andy4b

No, the head unit turns off when the key is turned off. It doesn't stay on for 10min. It turns off with the car. The amp is not on when the car is off. It is now wired to the rear speakers which get NO power with the car off. I used a dmm to determine this. The HU, and amp are both turning off with the car. That cannot be the problem. Anyone else have ideas?

mesatrin

I don't honestly think this is it but it is the only thing I can think of from what you have said. It may be the charging system. Your alternator can't recharge your battery with everything that is drawing from it. A second battery would not fix this and a cap would not fix this they would both only hurt the problem. They would both just give you something else that needs to be charged by your alternator. If this is the problem (again I really don't think it is) the only thing that would be a gurenteed fix is a higher output alternator.

You could try a little test if you wanted. Every time before you get out of your car turn your source unit off and let your car run with only the factory electronics running for around 10 min. This would let your car try to recharge a low battery with out the tampering of external sources.

There is alot of reasons that I really don't think this is the problem but the two main reasons are...1) When you only had one amp hooked up an amp less than 500wRMS should never cause this to happen. 2) You never said that your car stalled out on you. I would think that if you really couldn't charge your battery quick than your electronics drain it then your car would eventually stall out even while running.

CadetLax13

Hey man your first thing you did wrong is you took it to best buy thats a no no.... your car doesnt have an ACC but does an IGN wire at the fuse block (3 or 4 of them) and i hope they went to that. take the cover off your fuse panel on the right side of the dash and see if you can trace the red wire (switch power) from there. It should be FUSED and hooked to a Pink or pink white.

So check that out and if it is hooked to another wire give me the wire color. I install for a living and ill try to see what that wire does.
PS: i dont think its the alternator bc you arent pulling that much watts bc most likly youe watt rating is peak not RMS but if you want to check/test your alternator and battery just start your and let it set for a min. then unhook the NEG off the battery. if the car stays running for a few mins then your alternator is fineif it shuts off get it tested at a shop. Because your alternator runs your car not the battery. The battery just starts it

iLLmaTic3s

what i dont understand is both the headunit and amp are both turning off with the car, which they are supposed to do.i dont think it would b a problem with the wiring. all u do in run a power wire from the battery a ground and remote wire...and just run the RCA's. so maybe its a bad battery..but i doubt that. all the connections are tight? i would check where they ran the remote wire to and let us know.

CadetLax13

I have never heard this with a Cobalt yet but I have heard of it with other cars and the problems been tapping onto a data wire. Bc some data wires can give out 5 or 6volts that will make some headuntils turn on and look like it works fine and then... problems

iLLmaTic3s

yeah its really weird. i dont really understand it...hope for the best

andy4b

hm, with the data wiring tapping. one time the head unit lights flashed. like it was turned off, but the time and lights around the buttons turned on and off once, didnt flicker, just off then on in like .5 sec. could this possibly be a problem? should i take it to best buy? or some other professional? if so where?

CadetLax13

Ummm...I say first try to take it to a Circuit City first they may or may not look at it. It up to who is running the shop. Just ask them to check out the radio install for you. If you go in as a nice guy they should take care of you. If they wont look at because it wasnt there install then take it back to best buy. Im not saying that all Circuit City are better then Best Buy because Im sure there are great Best Buy arounds but all the Best Buys around me suck... So try Circuit City first all they can say is no

Bandit2941

This is why I've been asking you to trace the red switched power wire for the head unit to see what it's hooked to. If it's hooked to a data line back there who knows what kind of weird stuff could be going on.

iLLmaTic3s

well here is the thing. our the harness for our car there is no accy. wire so they had to tap it to somthing that is makin that deck turn off. just im tryin to think what turns off with the key. on the fuse box. u def have to take alook for us at that fuse box to see if anything is tapped. there just has to be. most likely the amp remote line is hooked up onto that. cuz u saiod the amp and radio turn off at the same time...correct? just i dont understand why this is killin ur battery. dont bring it to circuit city. they will just charge u for them lookin at it. just take alook at ur fuse box and report back to us. but def bring it back to best buy.

