NCC-2000

Anyone who can help me here is thanked in advance. I need some help figuring this out.

Yesterday I tried installing my old deck (a Sony XPlod) into my friend's car. I bought the wiring harness adapter for her car plus the antenna adapter and all that, so it pretty much should have been a plug and play job. Unfortunately, it wasn't, so I'm looking for input on what the hell this deck is doing.

First I should mention that her car is a 2001 Nissan Sentra, but that really shouldn't matter here, right? If it does then please let me know ahead of time. Here's what the thing was doing when I plugged it all in. First problem was that the black ground wire on the wiring adapter was in the wrong spot, so I had to move it over one pin, easy as pie. Weird, but no biggie. Once I did that the deck powered up. Then I tried turning it on to the radio. The thing would repeatedly turn itself off, then back on a second or two later, and keep repeating this. After a few minutes, it would stay on when I selected the radio, but would shut off again as soon as I hit a button, then turn back on again. I then tried seeing if there was a loose wire in the harness, but it all looked clean. Unplugged it, checked everything, plugged it back in, turned it on, and it actually looked like it was working properly. Until I inserted a CD. Now it starts turning itself off an on again.

So eventually I gave up and removed my deck, and reinstalled her stock radio and everything works fine again. So, any ideas on what I should be checking? Since the ground wire was in the wrong place on the harness, is it possible other wires are buggered up too, and causing this weird effect? I've never seen a deck do this before, so I'm at a loss here. It's not blowing the fuse, cause I checked that and it was fine. Help?

ptrblkz24

Are you sure you had a good ground?Run a wire and screw it to the chassis if your not sure.Alot of people make the mistake and use the dimmer wire for a ground,and when they turn there lights on,the radio cuts out.Come to think of it,i dont think that car has a ground wire,you have to screw it to the chassis.

NCC-2000

That might help explain a few things...hmm. Anyone know for sure if a screwy ground can cause a deck to go bonkers like this?

chood711

iTrader: (4)

not a 100% sure, but not having a proper ground would definetely cause some problems. Id say ground it to the chassis like said before. couldnt take a few seconds and if it works, great and if it dont you eliminate that as being the problem

black_bullet_gt

Yeah it definately sounds like its shorting out because its not grounded properly.

NCC-2000

Alright, I went back to her place, ripped the stock radio back out, plugged mine back in, only this time routing the ground wire to one of the bolts inside the dash that's bolted to the bare metal. Everything now works. Thanks for the suggestions!

black_bullet_gt

no problem man