Headunit keeps forgetting settings!

[CrippsCorner]

Had this problem before with different cars, I seemed to remember it was a case of changing the red and yellow wires over. However the red seems to go into the yellow wire with this setup!? So I'm a bit stumped any ideas?

 

[James105]

It will be your permanent and ignition 12+ feeds the wrong way round normally. As you say, the red and yellow usually. Worth getting a multimeter on and checking though.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Sorry if I sound dumb but the red wire is going into the yellow wire... so if you took it out, you have no where else to put it other than back into the yellow one again.

 

[MikesDman]

I think your aftermarket iso block is missing the permanent feed.
Check the feeds from the cars iso plug and find the permanent feed.

 

[James28]

From the looks of it from the picture, it looks like both the red and yellow are connected to the same feed from the iso block.
Some people do this to make the radio work even with the ignition off, but on the clio, it looks like this connects to the ignition feed, rather then the constant 12v feed, hence why it turns off and resets every time you turn the ignition on and off.

 

[CrippsCorner]

I don't really care about having it work when the car's off, so can I do anything to get it working with what I've got? Or do I need another set of wires to get it working properly?

 

[James28]

Its quite hard to see exactly which wires (yellow and red are the important ones) are going where from your pics.

 

[skinz]

Best bet is to grab a multimeter and establish the permanent and ignition feed from the loom, then adjust the red/yellow accordingly - or if u dont have access to multimeter just turn ignition on and unplug the red or yellow (or vice versa) and seeing what one turns radio off - then u know the permanent live, so means the other is ignition feed. iirc yellow should be ignition and red perm live

 

[CrippsCorner]

Okay I shall try that, thanks.

Some more detailed pictures and I've drawn how it's set up to make it easier...

Also I found another one in my wire box! It's wired completely differently but unfortunately it also doesn't remember my settings...

 

[James28]

Modified your diagram as to what you need to do.

Basically, you need the red wire coming from the connector thats plugged into the headunit, and you'll have to bunnyhop that to the actual car loom. In the photo below, I'm pretty sure its the thick red wire you can just see coming from your car loom which I have marked with an arrow. Always best to check with a voltmeter though.

Can also see that you'll have to manually hardwire the earth cable (Black wire coming from headunit connector with red crimp connector on the end. Presume you already know this though.

Hope you understand?

Edit: Arrowed it: You can just see the red wire coming from the car loom, but there is no wire coming out your stereo iso block that is connected to this. Which there should be. (Top row, 2nd in from the left)

 

[skinz]

Just noticed the pic, is this an alpine HU per chance?

 

[Djw John]

I'd place money on that being an old alpine 4x60 watt model. Yellow wire needs a feed directly from the battery hence the fuse.

 

[skinz]

I'd place money on that being an old alpine 4x60 watt model. Yellow wire needs a feed directly from the battery hence the fuse.

+1 my thoughts too, noticed the yellow label on the wire and once zoomed in notes to be fitted directly to battery, there will also be a neg from the hu which will require earthing to the car (prob best not running it to the cig lighter tho, best finding a bolt on body work)

 

[CrippsCorner]

Actually yeah that rings a bell, I think it's the thicker black wire that needs earthing? Would that actually effect it's capability of remembering settings though, or is it just how to wire it up properly... oh and yes you're right it's a 4x60w CDA-7893R Alpine unit, very old!

Thanks very much James, bit baffling atm but I'll see if I can make sense of it all tomorrow :approve:

 

[James28]

Seems a bit weird it powered on at all if you never connected the earth :S
You can easily connect that to a bolt behind the dash somewhere, or the existing earth wire on the car loom

Yea so going by what the others have said, Would appear you need to connect the yellow one direct to the car loom, not the red like I previously said.
So bunnyhop the yellow one off the red wire on the car loom I originally highlighted. (I'm pretty sure its that one, as said use a voltmeter to check)

Like so:

 

[Djw John]

I agree with that diagram too. Was tempted to say the CDA 7893R as well! I've got one from years ago, good unit in its day, just a shame it was made before ipods were so doesnt control them!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Yes it's strange it works without the ground but this headunit has followed me to a few different cars now and the majority of the time, it's worked without earth (I have actually earthed it, but just for testing purposes) I found the manual online so have uploaded the wiring diagram... I think it's just confirming what you have said basically! Looks the way to go. I have some kit here to I'm going to make up some longer cables.

Where is the best earthing point? Had a quick look this morning before work and couldn't see anything obvious

 

[Djw John]

Its literally been years since I put it in a Clio but I seem to remember a bolt underneath the dash on the passenger side getting used. Just have a look around, you'll find one easily enough.

 

[James28]

Yea mate as John said with the earth.
Then the yellow will need wiring to a constant 12v feed from the battery, like my diagram.
The red is already wired to the ignition through the harness.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Just an update... got out there today and connected the yellow lead to my battery, and pulled through my amp power lead at the same time (to be used at a later date) also found an earth point on a bolt just above the engine pull? I think it will be okay, might do that again and extend the cable though as it's quite a stretch.

Thanks everyone for your help and lets hope when I turn the car on tomorrow morning my settings have been saved!

 

[James28]

Sounds good mate. Fingers crossed!

