.installdr.com/QuickWiring.html

you will be presented with a pictoral of your plug set-up (that you should have in your car unless someone cut it out), check it out and make sure you have it hooked up properly, you should have 12 Volts coming from the battery wire (orange) and the ignition wire (yellow). Not sure how the site will apply to the '92, but this will cover your '87

 

hmm the site wont work.

 

I made them into JPEG attatchments, hopefully this will help you guys! Notice it includes the original GM colored wires and the adaption to the new aftermarket wire colors.

Only issue i see with this site and this diagram is in the "Up to 89-90" diagram terminal N has a brown wire in it. Past that it's been very accurate for the things i've needed it for. Still in the end i always suggest people with aftermarket stereo's and their stock radio plugs still in tact to go to walmart and spend $6 for the GM adapter, saves so much time and energy.

 

ok, you must have overlooked what i said. This harness is not in the car. It was cut out y the previous owner. So those links didnt help. Also the ignition wire has 12 volts, when the car is on, when the car is off it only has like .6. I was wondering if that is enough to keep memory. The stereo works great it just wont keep memory.

 

the point was the color of the wires, not the plugs, i read that you didn't have the plugs. You need to test the orange wire, this is your direct connect to the battery, this should have 12 volts reguardless if the car is on or off. This is what maintains your presets and the memory of the deck. If you have 12 volts in your orange wire constantly with the car on and off, then i would say your deck might have the issue.

The red wire off the deck is hooked up to the yellow wire right?
The yellow wire off the deck is hooked up to the orange wire right?
The black wire off the deck is hooked up to the black wire right?

Past those questions, it might be the deck.

 

ok, yes, yes, and yes. All of those are correct. But no the orange wire has like .6 volts keys off and 12 volts keys on, I was told though that the memory wire (orange) should have a small amount of voltage with the keys off. If this is not the case how do I go about fixing the problem with the orange wire. Thanx for your help.

 

Thats odd...yea i just went down and tested my firebird, and my orange wire has battery voltage of ~12V, so that is your problem right there. The only reason for any drop in voltage once you shut the car off in your orange battery wire is because you shut the car off and the alternator isn't producing 14 volts to run off of anymore.

You have a couple choices, in your fuse block, you have three locations that say "BAT", you can run a jump wire from that, just get a male spade solderless terminal, connect it to a 3-4 foot piece of 16 guage wire, inline fuse holder (with 15 A fuse in it), and plug it into one of the three locations in your fuse block, and then run the other end to your yellow wire off the deck (where the orange wire is connected now), but be sure to cut that connection to the orange wire, because somehow or other it's being controlled by your ignition, so it's either crossing the yellow wire of the car farther back...or someone seriously played with your car. My guess is that someone seriously played with this car because they'd have no other reason to touch that orange wire, and it would still get 12V if it was crossed with the yellow wire.

Other choice is trying to connect that jump wire your created above and wire it to the back of your fuse panel (as to not see it), which has you taking apart your underdash which isn't all that hard, but time consuming compaired to option one, or you can run a wire from your battery.

Another option is to trace the wires farther back into your dash, between taking your car apart and possibly not finding anything, it's very time consuming, and if you don't know what your looking at it could be right infront of your nose. If you want to go this route, let me know and i will try and explain every detail for you, from the fuse block all the way to the radio (not very long distance to cover, but you may have to remove some covering to your wiring harnesses and it's a lot of time spending on your back underneath your dash)

Above three options are in order of difficulty level and time consumption so take it as you may, but do NOT forget the inline fuse, as it protects your car and your radio.

 

No .6V isnt enough.
You should have a Switched 12V and a Constant 12V
Blue on an aftermarker deck it Remote Turn-On and is for Power Antenna or Amplifer turn on.
In the car side :
The Yellow wire should be 12V Switched and is fused at underdash fusepanel (Radio - 10 Amp)
The Orange wire should be 12V Constant and is fused at underdash fusepanel (CTSY - 20 Amp)
Black wire is Ground
There is a a Brown = Illumination, Gray = Dimmer
Speakers are LF = Gray/+ and Tan/- , RF = Green/+ and Lt Green/-
Speakers are LR = Brown/+ and Yellow/- , RR = Dk Blue/+ and Lt Blue/-

Most aftermarket decks are :
Black = Ground
Yellow = Constant
Red = Ignition
Blue = Amp and/or Antenna
Blue-White = Antenna
Whites = LF Speakers
Grays = RF Speakers
Greens = LR Speakers
Purples = RR Speakers

 

The problem I have is the radio works when the key is off. I pulled the radio out and it looks like someone put in an aftermarket realy. I believe the car ha an aftermarket radio in at some point. It still has the factory harness. But the realy is connected to the yellow and orange wire from the radio and then the third wire goes to a gray/blue wire to the passenger side of the dash. I am going to assume power to the power antenna? I can email some pics to anywbody as well.

Thanks

 

My car got played with as well, the constant wasn't there, use a meter and nothing.

So my brother did my wiring as he routed a new wire into the car. Ghetto but works, didn't want to jury rig stuff into the fuse box, and we did use an inline fuse as well.

(My brother also blew a fuse when he got lazy and cut all the wires at one time..., he told me he must of been smoking some crap because he didn't even think about it as he did it although he's installed several systems into his cars). Took me some time to find out where the short was since the radio fuse was alright, it wasn't until we traced a red wire that was just shoved into the fuse and it was burnt out, replaced it.

Now my settings work and my interior lights as well!