I am putting a 1990's vintage Sanyo IntelliTuner in my 92 RS.It plays well,but there's just one problem.It dosen't want to keep the time(clock) and station presets.It will keep them for several hours,but when I start the car the next day, the clock reads 1:00 and the FM is on 79.9. I can reset everything and go along fine whether the key is in the ON or ACC position, but the next day I have to reset it all over again.At first I thought I had the 2 (constant and switched) hot wires mixed up, but I checked and they are where they should be.Any suggestions?If it is the radio, I have a Pioneer Super Tuner waiting in the wings.By the way, I still need to Homey-engineer a faceplate to accomadate the old style radio.Let me also take the time to say that Scosche products aren't worth a cold cup of monkey pee!Thanks in advance for your help, guys-I really don't want to cut and re-splice all those pretty wires LOL.

 

you might want to check your ground wire you might have the ground wire from the cd player hooked up to one of the light wire in your car i can't really think of anything else

 

did you find a solution?

 

No I didn't.It's a damn shame too, because the system itself sounds pretty good for being what it is.It's just a PITA re-adjusting every thing every time you get into the car.Just for the heck of it, I'm going to flip-flop the constant+ and switched+ wires on this unit.It's kind of ironic because the switched+ wire on the Sanyo is orange;the same color as the constant+ wire on the stock unit. If that dosen't work, I'll have to bench test my Pioneer to see if that will work.As a last resort, I have an old analog Sony I can put in there.As you have noticed, I don't want to spend the money for a ghetto-buster sound system because this is just an occasional driver and I have an engine issue I have to address.Thank you for your concern,my friend, it's good to know that someone gives a toot!!

 

I e-mailed Sanyo concerning this matter, and the technician told me simply that the constant + wire was not hooked up.I know for a fact that it is on there; how difficult is it to trace that wire to it's source? Does it end at the fuse box, junction block or what??I've done under dash work before,but mostly on 60's and 70's cars.Please advise. Thanx.

 

It does sound like you have the unit connected to a switched power source. It'll keep the time & presets for a very short time with the ignition Off. But, when it sits for more than a few minutes, everything will return to factory defaults.

Put a volt meter on that power lead and see if it's only reading 12v when the ignition is in the On position. If it is, there's the problem. There should be a lead in the original radio wiring harness that's at 12v all the time unless the battery is disconnected or the radio fuse is blown.

 

Just for the heck of it I disconnected and reconnected the switched power lead and jiggled the wire bundle going to the radio.My presets are holding so far but no clock.If the presets stay, I'll be a happy cat.If not, WTF, it's in there now,the installation looks pretty and it plays my old cassettes!

 

Try connecting power to the radio to an unswitched 12v source - one that has 12v on it all the time.

 

ok this may sound crazy but my buddy had the same problem in his civic and what he did to fix it was hook the constant+ and the switched+ together on the car and the radio i never seen him do it this is just what he told me and to this day he swears its true and it worked but if your constant is broken somewhere there are plenty you can tie it into with a constant 12v under the dash

 

Went out to the car this morning and NO presets.Therefore, under further review,I am indeed going to put the constant + and switched + together ( at the radio)and hook them BOTH to the constant + wire on the car.This is what you would do if you were to bench test the unit on a 12V power supply.What do they say about three strikes?? Update later on in the week...

 

Okay, let's slow down.

I would go ahead and pull the radio and harness out if possible. It's much easier to test out everything outside of the car with a 12V source. A lawnmower battery or motorcycle battery is good to test with.

Connect the ground wire to the (-) terminal of your power source and connect both constant power and switched power to the (+) terminal.

Then try to power up the unit. It should come on like you said. Set a preset and the clock to some random and see if it remembers.

Now disconnect the switched wire but leave the constant wire connected to the (+) terminal. Wait a bit.

Then reconnect the switched wire to (+) and see what happens.


If it's still doing it, you know for sure that the radio is the problem. If it works fine, then there is something going on in your car's wiring, which is mostly what it is.


Make sure all of your wiring is soldered and shrink wrapped and taped and loomed really well.

 

I hooked the 2 + wires to the constant as you said, Brennan, which I thought would work (and it should have),but it didn't.Kenn, your suggestion was a textbook way of testing this,straight out of my high school electronics class.THIS IS CERTIANLY A CORRECT APPROACH.As I was testing this in the car, going back to Brenn's suggestion,there was NO power at the constant + wire in the car.The switched + however, was hot and the radio powered up and played fine.I had some other little 12v lights and accessories that I used to test the constant + but no go.The radio fuse is OK, so I imagine that there's a break in the constant + wire somewhere.So it's just a matter of running this wire to another constant hot lead.When I get the glove box book I sent away for and pick up a Chilton's book, I am going to do this in a sanitary way.Also as a bonus, I no longer have a dome light. The bulb is OK,so now I have to check the fuse, which will be easier with the aforementioned books.The story continues.....

 

I think your problem is in the body harness. There is either a short or broken wire somewhere. If you want to reuse the stock harness, you will have to pull out each wire and check for continuity with a multimeter.

Otherwise you'll have to run your own custom wiring.


Could you check the radio anyway to make sure that it does indeed have the memory intact? That will rule out the radio as being bad.

 

man you must have shitty luck lol if you can you might want to check the back of the fuse block. at the garage where i work we get cars come in all the time with driving lights that dont work, signal lights, etc. and sometimes its just a wire that worked loose from the back of the fuse block

 

You can easily run a length of red wire from any constant-on source in the fuse-block!
I have used 1/4" male spades (clips) attached to the end of the wire, & stuck into the live-side of an unused fuse recepticle. Don't make it brain-surgery, just run one new wire to ANY constant live!
Then, you can enjoy your radio!

BTW- I bought a 91 RS awhile back that had been cobbled for a 'high output' stereo! Unfortunately, the guy who had wired it up took it out before selling me the car , & didn't bother to tell me that he had patched into the cigarette lighter wire, for power.
I was going nuts! I didn't have a cigarette lighter (so no detector), no dome-light, no power door-locks, no underhood light, no trunk-light, etc. etc.!
I wanted to trace the wiring, but the circuit went from side-to-side & end-to-end... You could put a new fuse in it, & it would 'pop' right before your eyes!
I finally 'smoke-tested it'- i.e. I put a solid wire jumper across the fuse gap & waited until I saw smoke, then pulled all the steering, console & dash out
(down to the fire-wall), to repair the melted wire in the harness! It only took about 10 hours of diligent work- with a friend helping!
I could've killed the guy who sold me that!!!

Good luck!
John

 

Yeah, this was a f-up on my part; I accidentally shorted a wire to the cigarette lighter lead my bad. As a result, I also have no power locks.After searching on another thread, I found that I simply blew the courtesy fuse.I have used the fuse box clip trick in a lot of other cars so as soon as I pick up a diagram, I'll do that.My switched+ wire is fine so I'm just going to extend the constant+ wire from the radio and clip it to a constant hot at the box.So it's off to Advance Auto first thing in the A.M. to see if I can fix this puppy.Thanx for the suggestions fellas, and stay tuned!!