 

[Djw John]

Should've tested it straight away I can't stand the suspense . Good stuff mate

 

[CrippsCorner]

:lolup: I did actually... and it worked. But you know, maybe after an extended period of time it will be different lol. What do I need to get all the panels off to get my amp wires through to the boot, is it star/torx?

 

[James28]

When you say to get them to the boot, what do you mean?
As in run them down the side?

 

[Djw John]

To run them down the side you only need a t40 to take off the seatbelt bolt.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Okay I'll look into that after Christmas.

Meanwhile... my settings saved awesome, cheers lads.

 

[James28]

Good work.

As said, simply a T40 Star bolt to undo the seatbelt, then pull off the door rubber, and you can just pull out the plastic bit running down the side.
Or if you've got small fingers you can get away with just pulling off the rubber then pushing the wire in the gap.

 

[Djw John]

I usually go from underneath but it's six and half a dozen tbf

 

[James28]

Yea that'd probably be easier actually!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Typically found the tools I had didn't go to a big enough size, so just used my "small fingers" lol and got the wires all under there eventually! Took a bit of time though and now it's dark... crimping and connecting up tomorrow me thinks!

 

[Djw John]

Progress is progress!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Well got everything finished off today, did a good job if I do say so myself...

Went to power it up, and nothing

No power whatsoever to the amp. Checked fuses on power lead and amp both fine, double checked all connections everything's perfect. Must just be a dead amp? There's literally nothing, no green LED for power, certainly no red LED for any faults. It was a really cheap amp I got free years ago lol, hasn't been used for a couple of years but was working fine before I took it out my old Punto. Thinking about going Halfords tomorrow and asking if I can borrow an amp to try out in the carpark and if it works, buy it.

Any amps you can recommend from Halfords? Just running one sub off it, not bothered about my speakers being amplified.

 

[Djw John]

Id be amazed if they let you do that, I wouldnt have when I worked there! Have you got a multimeter or circuit tester? Could be the earth just not done right, could bethe power cable shorting somewhere, could be a lot of things! If it worked before then assume its a wiring problem until proven otherwise.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Halfords have been good like that to me in the past, let me borrow a headunit once to see if my wiring was right and it was. Have even let me borrow tools lol! Do I just happen to have an over-friendly store?

Don't have a meter here but I could nab one from work, I'm pretty much a n00b with them though, what exactly would I be checking?

I earthed it with a big bolt just behind the seats on the left hand side (there's one on the right too) couldn't find anything else... where else have people done it

Edit: Do you mean use the meter to test consistency between the wiring rather than if the amp is dead or alive?

 

[skinz]

Halfords have been good like that to me in the past, let me borrow a headunit once to see if my wiring was right and it was. Have even let me borrow tools lol! Do I just happen to have an over-friendly store?

Don't have a meter here but I could nab one from work, I'm pretty much a n00b with them though, what exactly would I be checking?

I earthed it with a big bolt just behind the seats on the left hand side (there's one on the right too) couldn't find anything else... where else have people done it

Edit: Do you mean use the meter to test consistency between the wiring rather than if the amp is dead or alive?

I work in halfords myself and depending on how busy we are me a some collegues have been happy to assist customers to help diagnose some faults - but s'posse any help you get depends on the store and in particular the knowlegde of the audio fitters in that store.

As for testing it, check the '+' and 'remote' feeds going into the amp with multimeter, if these seem fine, check that your earth is good. (iirc the bolts are painted @ rear of seats, so try sanding around this area to reveal bare metal). Personally I drilled a hole in the floor of the boot and put a new bolt though for the earth - pretty easy enough to get behind heatshield underneath.

If all readings are good and you are certain earth it touching bare metal and there is still no light (...and fuse(s) in amp are fine), then I'd try testing another amp on the install to see if that does the trick

We have had people in before that have used sub-standard remote feeds before, so if your not getting a good reading from this in particular, just grab a roll of 10A wire from the shelf and run it from HU to rear over seats to boot and connect to amp - just to eliminate this from the process.

Hope this helps

 

[Djw John]

To test the remote wire just run a tiny bit from the + amp feed over to the remote, much less hassle cos it's cms away!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Okay today I tried alternative earthing points, power lead and remote lead... and still absolutely no life from the amp, has to be a dead amp right!? Everything else has been checked and double checked now!

 

[James28]

Have you got a multimeter? Easiest way to test.
Hold positive needle on + , negative needle on - , Should read 12v.
Hold positive needle on Remote, negative needle on - , again should read 12v with ignition on.

If not showing any volts, or much less that 12v, it will be an earth problem.
If showing ~ 12v on both, most likely be amp problem.

Have you not got a mate with an amp that you know works? If you were nearer I would've come given you a hand and could've tested on my amp.
Ebay is the best place for amps I've found. Can pick up some really decent ones second hand for pittance, if you don't mind waiting for the post!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Would have liked to got it sorted over Christmas but no real rush... just phoned my best 'car buddy' friend and he sold his amp last month bugger no one else I know is really into cars anymore.

I'll try and grab a meter at some point and get all that checked before spending monies. Any you could recommend off eBay? I don't know where to start really.

 

[James28]

What's it for , just a sub?
What's the RMS power rating of the sub? You'll want to try and match that with your amp.
If your just gonna get it for the sub you'll want a monoblock amp, or a Two channel that you can bridge.