CadetLax13

I hope it isnt taped into a fuse box running off another fuse item in the car. A lot of people do that because it is quick and EZ but you can pull to many amps and pop the fuse the best thing is to run off a high amp wire like i listed in my past message. Go to one of those wires and fuse it bc they will have the amps to run the radio and the other items on that wire. I would tell you guys to go to the ignition harness but in the cobalts they arent the right gauge. Circuit City will not always charge you to look at. It all up to the shop manager. Give it a try first and trust me I know what im talking about

Bandit2941

And you don't think one of your "high amp wires" has a fuse in the fuse box? Please explain the difference between tapping into this circuit at the fuse box or somewhere else along the wire.

iLLmaTic3s

that would be pretty much the same thing. u gotta find out where that remote line n accy line goes to then im sure one of can help u out man

CadetLax13

What I was trying to say is some people will go to the fuse box and get power from a low amp fuse like 5 or 7.5 or 10 and then hook up 50 different thins to that wire and cuase the circuit to blow becasue of the amp load on the circuit. Circuits at the fuse box are made to hold low amp fuses. Low gauge wires have higher fuse amps like 40 or 50. This is much safer way to get power.

Bandit2941

So if that's the case, tell me where I can find a low gauge wire in the cabin of the cobalt that has a "40 or 50" amp fuse.

While you're at it, you can explain why you think it's a "safer" way to get power.

It doesn't matter what fuse you tap, if the accessory tries to pull too much amperage, it's going to pop the fuse. That's not unsafe - it's why they use fuses in the first place.

CadetLax13

Off the top off my head i think it is the pink wire in the C3 harness, but test it bc im going off the top of my head. Im MECP certified for over 3 years and installing for years im just tring to help the guy out. If you want to go to the fuse box then go ahead im not stoping you...

iLLmaTic3s

reason why most installers go to the fuse box cuz its the easiest way to find a accy or whatever. most of the times u just dont have the time to get to something else...but in this case maybe alternate way has to be used cuz u said its messin up ur car. but u check to see where the accy wire is goin is goin to as well as the remote wire.

Bandit2941

Your point would have been better stated "don't tap a 5 amp fuse as it won't have enough amperage to run it's original function and the head unit"

All that about don't tap the fuse box etc is BS. If there is a wire in the car, it is protected by a fuse at some point. It is much easier to tap it at the fuse box, particularly because the common first time audio installer needing help doesn't have experience tapping wires and soldering and all that nice stuff to do the job correctly. If a higher amp wire gets tapped then shorted out because the installer did a bad job insulating the connection it will pop the fuse on that circuit regardless, and since you've chosen to tap a higher amp fuse the likelyhood is that circuit performs more jobs and thus more functions will be disabled when that happens.

Also remember that fuses are in place to protect the wiring, not the device. In other words, just because a circuit like the sunroof has a 15 amp fuse doesn't mean the device needs all 15 amps. That fuse is there so the wiring doesn't melt and start a fire in the case of a short.

CadetLax13

yeah I know where you are coming from and Ikonw for most people its ez . What Im trying to tell the guy is see if he can see where the red (switch) wire is going bc Best Buy should not have gone to the fuse panel. So what im thinking is they might have taped up to a wrong wire like a data or multiplex wire which is causing his problem. At this point im not sure what is causing his problem it could be many differetn things.

Bandit2941

That's what I'm trying to say too....

Why do you say Best Buy shouldn't have gone to the fuse box? If they used an off the shelf wiring harness they probably did, because the instructions say to, and it includes a fuse tap!

The fuse box is probably the safest place to go for someone who doesn't know what they're doing because they are way less likely to tag a data line there.......

iLLmaTic3s

not the average installer is gonna know as much info as we do about our car. so yes the typical way to do that install is yes go to the fuse box because that how ususally it can be done. yes our car has a serial data crap...in this case maybe they went to a bad fuse...whoknows. just i would say take our info and bring it up to best buy.

blackcopper

just go to the wiper fuse in the fuse box, its 25 amps, plenty to run a headunit. And yes if you go to the accesory wire that is in the ignition harness for anything you can cause different things to happen with the car. The fuse box is a safer way to get power, but you have to be careful how much power you pull from each circuit. good luck. take it to best buy first, if you dont any warranty you have thru them will be void if you go somewhere else.

andy4b

I checked the fuse box, there is nothing there that should not be. I can't tell where that wire is going it goes down and then disappears. Also i just remembered the other day that i did NOT have the stereo installed at best buy. best buy ran my amp lines. the head unit was installed at car stereo one. (turtle)

rnjmur

Do you have to put a charger on the battery to get it to start after this happens? Also, have you tried replacing the battery at any point?

iLLmaTic3s

check the deck wiring...maybe that could be wired up wrong and when they installed it a remote line could be hooked up wrong...hmmm